Ancient Telic

=Setting= Telic, known to its speakers as Sol Pestoros, "The Speech", is spoken by 55 million people around the globe and is the chief language of the Zefaistan Empire, including many over-sea colonies, Carallion, Carmanyelon, and Jashnia. As the language of the most power state in the extreme West hemisphere, it is also the lingua franca of the whole West, widely known by traders, scholars and diplomats as far as Intes, the Morteo-Ascancian Islands, and Ustiviy.

Telic is heavily dialectalized, regional dialects being found in each province. The standard language of the Zefaistan law, and the chief language of the continent, is the Mystene dialect, that of New Jashnia, the capital city; it is this form of the language which is the focus of the present work.

=Romanization=

Ancient Telic is traditionally written in the standard Telic script, but a Romanized version of the language is avalible.

Vowels
a- as in "bag"

e- as in "bet"

i- as the "ea" in "eat"

o- as in "low"

u- as the "oo" in "food"

Diphthongs

ae- as the "ay" in "May"

ai- as the "ye" in "goodbye"

ei- as the "ay" in "day"

ou- as the "u" in "mug"

Consonants
b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, y (as a consonant), and z are pronounced like their English equivalents.

h, j, q, w, and x are not used in the Romanized script.

c- is always pronounced as a hard k, never as a soft c (like in English cell)

g- is always pronounced hard (like in English good), never as a soft "j" (like in gem)

r- always slightly trill your r, as in a Spanish single r.

s- is always pronounced unvoiced (like in snake).

=Grammar=

Articles and the verb to be
Ancient Telic only had one article, sol, or "the" in English. The plural of this was sel. Ancient Telic had no article "a". One odd thing about AT was that it had no verb "to be". So when one wants to say "I am a hero", one would say E spador, or "I hero". So if you want to use the verb to be, "use" no verb at all.

The definite article (used on both genders): sol, plural sel

Nouns
Most nouns were either masculine or feminine, even if the object had no peticular masc. or fem. qualities. Obviously "father" and "mother", fior and mias, was masc. and fem. respectively, but "sun" and "moon", canor and sces, are not male or female but are just nouns with a "gender" case. To make the noun plural, change the ending to "-i" and "-e" respectively.

Common masculine noun endings -or, -os, -el, -o, -on, -is, -an The plural: -i

Common feminine noun endings -as, -a, -es, -il, -ar, -in The plural: -e

To change the noun gender to the opposite, you must change the word ending:

-or > -ar

-os > -as

-el > -il

-o > -a

-on > -in

-is > -es

Pronouns
The set of following pronouns where used both as subject and object pronouns, one could tell them apart by their position in the sentence.

I- E

You sg. inf. "Thou" - Tos

You sg. pol. "Thou" - Casi

He- Osor

She- Esas

One- Asco

We- Ci

You pl. inf- El

You pl. pol- Eli

They- m. Omes/ f. Ames

*The polite pl. you, Eli, was reserved for the emperor only and has gone out of fashion.

Genitive Pronouns
My- Les

Your sg. inf & pol, "Thy" - Ti

His/Her/One's- Ese

Our- Gre

Your pl. inf & pol- En

Their- Al

Question Words
...

This & That
To refer to or to point out a person or object, use one of the following words for this/these, that/those or that over there.

(refering at or very close to, the location of the speaker)

This- Sta

These - Ste

(refering to the location at the listener or something relatively far away)

That- San

Those- Sei

(refering to something very far away from the speaker)

That over there- Apel

Those over there- Apelo

Adjectives
More or less Ancient Telic adjectives end in -o for the masc. form and -a for the f. and are always placed before the noun it modifies. Adjectives that end in any other consonant are gender-neutral and can be used to describe either gender. To change an adjective into adverb, eliminate the final vowel (if any) and add the suffix -ai to the adjective. Here are some important adjectives:

Dabre-good

Durno-bad (awful)

Beluen-beautiful

Escudo-ugly

Rapada-fast

Scerco-slow

Atino-sportive

Salo-hot

Frote-cold

Iono-big

Liger-short

Cervel-new/young

Argo-old

Grose-fat

Lipo-skinny

Aya-funny/entertaining

Nafto-boring

Rempo-hungry

Seipo-thirsty

Andro-strong/mighty

Indo-weak

=Numbers=

Cardinals
All Telic numbers decline as regular adjectives: nul fos 'no man', asco fas 'one woman', si elce 'three dwarves'. When counting, or speaking of the number itself, the masculine singular is used.

0- Nul

1- Asco

2- Re

3- Si

4- Star

5- Nast

6- Sues

7- Aftos

8- Te

9- Istos

10- Das

The numbers from 11 to 19 are regularly formed by taking the first three ( first two if only 2 letters long) letters of the word and attatching the suffix -an.

11- Ascan

12- Rean

13- Sian

14- Stran

15- Nasan

16- Suean

17- Aftan

18- Tean

19- Istan

Multiples of 10 (except 20) are formed by using the suffix -tes or -des, multiples of 100, -megro. To form mixed numbers like 21 or 36, add er, which means and.

''exs. 21, Fenterasco 'twenty-and-one'; 166, Megroersuestesersues 'Thousand-and-sixty-and-six'.''

20- Fent

30- Sites

40- Stardes

50- Sites

60- Suestes

70- Aftes

80- Tedes

90- Istes

100- Megro

200- Re-megro

300- Si-megro

500- Nast-megro

1,000- Mil

1,000,000- Leah note: 'Leah' is the only irregularly pronounced word of Telic, it is pronounced leh and is borrowed from the language Verosonian.

1,000,000,000- Efteron

1,000,000,000,000- Cveron

Fractions and Ordinals
Ordinals are regular declension II adjectives; sol cetre fasidor 'the fourth girl', sol pere elos 'the first emperor'. The first four have special morphemes (pere, du, tre and cetre); the rest are formed from the cardinal number and adding -e (-re if the cardinal ends in a vowel): naste 'fifth', tere 'eighth', fentersuese 'twenty-sixth', leahe 'millionth', etc.

Beyond une 'whole', meride 'half', tris 'third' and barge, the reciprocal of a number is a noun formed ny replacing the final -e of the ordinal with -eve: nasteve 'one-fifth', nasteve cirya-i 'one-fifth of the book'.

ex. Re sueseve fenterascore sol cirya-i marran 'Two sixths of the twenty-first book are (coloured) red.' 

To form the ordinal: add -e to the cardinal.

To form the reciprocal: add -eve to the cardinal.

=Dictionary= ...

=Example text= ...