Thärín

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General information
Thärín, the primary language of Thälâ, originated as the language of a nomadic group, minorities in what is now Illias. Following the Wars of Dust, the remaining tribes settled on the northern coast and came into contact with Saen-speaking sailors from the Greenmiar Isles. Differnces between the tribes' speech were merged and codified, and words were adapted from Sæn and Relian to fill gaps in the Thäq's vocabulary.

Alphabet
Thärín did not have a distinct alphabet prior to the settlement of Thälâ, when written records became increasingly necessary. Illiaster has multiple written forms, but the Thäq sought to establish independence from Illias and instead the Relian and Saen alphabets was adapted to form a new Thärín calligraphic script.

Thärín script is written from right to left, like Illiaster.

Prefixes are followed by a punctuation mark similar to an apostrophe to distinguish them from words. Single-letter suffixes are not punctuated. Suffixes are separated from the word by a dot or dash.

Phonotactics
Syllables consist of [C][V]. Dipthong vowels only follow single consonants (bä, water), and monothong vowels only follow consonant clusters (mhi, animal).

Prefixes and suffixes modify words to indicate parts of speech, plurals, etc. In some cases the root word and the pre- or suffixed word are no longer strictly analogous, particularly basic words with origins in the Thäq's nomadic era.

The consonant Y is mute and paired with either type of vowel, to allow for the effect of a vowel-only syllable.

Grammar
Sentence construction is OSV. Modifiders always follow what they describe.

Word construction begins with the base, then appends adjective and verb roots to create a complex idea. For example: the Thärín word brekêlú (bre-kəʊ-lʊɛ), is a compound from bre (human) + kên (curved) = brekê (woman) + lúsh (to hold) = brekêlú (mother). The practice of dropping the part-of-speech suffix when building a word can leave the meaning unclear if trying to deconstruct a complex word: the individual syllables bre, kê, and lú mean human, circle, and hand.

Nouns are considered animate (people, animals, plants) or inanimate (objects, abstract ideas). The division is a remnant of the Thêq's nomadic origins in the steppeland of Illias, and categorizes things by those which require water and those which do not. Animate things become inanimate following death (of people or animals) or harvest (of plants). Individual elements of a quantized animate noun (the man's hand, the tree's leaf) are not animate.

Example text
Bäkha-sü yín së qäyí-sü szun bí shza-thíthí. Qä-sü míkâbhin së qäzra-sü lên bâ lênê-thíthí.