Talish

Notation

 * Phonetic transcriptions are denoted by rectangular brackets          [ˈkæːk̚tɪs]
 * Phonemic transcriptions are denoted by slash brackets                 /kæktɪs/
 * Native phonemic transcriptions are denoted by angle quotes         «cactis»
 * Italic front style denotes native words                                          cacto
 * Boldface denotes English approximations                                    cactus
 * Bold letters also indicate suffixes being demonstrated                  tú comerías el cacto

Classification and Dialects
Talish (locally Twlér) is an a priori language. Defining characteristics include:
 * A large number of morphological irregularities caused by sound changes from its predecessor (referred to here as Dalean)
 * A metric ton of T-A-M's

Phonotactics

 * Consonant clusters with more than three consonants are never permitted.
 * Consonant clusters with more than two consonants must begin with a sonorant.
 * Final «z» is not permitted.

Sound Changes
Note:  This is not a complete list of the sound changes that drove Talish's divergence from Dalean. Rather, these sound changes are the ones still in effect that contribute to Talish's morphology. All sounds are implied to have « angle brackets » around them (native Talish letters, not IPA)

rt » d / V_V

r » d / _t

ø » f / m_

c » x / C_# ! _(n/r)

l » Ø / _xV

l » r / _x

Nouns
Talish nouns decline to case and number, with two regular categories of declension based on grammatical gender and a large number of irregular declensions caused by old sound changes still in effect.

Masculine
Masculine nouns end in vowels in the accusative. Final accented vowels are retained.

Feminine
Feminine nouns end in consonants in the accusative.

Verbs
Talish verbs conjugate to tense, aspect, mood, and voice in all cases. They also conjugate to number in the past tense, and person and number in the present tense. In Talish, the conditional acts more like a tense than a mood, since the conditional can be combined with several moods. All verbs end in vowels in the infinitive