Tiôtj

Tiôtj (pronounced [tjo:tʃ]) is an artificial language that user Llyn created few months ago (and he's still creating and improving it). He was inspired by another artificial language that supposed a different evolution of Anglo-Saxon, so he tried to imagine "his own" evolution of Old English. In this evolution Latin influence was scarce at all, while one can appreciate a little Scandinavian influence in the writing system and some borrowings.

The term "tiôtj" comes from Old English "þéodisc", that is an adjective that means "of our people".

Classification
Tiôtj is a Germanic language that is strongly linked to Modern English. This is due to the fact that both English (naturally) and Tiôtj (artificially and a posteriori) descend from Old English.

While English has undergone a strong Latin influence, the same influence on Tiôtj has been very very weak. It can be appreciated the influence of Scandinavian languages on the writing system and just the influence of a language as Welsh in the use of the letter  to represent the long vowel [u:].

Alphabet
Tiôtj alphabet uses letters from Latin alphabet and contains 26 characters:

Consonants
Tiôtj language has the following consonantic phonemes:

The [w] phoneme is found as a glide in words like vouen, "wolves", that is pronounced as ['vɔuwɛn].

Vowels
In Tiôtj they are found the following vowels: The short a is realized not precisely in the front of mouth, but in the mid between the front and centre of the mouth, wehereas the long a is realized in the mid between the back and the centre of mouth.

Diphthongs, digraphs and trigraphs
Tiôtj has got also twenty-one diphthongs, that is clusters of two vowels pronounced with a single emission of air. These diphthongs are:

All these diphthongs can have a short or a long vowel in combination with [ɪ] or [ʊ], except for the diphthong .

Some times one can find these diphthongs written with i and not with j, this happens mostly when the diphthong is in internal position.

Tiôtj has got two digraphs too: , that is pronounced as [ʃ], and , that is pronounced as [tʃ]. Also a trigraph exists: that is pronounced [ʃ] (so  and have got the same pronounciation).

Even if in the alphabet scheme  and  have not been considered as distinct letters, in dictionaries they are used as out-and-out letters.

The question of the dj digraph
In some dialectal pronounciations when the letters  and  come together, they are pronounced [dʒ] just as they were a digraph and the voiced counterpart of . Although this way of pronouncing is considered incorrect, the pronounciation [dʒo:r] for [djo:r] to say 'djôr" (animal) is becoming commoner and commoner.

The accent
The position of the accent in this language is quite regular, because the stress falls on the root and thus there are few rules to observe:

1) In substantives (and in adjectives and adverbs) the stress falls on the first syllable, even if they are compound nouns formed by prefix + noun/adjective, ex.: lêrstôf (school) is read ['le:rsto:f], though it is formed by lêr- (prefix) + stôf (= place);

2) In verbs the stress falls on the first syllable, but if they are compund verbs formed by prefix + noun, the stress falls on the root, that is after the prefix, ex.: yvatjan (to wake up) is read [i:'vatʃan], though it is formed by y- (prefix) + vatjan (= to wake).

Nouns, gender and number
Tiôtj language has got only two genders: common gender (or uter gender) and neuter gender. The previously masculine and feminine words have merged into the uter gender, whereas neuter words have remained neuter, even if in some cases there has been a gender switch.

Nouns can be both singular (denoting just one object) and plural (denoting more than one object). The formation of plural is not always so simple, because there are four ways to form it:

1) Some uter nouns take -es suffix, the  in this suffix is generally not pronounced;

2) some uter nouns take -(e)n suffix;

3) some uter nouns take no suffix, some of these undergo a root vowel change too;

4) neuter nouns take no suffix, that is singular and plural forms are identical.

Generally uter nouns ending in -ing or consonant have the first kind of plural, whereas uter nouns ending in -e have the second kind of plural. Some monosyllabic uter nouns ending in consonant experiment a root vowel modification, but they are just few. Endly some uter words have got two kinds of plural: a regular one (in -es or -en) and an irregular one (with no ending at all or/and a root vowel change).

A list of 37 nouns with their plural form and meaning
Here is a list of 37 words of both genders with their plural form, their gender and their meaning: The nouns ending in -nd are present participles and have two kinds of plural:

1) -es plural, that is quite spread;

2) zero plural, that is quite literary.

Though the nouns in -jônd have got both an -es plural and a zero plural with a vowel change from -jô- to -y-. In this case the second form is the most spread.

The nouns ending in vowel + f lose final f when forming plural form.

Formation of feminine
Distinguishing between nouns that indicate a feminine being and those that indicate a masculine being can be very difficult in a language that has a common gender for both masculine and feminine. However distinguishing is not always so difficult as one could think, because Tiôtj language has a suffix with that the feminine form of a noun can be formed: -estre (pl. -estren).

Usually this suffix causes no changes in root, but some times it is used with a modified root:


 * frjâ (lord) - frjâstre (lady);
 * lêrend (teacher) - lêrendstre (female teacher);
 * frjônd (friend) - fryndstre (female friend);
 * vjônd (enemy) - vyndstre (female enemy);
 * lynd (lover) - lyndstre (female lover).

Articles
Two kinds of article exist in Tiôtj: indefinite and definite article.

The indefinite article has got no plural form and the singular one is the same for all the genders: ân. This article is used to talk about things, facts, beings that are introduces for the first time into the conversation, that is we use the indefinite article to talk about new and not known informations, to talk about undetermined informations.

The definite article is used to talk about well known things, facts, beings instead. These informations are familiar to the speakers, because they are already talking about them, or because they belong to the experiences baggage of the speakers, that is we user the definite article to tal about known informations, to talk about determined informations.

Even if Tiôtj has lost nouns inflection, the definite article has three cases, in addition to the plural forms: The nominative case refers to the subject of a sentence; the accusative case, that is identical to the nominative, refers to the object of a sentence or to the complements that indicate movement; the genitive case refers to possession and the dative case refers to the addressee or to the complements that indicate state. The plural forms are the same for both uter and neuter gender.

Often it is sufficient to use this inflection to express syntactic functions of the elements of a sentence or a phrase, es.:

Se sprâtj tes mann - The language of the man

Jef het têm frjâstre - Give it to the lady

Adjectives
The adjectives generally precede the noun to whom they refer, but in some case they follow the noun. In Tiôtj the adjectives have two different forms: one for the singular (without ending) and one for the plural (with -e ending). Moreover the form ending in -e is used for both singular and plural when the nouns to whom the adjective refers is preceded by a determiner, that is a possessive, a demonstrative or the definite article, this form of the adjective is called weak form.

If the substantive is not preceded by a determinant (remember that the indefinite article is not a determinant), than it is used the adjective without ending for the singular and that with -e ending for the plural, this form is called strong form.

Adjectives in predicative position, that is after a verb, are never inflected.

Here is a list of adjectives with the two forms:

Ex.: ân litel katt - A little cat but se lille katt - The little cat.

Formation of comparative
The higher degree comparative is formed with the suffix -ar (some irregular adjectives form it with -er). The second term of comparation is introduced by tonn and is in the same case of the first, ex.: ân blôssne sjênar tonn ân trjô - A flower more beautiful than a tree.

The same degree comparative is formed with the periphrasis sâ + adjective + tonn, ex.: ân blôssne sâ sjên tonn ân trjô - A flower as beautiful as a tree.

The lower degree comparative is formed with the periphrasis lass + adjective + tonn, ex.: ân blôssne lass sjên tonn ân trjô - A flower less beautiful than a tree.

Adjectives with an irregular higher degree comparative
Some adjectives have got an irregular form of higher degree comparative: Irregular higher degree comparatives are used as normal comparatives, ex.: Tw jart hyr tonn y - You are taller than I.

Formation of superlative
The superlative degree is formed with the suffix -ast (some irregular adjectives form it with -est). The relative superlative is the same form of the absolute superlative, but it is preceded by the definite article and is generally followed by a limitation, that is expressed with in + dative case, ex.: se sjênast blôssne in têm vêrl - The most beautiful flower in the world.

Numerals 0-100
It could be interesting to observe numerals: Units are written linked to the tens with a hyphen, while tens and hundreds are written detached, ex.: 195 hwdre neinti-vy.

Numerals don't inflect, they don't have a weak nor a strong form.

Personal pronouns
In Tiôtj personal pronouns inflect according the four cases that have been seen for the definite article: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. In a sentence the pronouns in dative case are positioned before of those in accusative case, so prepositions could be omitted, ex.: jef mê het > Give it to me.

When there are a pronoun and a noun, the pronoun always precedes the noun, ex.: jef het têm frjâstre > Give it to the lady; jef hir se hwnn > Give her the dog.

Demonstratives
Demonstratives are formed with the three place adverbs hêr (here, "near to the speaker"), têr (there, but in Tiôtj meaning "near to the listener") and jon (yon, but in Tiôtj meaning "far from both speaker and listener"). These pronouns match perfectly the three persons:

If a noun is inserted between the definite article and the adverb, the demonstrative functions as an adjective, ex.: se hêr - This one (here) but se katt hêr - This cat (here).

As the place adverbs inflect, even the demonstratives "inflect". In fact the place adverbs take three kind of suffix to show if the indicate state, movement towards or movement from a definite place. So it is possible, with verbs denoting movement or state, to indicate this aspect with the demonstrative: This use of the demonstrative allows us not to use prepositions, ex.:

Y jom têm hws hêr means just "I'm in this house" and there's no need to use the preposition "in";

Y cume têm hws têns means just "I come from that house" without using "af" (= from);

Y gâ tat hws jonner means "I go to that house over there" without using "tô" (= to).

But it is true that these three sentences show a particularly refined language, colloquially speaking, these sentences become:

Y jom in têm hws hêr;

Y cume af têm hws têr;

Y gâ tô tat hws jon.

People tend not to inflect demonstratives (nor place adverbs).

Possessives
Possessives are the same when they're used as both adjectives and pronouns and, while possessive adjectives don't need article before, possessive pronouns need it: Possessives derive from the genitive of the personal pronouns, except for the 3rd masculine and neuter singular. Hirs and Heras only have a single form for both singular and plural. Here are some examples:

Plural forms:
 * Myn katt > Se myn - My cat > Mine
 * Tyn hwnn > Se tyn - Your dog > Yours
 * Syn vyf > Se syn - His wife > His
 * Hirs mann > Se hirs - Her man > Hers
 * Wr djôr > Tat wr - Our animal > Ours
 * Jeur frjônd > Se jeur - Your friend > Yours
 * Heras hjort > Tat heras - Their heart > Theirs


 * Myne kattes > Tê myne - My cats > Mine
 * Tyne hwnnes > Tê tyne - Your dogs > Yours
 * Syne vyen > Tê syne - His wifes > His
 * Hirs menn > Tê hirs - Her men > Hers
 * Wre djôr > Tê wre - Our animals > Ours
 * Jeure frynd > Tê jeure - Your friends > Yours
 * Heras hjort > Tê heras - Their hearts > Theirs

Relatives and interrogatives
Interrogatives, that are used also to make exclamations, function also as relatives: Ex.:

Instrumental case cvy corresponds perfectly to English "why", ex.:
 * Cvâ is he? - Who is he?
 * Cvat ân sjên hwnn! - What a beautiful dog!
 * Cvas is se bôc hêr? - Whose is this book?
 * Cvam hafstw jesagd het? - Whom have you said it to?
 * Se jon is se vyf cvan y frjôve - That there is the woman whom I love

''Cvy hafstw jescân se mêtning têr? - Why have you made that painting? ''

Indefinite pronouns and adjectives
Indefinites give us incomplete informations, because they don't define the precise quantity or the identity: The indefinite jall and ôter have got also a plural form: jallen and ôteren / ôeren / ô'ren.

Indefinites can be formed also with the word elles: If these indefinites are used as interrogatives, than elles follows the pronouns:
 * elles cvâ / elscvâ - Someone else;
 * elles cvat / elscvat - Something else;
 * tê elles - The others.
 * tjarfstw cvat elles? - Do you need something else?
 * cnaut hjô cvan elles? - Does she know someone else?

Adverbs
Usually the adverbs in Tiôtj are formed by suffixation: many adverbs derive from adjectives, to that the suffix -litj is added. Some examples:

Some adverbs have got suppletive forms, ex.: gôj > jarve; ivel > lyter.
 * glâj > glâilitj (happy - happily);
 * sari > sarilitj (sad - sadly);
 * grjat > grjallitj (great - greatly);
 * strong > stronglitj (strong - strongly);
 * vâc > vâclitj (weak - weakly).

Place adverbs
As it has been seen in the chapter about demonstratives, some place adverbs - hêr, têr and jon - inflect to indicate a state, a movement towards or a movement from. Also the adverb cvêr, "where", inflects: The adverb cvêr/cvêder/cvêns can be used also as a relative, ex.:

The adverb cvêr also has the form cverien, but it is used only in the expression elles cverien, "elsewhere".
 * Se stôf hêr is se twn, cvêns y cume - This place is the town where I come from
 * Kêrdyt vas se twn, cvêder y skolde gân - Cardiff was the town where I had to go to

When cvêder and cvêns are used as interrogative adverbs, they can be written separately, ex.:

Other place adverbs are: âlcvêr, somewhere, and nâlcvêr, nowhere.
 * Cvêns kimstw? or Cvêr kimstw hinnes? - Where do you come from?
 * Cvêder gästw? or Cvêr gâstw hider? - Where are you going to?

Time adverbs
The adverb cvonne, "when", can be used both as interrogative and relative. Other time adverbs are:

Frequency can be expressed also with numerals and -nes suffix, ex.:
 * nw - now;
 * tann - then;
 * yvorn - before;
 * eften - after;
 * âlcvon - some times;
 * jeniaclitj - usually;
 * jaltyd - always;
 * âfre - ever;
 * nâfre - never;
 * elles tyd / elstyd - another time.

Expressions such as "Eight times a week" are translated as Jâtens 'yl â vuke.
 * ân > ânnes - once;
 * tvein > tveinnes - twice;
 * try > trynes - thrice;
 * vjôr > vjôrnes - four times;
 * vy > vifnes (!) - five times;
 * sys > sysnes - six times...

Manner adverbs
Manner adverbs are created from adjectives with the suffix -litj. The interrogative and relative manner adverb is hw, "how". Some times manner adverbs inflect and have a higher degree comparative and a superlative, ex.:

Some adverbs have an irregular comparative and superlative form:
 * glâilitj - glâilitjar - glâilitjast (happily - happilier - happiliest);
 * stronglitj - stronglitjar - stronglitjast (strongly - stronglier - strongliest).

Both grjallitj and mitjel can be used to mean "very", ex.: tw jart grjallitj / mitjel gôj - You are very good.
 * jarve - beter - best;
 * lyter - vyrs - vyrst;
 * mitjel - mâr - mâst (much - more - most);
 * (ân) lit(en) - lass - last (little - less - least).

The verb
The verb in Tiôtj language has got six moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative, infinitive and participle; various tenses, such as present, past, future, and aspects represented by "tenses" such as present perfect, past perfect and future perfect.

Tiôtj verbs inflect also according to person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular and plural).

Verbs always follow the subject, because Tiôtj is a SVO language, that is the subject precedes the verb and the verb precedes the object. In questions or in special constructions, the verb can precede the subject though, and the order becomes VSO.

Present indicative of the verb biôn and of other verbs
The verb biôn, "to be", is the most irregular verb of Tiôtj language. In this scheme there are also three other verbs: ljernan, "to learn, to read", vennan, "to live, to inhabit" and lytjan, "to like". The suffixes used with regular verbs are: The plural voices have got all the same suffix, so, to avoid confusion, the subject is always expressed within the sentences.

Present indicative is used to express actions that are happening in the moment or around the moment of speaking, to talk about actions that happen habitually, to talk about past actions when telling a story or talking about history to confere more dramatic power to what is being said, to talk about future events that are considered likely or sure, to express universal truths.

The verb lytjan functions in a different way than in English, ex.: Tw lytjest mê - I like you.

The subject of this verb is the person who is liked, whereas the person who likes is expressed in the dative case.

Here are some examples:

When the verb precedes the 2nd person singular, the pronouns merges with the verb, ex.: jart tw > jartw; ljornst tw > ljornstw; venst tw > venstw, and so on.
 * Cvâ jartw? - Who are you?;
 * Cvâ is he? - Who is he?;
 * Cvêr venstw? - Where do you live?;
 * Y ljerne ân bôc - I read a book;
 * Lytjet het tê? - Do you like it?;
 * Lytje y tê? - Do you like me?;
 * Y jom ân mann - I am a man;
 * Tw jart ân vyf - You are a woman;
 * Hy sinn djôr - They are animals;
 * Y venne hêr - I live here;
 * Hjô vent jon - She lives over there.

-jan verbs
If it is observed the conjugation of the verb ljernan, it will be seen that in the 2nd and the 3rd person singular the root undergoes a vowel change: -je- becomes -jo-. This irregularity is found in all the so called -jan verbs, that is verbs that had in Anglo-Saxon a conjugation with -i- in some suffixes and without it in others (such as the 2nd and the 3rd person singular of present indicative). This -i- has disappeared in the suffixes, but before has changed the root vowel; not all the vowels undergo this change though: only o/ô and u/w undergo this change and become respectively e/ê and i/y.

Here are the verbs ljernan and kinnan, "to experience": The answer to this irregularity comes from Old English: When the root vowel is an a, an e or an i, this vowel doesn't experience any change, but the -i- appears in the suffixes of the 1st person singular, of the plurals and of the infinitive, but doesn't in those of the 2nd and the 3rd person singular. An example is the verb hatjan, "to hate":

The present indicative of the "specialized verbs"
During the evolution from Anglo-Saxon, many verbs specialized their meaning, thus these verbs are called specialized verbs and they are all irregular verbs.

Here is the present indicative of the verbs cnâvan and vytan, both "to know", sêgan and cvetan, both "to say", dôn and scân, both "to do":  The verb cnâvan means "to know someone", for the first time or not it's the same, whereas vytan means "to know something". The verbs sêgan and cvetan are almost always interchangeable and mean "to say, to tell", the second is the most used though. Cvetan means also "to assert, to argue, to allude", while sêgan can mean also "to pronounce".

Dôn and scân both mean "to do", but they are different just like to do and to make in English. The verb scân means "to create material things", it is used in such expressions as: scân tat bed, "to make the bed", scân ân clâvje, "to make a sandwich", but also scân se sâmvys, "to act dumb". Dôn refers to a mental or immaterial activity, such as dôn ân encvil, "to do a research", dôn ân scrwting, "to do an exam", but also dôn ân minid, "to make a gesture".

Other specialized verbs are: Both âvan and hâban mean "to have", but the former is used to mean "to owe" and indicates a rather material possession, even if it can be used also to indicate an immaterial possession, such as feelings, ideas, and so forth, moreover âvan cannot ever be used as auxiliary verb. Hâban indicates an immaterial possession, but it is not compulsory and it can indicate also a material possession, such as things, animals, etc. The greatest difference between âvan and hâban is that the latter is the only one that can function as auxiliary.

Villan and mavan both have the meaning of "to want, to desire", but the former is more peremptory in his meaning and has a nuance of pretension. Mavan is closer to the English to wish and is considered more polite. Note the expressions y vill tê, "I love you, I hanker after you" (it has a carnal nuance) and y mag tê, "I like you, I heart you".

Cunnan and môtan are quite differentiated, because the former means "can, to be able to do something", and the latter means "to be allowed to do something, to have the permission to do something".

Past indicative
This tense is used to talk about events that happened in the past and that are considered as totally concluded and irrelated to the present. Generally it is used with time adverbs that indicate this irrelation, such as jestrendag, yesterday, se late vuke / mônt / jâr, the last week / month / year, het scaft ân vuke / mônt / jâr, a week / month / year ago, and so on.

The past indicative of regular verbs is formed with the suffixes -de, -dest, -de, -don, that is the 1st person singular and the 3rd person singular are identical: The verb biôn is irregular in its past tense, the verb ljernan shows its real root instead.

-jan verbs
As for the present, the -jan verbs show a modified vowel root in this tense. While in the present indicative only the 2nd and the 3rd singular person show this change, in the past indicative all the verbal voices show this mutation.

Here are the verbs ljernan and kinnan:

The past indicative of the "specialized verbs"
All the specialized verbs have an irregular past indicative:

The past indicative of the "strong verbs"
The specialized verbs are not the only irregular verbs, because there is another big group of verbs that can have or not an irregular 2nd and 3rd person singular of present indicative, however they always have an irregular past indicative. This verbs are called strong verbs to be distinguished from the regular verbs, called also weak verbs, and from the specialized verbs.

These strong verbs can be divided into seven classes, with these properties: In the first column can be seen the normal root vowel, used in infinitive and in present indicative (except for 2nd and 3rd person singular); the second column refers to root vowel the 2nd and the 3rd person singular of the present indicative; the third column refers to the root vowel of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular, the fourth to the root vowel of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd person plural.

Here are some examples of verbs of I, II, V, VI and VII class:


 * I: bytan - byst - bât - biton (to bite - you bite - I bit - we bit);


 * II: bjôvan - bjêst - bjâd - buvon (to bid - you bid - I bade - we bade);


 * V: jevan - jefst - jaf - jâvon (to give - you give - I gave - we gave);


 * VI: varan - verst - vôr - vôron (to go - you go - I went - we went);


 * VII: lâtan - lâst - lêt - lêton (to let - you let - I let - we let)

The situation is more complicated for verbs of III and IV class.