Taurahe/Linguistics

Taurahe refers to the native languages spoken by the Tauren from the Warcraft universe. There are numerous dialects of Taurahe, as most tribes retain their own version of the language. The most common dialect by far is Bloodhoof Taurahe, the native tongue of High Chieftain Baine. Bloodhoof Taurahe has supplanted ceremonial Taurahe in areas of trade and tribal politics. There are a number of culturally Tauren words that have been adopted into other languages from Taurahe, such as shaman, leather, mana, feral, lava, and totem.

Consonants
There are 23 consonants. Letters in angle brackets denote orthography where different than IPA.
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! !! Labial !! Dental !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !Nasal !Plosive !Voiceless Fricative !Voiced Fricative !Approximant !Lateral Approximant !Retroflex Approximant
 * m || n  || || ɲ  || ŋ 
 * p || t || || c || k
 * f  || θ  || s || ç  || x 
 * v || ð  || || ʝ  || ɣ 
 * || || || j  || ɰ 
 * || || || lʲ  || lᶭ 
 * || || || ɹʲ  || ɹᶭ 
 * }

Vowels
There are three pure vowels.
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! !! Front !! Central !! Back
 * High || i || ||
 * Mid-high || || || o
 * Low || || a ||
 * }
 * Low || || a ||
 * }
 * }

When adjacent to /a/, /i/ and /o/ become [j] and [w], respectively.

Syllable Structure
While most syllables are simply of the form CV, the maximum syllable structure is sC1LVC2.


 * s: /s/
 * C1: any non-nasal obstruent
 * L: any approximant
 * V: any vowel
 * C2: any nasal or approximant

C2 may not be an approximant if there is an approximant in the onset. The onset may contain both s and L, but it requires an intervening C1, i.e. *sla is not well-formed.

Stress and Rhythm
Stress is trochaic and generally regular. Most words have primary stress on the penultimate syllable, with secondary stress on the first syllable for words 4 syllables or longer. Taurahe is metrically a stress-timed language. When speaking, stressed syllables typically occur at regular intervals.

Orthography
Because Tauren did not traditionally write, there is no native orthography. Written Taurahe differs dramatically from source to source, being influenced by the dialect of the speaker as well as the language, style, and preferences of the writer. The Taurahe written on this page uses an orthography that tries to present Bloodhoof Taurahe in a manner that is easily understandable by speakers of English but still reflects the way the language actually sounds. As a result, a few words differ in spelling from forms observed in other texts, but the words as written here should not be taken as more or less correct than other spelling conventions.

Gender
There are 3 noun genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter.

The first regular class of nouns have the prefix a- and suffix -i, -he, or -o. They are referred to as masculine because the words for man, father, brother and son are of this gender. Most naturally occurring objects are of this class as well.


 * akalaki man
 * akandagi father
 * aciro brother
 * agalo son
 * apiji child
 * atxabi thorn
 * akaleki flower
 * ataluni stick
 * aroci animal
 * akorubi cougar
 * aludo feather
 * acxini bone
 * akxakaji arrow
 * akolobi earthenware vessel

The second regular class of nouns bear the prefix i- or y- -a. They are referred to as feminine because the word for woman, mother, and daughter'' are of this gender. Most body parts are of this class as well.


 * itxalo woman
 * yaguma mother
 * ipiska daughter
 * imraa arm
 * inostxoka head
 * iropxa red clay
 * ikakama strider
 * ikala egg
 * igoma fat
 * imago flesh (fruit or meat)

The third regular class of nouns have no prefix and end in -o. Most adjectives are in thsi form as well.


 * niko one
 * tagurajo campsite
 * maro short

Plural
All masculine and feminine nouns change their suffix to -ahe.


 * akalaki > akalakahe man > men
 * aciro > achirahe brother > brothers
 * akorubi > akorubahe cougar > cougars
 * itxalo > itxalahe woman > women
 * imbraa > imbraahe arm > arms
 * imago > imagahe meat > meats

Neuter nouns change their suffix to -ino


 * tagurajo > tagurajino campsite > campsites

Attributive adjectives, those that directly modify a noun, agree in number.

maro ataluni katxatxa itxalo short stick  collect  woman The woman gathers a short stick.

marino  atalunahe katxatxa itxalo short.PL stick.PL collect  woman The woman gathers short sticks.

Predicative adjectives, those that indirectly modify a noun, always remain singular. maro kaihe ataluni short COP  stick The stick is short.

maro kaihe atalunahe short COP stick.PL The sticks are short.

Numerals
Tauren take an interesting approach to counting. For everyday counting, Tauren count based on groups rather than individuals. The important numbers in this system are 3, 12, and 36. So for example, to count 20 arrows, a hunter will mentally split them into groups of three and count 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 20 minus 1. When asked how many arrows he has, he would say he had one group of 12 and 3 groups of 3, minus one. Large numbers are counted more roughly, so a tailor who needed to count 100 feathers for a headdress. Would likely count 12, 24, 36, note the size of the pile, and then note 72 and 108, being satisfied that 108 is close enough to 100. For very precise counting, such as in mathematics, economics, and engineering, Tauren will count the discrete members within each group, so to count precisely to 15, for example, they would say 1, 2, 3, (4, 2, 3), (7, 2, 3), (10, 2, 3), 12+1, 12+2, 12+3.
 * niko one
 * soham two
 * kompa three
 * done 4, 5, 6
 * koide 7, 8, 9
 * shatohaji 10, 11, 12

Verbs
The citation form of a verb is in the past tense. All past tense verbs end with /o/.
 * tékio walked
 * tifo saw
 * kaθθo gathered
 * diloko went
 * ogro ate, drank
 * sirno believed
 * servo knew

Plural
There is a plural particle /an/ that can follow the verb.

If the object in the sentence is plural, then the verb will be plural. ogra ma an magino   a   sfiti eat PRS PL fruit.PL NOM hunter The hunter eats the fruits.

kaθθo      an go sohama lapaho collect.PST PL 1s two   stone.PL I collected two stones.

If the sentence doesn't have an object, but the subject is plural, then the verb will be plural. tekya ma pisxa walk PRS girl The girl walks.

tekya ma an pisxai walk PRS PL girl.PL The girls walk.

Tense
Every verb has 2 forms, usually very closely related. For regular verbs, the past tense ends in /-o/ and the non-past form, used for present and future tenses, ends in /-a/.

Past tense verbs, the /-o/ verb is used. ogro     peji  a   galo drink.PST juice NOM boy The boy drank juice.

tekio   pisxa walk.PRS girl The girl walks.

For present tense verbs, the particle /ma/ follows the /-a/ verb. ogra ma  peji  a   galo drink PRS juice NOM boy The boy drinks juice.

tekia ma pisxa walk PRS girl The girl walks.

For future tense verbs, the particle /mo/ follows the /-a/ verb. ogra mo  peji  a   galo drink FUT juice NOM boy The boy will drink juice.

tekia mo pisxa walk FUT girl The girl will walk.

Syntax
Taurahe syntax is somewhat more complicated than English syntax. The most basic structure is VOS, but the order of constituents changes to indicate different focuses.

When both object and subject and definite, then they follow the standard VOS order. ogra ma tavra a   korsxi eat PRS bark  NOM deer The deer eats the bark.

However, if the subject is a pronoun, the subject precedes the object. (Surface VSO order.) ragno    ana moja climb.PST 1p tree We climbed the tree.

roo          go ticho interpret.PRS 1s sign I interpret the sign.

If either subject or object is indefinite, however, it will be promoted to in front of the verb. (Surface SVO or OVS order.) korsxi ogra ma tavra deer  eat  PRS bark A deer eats the bark.

If the object is promoted, it requires the object particle /an/. moja an ragno     go tree OBJ climb.PST 1s I climbed a tree.

Taurahe doesn't allow both subject and object to be indefinite, nor does it allow intransitive verbs to have an indefinite argument. Expressions parallel "a dog barks" and "a man hears a dog" are ungrammatical.