Thärín

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General information
Thärín, the primary language of Thärí, originated as a nomadic dialect of Illiaster. The languages diverged following the Wars of Dust, when the remaining Thêq tribes settled on the northern coast and came into contact with Saen-speaking sailors from the Isles. Thyärí retains many structural elements from Illiaster, but the pronunciation has evolved considerably and words were adapted from Saen and Relian to fill gaps in the Thêq's vocabulary.

Vowels
Monothong vowels are an Illiaster element no longer present in Thyärín, which instead uses twelve dipthong vowels. While in Illiaster the dipthongs are composed strictly by combining the four base monothings a, ə, ɪ, and ʊ, Thyärín uses eight.

Alphabet


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

Thärín script is written from left to right. The consonant and vowel in each syllable are joined near the baseline, but syllables within a word do not connect to one another.



Phonotactics
Syllables consist of [C][V] or [C][V][C]. 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 Thêq's nomadic era.

The consonant Y is mute to allow for words with preliminary vowels, prefix-preliminary vowel, or consecutive vowels.

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 bäyâkêlú (baɪ-aʊ-kəʊ-lʊɛ), is a compound from bä (being) + yân (wise) = bäyâ (human) + kên (curved) = bäyâkê (woman) + lúsh (to hold) = bäyâkêlú (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 bä, yâ, kê, and lú mean being, thought, 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 can 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.