Tessarion

General information
Tessarion is spoken on the world of Betriation, originating in the country of Tessan. Outside of Tessan, Tessarion is spoken in nearby countries on the continent of Aepefestia, and in countries on the continent of Lepotrisma.

Tessarion's linguistic history is a combination of Latin based vocabulary, with roots in Chinese and Pandaeic grammar, and French pronunciations. Much of the basic vocabulary is also shared with Pandaeic vocabulary. Pandaeic is also the root of other Pandaeic languages--Andeu-ol, Omnicronus, and Aekkyiangdan. From Pandaeic, many basic verbs and root words were borrowed and modified. One feature of Pandaeic that was eliminated was the system of "invisible subjects," where verbs were conjugated based on the gender of the speaker or polarity of the sentence.

Tessarion's name comes from the roots of Tessan and language. In Tessarion, "poition" means language (from "-poitiotaire" meaning to speak), and thus all languages contain the root suffix "-ion." Tessaria was the old name for Tessan, having a colloquial meaning of "little Tessian." Combining both parts bring the name Tessarion, or "language of the Tessians."

Note that on this page, all Tessarion letters will be referred to with modern romanizations with the Latin alphabet. Past writing systems have existed, but or not often used today.

Nouns
Nouns do not contain gender and are only inflected with plurals, in which the letter "s" is used to imply plural.

Pronouns
Pronouns are important in Tessarion because of their use in conjugating verbs. In Tessarion, sentences are formed by combining the subject pronoun with the verb.

Subject Pronouns
The subject pronouns are the same as personal pronouns with the subject case. Subject pronouns are divided into groups based on whether or not the verb they modify begins with a vowel. By seeing if verbs start with a vowel, pronunciation irregularities are prevented, but not entirely, due to "nostrio-" ending in two vowels. With verbs starting with vowels, the "i" serves to end the syllable.

Here are some examples:

I dance. ==> Oite- (Subject Pronoun of I)+ -dansant (to dance) ==> Oitedansant.

I love. ==> Oit- (Subject Pronoun of I) + -emar (to love) ==> Oitemar.

Since "-emar" started with a vowel, the final "e" in "oite-" was dropped forming "oit-."

Imperative Pronouns
Imperative pronouns are used by themselves (thus removing the terminal hyphen) in sentences with the imperative mood. They are formed by using the subject pronouns and adding a "t."

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated by attaching pronoun stems to the verb. In the case of when two vowels match, the final vowel of the pronoun is dropped and replaced by the verb. Likewise, with tense and mood endings, the suffix is dropped and replaced by the vowel of the verb.

In Tessarion, infinitives without conjugations are written with initial hyphens. Hyphens are only to show that the verb can be combined with a subject.

Indicative Conjugations
In all sentences, verbs must be conjugated with subject pronouns, even if there is a definite subject.

I eat. ==> Oitemaetaire.

They eat. ==> Sairemomaetaire.

Koalas eat. ==> Kaotaras (Plural of koala) + Sairemo-(Subject Pronoun of "koalas") + -maetaire (to eat) ==> Kaotaras sairemomaetaire.

Syntax
The most basic word order is SVO, and this basic word order is relatively standard across most moods, since mood is modified by verb endings and conjugations. The most simplest of sentences contain a pronoun bounded to the verb as what is called a subject-verb-conjugation (SVC). Negation is controlled by use of the particle "na." Note that the italicized sentences after the Tessarion examples are the literal English translation, words in parenthesis mean that multiple English words are being represented by a singular Tessarion word.

Definite Subjects
If there is a definite subject, then it is added before the SVC. In a negative statement, the negative particle is placed directly infront the SVC that is being negated.

Affirmative Statement: John eats. ==> John issonomaetaire. John (he eats).

Negative Statement: He does not eat. ==> John na issonomaetaire. John not (he eats).

Negative versus Affirmative Syntax
Negation is controlled by adding the negative particle (na) before the verb.

Affirmative Statement: He eats. ==> Issonomaetaire. (It eats).

Negative Statement: He does not eat. ==> Na issonomaetaire. Not (it eats).

Question Syntax
Questions are written by the addition of question words to the beginning of the affirmative sentence of the question. Also put, questions are formed by adding the question word before the basic sentence. Note that "son" is the question particle for a "yes or no" question. For negative questions, the negative particle is still placed directly before the root verb.

Affirmative Statement: He eats koalas. ==> Issonomaetaire sul kaotaras. (It eats) a koala.

Affirmative Question: Does he eat koalas? ==> Son issonomaetaire sul kaotaras. Can (it eats) a koala?

Negative Question: Does he not eat koalas? ==> Son na issonomaetaire sul kaotara? Can not (it eats) a koala?

Indicative Mood
Indicative is the most basic of all tenses and is implied when no mood endings are added to the verb. Indicative mood is used to represent facts and pose statements. Questions formed in the indicative mood have answers as indicative statements.Generally, sentences with the indicative mood will follow the SVO order. Objects are placed after the SVC. Articles must be placed with basic nouns.

Affirmative Statement: John eats koalas. ==> John issonomaetaire sul kaotaras. John (he eats) a koala.

Negative Statement: He does not eat koalas. ==> John na issonomaetaire sul kaotaras. John not (he eats) a koala.

Tenses are controlled by conjugations of the verb or by the use of auxiliary verbs. In the case of clashing vowels between the root verb the tense suffix, the vowel off of the tense suffix is dropped, not the root verb. This is because in Pandaeic, verbs could change with singular letter changes. Dropping vowels off of the verb could result in ambiguity. Note that in the following example, the articles are dropped because a preposition is used.

Non-Verb Terminal Vowel Drop: John has danced with koalas. ==> John issonodansantor haibar kaotaras. John (he has danced) with koalas.

Verb Terminal Vowel Drop: John has eaten with koalas. ==> John issonomaetairer haibar kaotaras. John (he has eaten) with koalas.

Imperative Mood
Imperative mood is used when offering commands. With imperative mood, imperative pronoun subjects must be used to convey the speaker. Imperative mood is separated into two classes. Basic Imperative and the Subjunctive. Basic imperative is the statement of commands and is limited to the second person and the first person plural subjects. The objects can be of any person or number. In indicative, the syntax of the sentence changes from SVO to VSO. Negative commands are formed by the addition of the negative particle before the main verb.

<p style="text-align: center;">Affirmative Command: Eat the koala. ==> Maetaire tunit sul kaotara. Eat you a koala.

<p style="text-align: center;">Negative Command: Do not eat the koala. ==> Na maetaire tunit sul kaotara. Not eat you a koala.

Questions are formed just as in the indicative mood, placed before the verb. In negative questions, the question word is placed before the negative particle.

<p style="text-align: center;">Affirmative Command Statement: Eat the koala. ==> Maetaire tunit sul kaotara. Eat you the koala.

<p style="text-align: center;">Affirmative Command Question: Can you eat the koala? ==> Son maetaire tunit sul kaotara? (Yes or no) eat you the koala?

<p style="text-align: center;">Negative Command Question: Can you not eat the koala? ==> Son na maetaire tunit sul kaotara? (Yes or no) not eat you the koala?

In the basic imperative mood, verbs cannot take tense, and thus are limited to the present tense (it is logically impossible to give commands before they happen or after they happen.)

In the subjunctive mood, the statements made are not exactly commands, but more of necessity. Thus, the most important verb in the subjunctive mood is, aptly named, the subjunctive verb "-necessen" translated as "to be necessary." "-necessen" is a limited verb because it's conjugations are only limited to the third person. All subjunctive sentences will contain some form of the verb necessen. Often, conjugations of "-necessen" will be abbreviated. In most cases, the abbreviated form will be used for its simplicity. The unabbreviated form would be used in official documents, as well as in newspapers and official print. The use of -necessen allows for the imperative mood, as a whole, to be used across various tenses--increasing its use. With subjunctive, the basic form syntax is the necessity statement (often using, but not limited to, the verb -necessen) along with the conjunction "that" or "tar", followed by the syntax for the basic imperative statement, or the action phrase. Negation can placed on either the root verb or on the subjunctive verb "-necessen." However, the meaning of the sentence is slightly changed where the negation is placed. Also, with the subjunctive mood, double-negatives are permitted, as they have a change in the sentence's pragmatics.

<p style="text-align: center;">Affirmative Subjunctive Statement: It is necessary that it eats koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that eats it a koalas.

<p style="text-align: center;">Root Verb Negative Subjunctive Statement: It is necessary that it does not eat koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar na maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that not eats it a koalas.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Phrase Negative Subjunctive Statement: It is not necessary that it eats koalas. ==> Na issoinonecessen tar maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. Not (it is necessary) that eats it a koalas.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Phrase and Root Verb Negative Subjunctive Statement: It is not necessary that it does not eat koalas. ==> Na issoinonecessen tar na maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. Not (it is necessary) that not eats it a koalas.

With negative subjunctive phrases, the implied meaning is that the action, if done, would be in excess. Had it eaten koala, it would have been too much. Looking at the double-negative example, the meaning of the sentence would be assumed that in not eating koalas, it was too much.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Statement: It is necessary that it eats koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that eats it a koalas.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Statement with Definite Subject: It is necessary that John eats koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar John maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that John eats it a koalas.

Definite Subjects are placed before the root verb, creating a subject-sandwich. DVSO is the approximation of the basic syntax. Note that negation will be placed after the definite subject, as in the indicative tense.

Questions written in the subjunctive mood are similar to the syntax of questions in the basic imperative mood, however, the question word is placed before the subjunctive phrase, since the question ask about the necessity of the action.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Statement: It is necessary that it eats koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that eats it a koalas.

<p style="text-align: center;">Subjunctive Question: Is it necessary that he eats koalas? ==> Son issoinonecessen tar maetaire issonot sul kaotaras. (Yes or no) (it is necessary) that eats it a koalas?

With subjunctive mood, tense is not limited to the present tense. However, the subtlety of tenses can make the subjunctive mood much more difficult than other tenses. First off, "-necessen" has two conjugations--the past perfect and future perfect. The abbreviated verb is conjugated the same way. It is important to note that although the chart above appears complicated, it is actually the same tense conjugation all the way down and is conjugated regularly.

With the tense change placed on the subjunctive phrase, the sentence implies that the action of the imperative portion was or will be necessary at a different time, and that at that time, the action of will be necessary. This is an implied imperfect tense.

<p style="text-align: center;">It was necessary that they eat koalas. ==> Issoinonecessenor tar maetaire sairemot sul kaotaras. (It had been necessary) that eat they a koalas.

When the tense change is applied to the action, the meaning changes to imply that the action phrase is currently necessary, but when done at a different time.

<p style="text-align: center;">It is necessary that they had eaten koalas. ==> Issoinonecessen tar maetairer sairemot sul kaotaras. (It is necessary) that (had eaten) they a koalas.

When the tense change is applied to both sides the subjunctive phrase and the action phrase, the sentence comes to mean that an action was or will be necessary at a different time, and that at that time, an action should have taken place or will be taking place.

<p style="text-align: center;">It will be necessary that they will eat koalas. ==> Issoinonecessenon tar maetairen sairemot sul kaotaras. (It will be necessary) that (will eat) they a koalas.

In this example, the best translation is that in the future, they will have to eat koalas even further in the future. Thus, by use of tense changes in the subjunctive mood, tenses can be modified to very precise amounts.

Generic Phrases
Under literal translations, phrases surrounded by parenthesis means that the phrase in Tessarion is represented by one singular word.