Taurahe

Taurahe refers to the native languages spoken by the Tauren from the Warcraft universe. There are numerous dialects of Taurahe, as most tribe 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.

Orthography
Taurahe doesn't have a native orthography and there is no official standard transcription. For the sake of simplicity, the spelling system on this page attempts to apply the English alphabet to Taurahe.


 * {| class="wikitable"

!Letter !! Pronunciation !! Notes
 * a || ɑ
 * an(g) || ɑ̃ || The  is used to distinguish from  +  when ambiguous.
 * b || b
 * ch || tɕ || Allophone of /t/.
 * d || d
 * e || ɛ
 * en(g) || ɛ̃ || The  is used to distinguish from  +  when ambiguous.
 * f || f || Allophone of /v/.
 * h || h
 * i || i
 * j || dʑ|| Allophone of /d/.
 * k || k
 * l || lˠ
 * m || m
 * n || n
 * o || o
 * p || p
 * r || ʐ̞
 * s || s || Allophone of /z/.
 * sh || ɕ || Allophone of /z/.
 * t || t
 * th || θ/ð || Allophones in complementary distribution. Since English doesn't distinguish the sounds in its orthography, and the sounds aren't contrastive in Taurahe, they can share the same digraph without confusion.
 * u || ʉ
 * v || v
 * w || w || Allophone of /o/.
 * y || j || Allophone of /i/.
 * z || z ||
 * zh || ʑ || Allophone of /z/.
 * }
 * n || n
 * o || o
 * p || p
 * r || ʐ̞
 * s || s || Allophone of /z/.
 * sh || ɕ || Allophone of /z/.
 * t || t
 * th || θ/ð || Allophones in complementary distribution. Since English doesn't distinguish the sounds in its orthography, and the sounds aren't contrastive in Taurahe, they can share the same digraph without confusion.
 * u || ʉ
 * v || v
 * w || w || Allophone of /o/.
 * y || j || Allophone of /i/.
 * z || z ||
 * zh || ʑ || Allophone of /z/.
 * }
 * u || ʉ
 * v || v
 * w || w || Allophone of /o/.
 * y || j || Allophone of /i/.
 * z || z ||
 * zh || ʑ || Allophone of /z/.
 * }
 * y || j || Allophone of /i/.
 * z || z ||
 * zh || ʑ || Allophone of /z/.
 * }
 * zh || ʑ || Allophone of /z/.
 * }

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

! !!Front!!Mid!!Back !High !Mid !Low
 * i || ʉ ||
 * ɛ ɛ̃ || || o
 * ||colspan=2| ɑ ɑ̃
 * }

In ceremonial Taurahe, there are only four vowel sounds: [ɑ], [ɑ̃], [i], and [o]. The sounds [ɛ], [ɛ̃], and [ʉ] developed from the diphthongs [ɑi], [ɑ̃i] and [oi].

Consonants
There are 20 consonants. Thirteen (bolded) are phonemic and the remaining seven are allophones.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! !! Labial!! Dental !! Alveolar !! Retroflex !! Palatal !! Velar !! Glottal !Nasal !Plosive !Fricative !Approximant
 * m || || n || || || ||
 * p b || || t d || || tɕ dʑ || k ||
 * f v || θ ð || s z || || ɕ ʑ || || h
 * || || lˠ || ʐ̞ || || ||
 * }

Allophony
The phonemes /t/, /d/, and /z/ are palatalized before high vowels.

The voiced obstruents /b d v ð z/ are sometimes devoiced in accordance with complicated word-formation rules. In short,

1. /b d v ð z/ become unvoiced when they occur in the same morpheme as a nasal.
 * *nibu, *done, *kivani, *madhi, *zume
 * nipu, tone, kifani, mathi, sume

2. When a morpheme contains more than one instance of /b d v ð z/, only the final one will be voiced. All others lose voicing.
 * *bado, *dovadhi, *zaji, *huvadi
 * pado, tofadhi, saji, hufadi

3. /b d v ð z/ are devoiced when they precede /p t k h r/ in a morpheme.
 * *daku, *wajichi, *zuha, *baro
 * taku, wachichi, suha, paro

Grammar
Most words in Taurahe are assembled from roots. Roots can never appear without affixes, however, which give them real meaning.
 * fir- wild or a wild thing or place
 * fithi- a hunter or like a hunter
 * sizwang- idea of toppling or undoing something that was assembled carefully

Basic Nouns
Most nouns are an unmarked form of the root. There are two exceptions: (1) words that end in a consonant receive the suffix /-i/ and (2) words that end in a or ang change to e or eng.


 * The noun kodo is the same as the root kodo-.
 * The noun lapu is the same as the root lapu-.
 * The noun kahi derives from the root kah- + -i.
 * The noun hakaji derives from the root hakaz- + -i. The z becomes j due to the presence of the i.
 * The noun akalake derives from the root akalaka- and the final a becomes e.
 * The noun mweng derives from the root mwang- and the final ang becomes eng.
 * The noun mushya is the same as the root mushya-. It is an exception.

Gender
In Taurahe, gender doesn't actually have to do with biological sex. Instead it involves the animacy and spirit of an object. Nouns are considered to fall into 4 groups: divine, animate, inanimate, and construct.

Divine nouns are the most spirited of phenomena, like magic, fire, weather, and celestial bodies.
 * ha anshi - the sun
 * ha kahi - the rain
 * ha Halo - ''the Earthmother
 * ha mushya - the moon

Animate nouns refer to living persons, animals, and also some personified things like some trees and mountains.
 * etha akalake - the man
 * etha shu - the child
 * etha fithyeng - the hunter
 * etha kodo - the kodo

Inanimate nouns are objects that can be found in nature without the influence of architecture or agriculture or engineering etc.
 * ko mochi - the tree
 * ko pake - the blood
 * ko angavi - the berry
 * ko lapo - the stone
 * ko ume - the fish

Construct nouns are objects which do not occur naturally.
 * o hakaji - the arrow
 * o kude - the shield
 * o kolobi - the jar
 * o hapeng - the clothing

Note that all nouns of a particular class are preceded by the same determiner.

Person
The four determiners, ha etha ko and o, refer to the third person. There are also determiners for the first and second person. They are ang me and chi you. Unlike English, these words only replace the determiner, rather than the entire noun phrase.

For example, consider the sentence
 * The old woman eats the meat.

This can be transformed into
 * I eat the meat.

Thus, the word I replaces the phrase The old woman.

In Taurahe, the change would be different.
 * Myenki setha riva thalu ko mweng. The old woman eats the meat.
 * Myenki sang riva thalu ko weng. I, the old woman, eat the meat.

Only the determiner setha changes. The adjectives and nouns are unaffected.

Case
Taurahe has a few case markers. Only one case involves morphosyntax. Since the VSO word order already demonstrates which noun is the subject and which noun is the verb, it is redundant, but Taurahe further marks the subject with the prefix /z-/ ([s] when conditioned) when both a subject and an object appear.


 * Ade futumafá etha akalake neko la homas'tome. Yesterday the man slept in his tent.
 * Since only the subject, etha akalake, appears, there is no marker.
 * Ade fuhachyá ko lapu. Yesterday a stone was thrown.
 * Since only the object, ko lapu, appears, there is no marker.
 * Ade fuhachyá setha akalake ko lapu neko la homas'tome. Yesterday the man threw a stone while in (while he was inside) his tent.
 * Both phrases, etha akalake and ko lapu, appear, so the subject, etha akalake, receives the prefix s-.

Pluralization
Pluralization is marked by the prefix mu-.


 * etha kodo kodo
 * etha mukodo kodos


 * o kolobi jar
 * o mukolobi jars

Pluralization is implied when numbers are used.
 * ko shyeni a bone
 * ko suha shyeni two bones
 * ko koba shyeni three bones
 * ko mushyeni bones

Verbs
Like nouns, the core of the verb is the root. The affixes depend on tense and aspect, and are irregularly distributed as either prefixes, suffixes, or both.

Tense
Taurahe has 3 tenses, past, present, and future. The affixes for these are fu, ki, and ni, respectively. In ceremonial Taurahe, these markers were attached before and after the verb. In modern Taurahe, the present tense is only marked with the suffix. The past tense is only marked with the prefix, but the stress is patterned as if there were a suffix. The final syllable is stressed, unlike most words wherein the second-to-last syllable is stressed.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!Root !Past fu- !Present -ki !Future ni- -ni walk || futowá || towaki || nitowani eat ||fumyéng || myenki || nimyenni travel to || fulúk || luki || nilu(k)ni rain || fukáh || kahki || nikahni
 * towa
 * towa
 * myeng
 * myeng
 * luk
 * luk
 * kah
 * kah
 * }

Aspect
Verbs have two aspects, which indicate whether an action is viewed as a discrete event or as a continuous one. These are called the perfective and imperfective aspects. The imperfective aspect is unmarked, but the perfective aspect is marked by the suffix -ki. In the present tense, the suffix does not appear, but stress shifts to the final syllable. In the past tense, the prefix fu- disappears but the suffix -fu appears, even though it is absent in the imperfective conjugation.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!Root !Past -fuki !Present -kí !Future ni- -niki walk || towafuki || towakí || nitowaniki eat ||myenfuki || myenkí || nimyenniki travel to || lu(k)fuki || lukí || nilu(k)niki rain || kahfuki || kahkí || nikahniki
 * towa
 * towa
 * myeng
 * myeng
 * luk
 * luk
 * kah
 * kah
 * }