Taila

Taila (Tailaluyera) is a constructed language developed as an experiment in various linguistic concepts. It was designed to be a non-tonal analytic language with a relatively simple phonemic inventory. As a fairly analytic language, it is rich in function words which can be somewhat tricky for English speakers; however, this analytic nature only applies to the grammar, while word formation can be highly synthetic. The lexicon has been influenced by many languages, most importantly English, Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, and Basque.

=Design= Taila was initially created to be an experiment into isolating/analytic languages like Chinese, Burmese, or Thai. Early grammars explored different ways to manipulate word order to express meaning, relying heavily on Asian influences in most aspects of the language: syntax, lexicon, phonology, et cetera. Eventually, however, Taila started to take on a different character in many ways. Tones were dropped, syllable structure was loosened, and word length was increased. Furthermore, the grammar took a turn toward the theoretical, marking not phrasal constituents like subject or object, but instead thematic relations like agent and patient. There are still many Asian-influenced parts of the language, such as its separation of tense, aspect, and mood or its lack of intrinsic number in most nouns. It does diverge somewhat greatly in its relative looseness in word order. Taila also shows a fair amount of agglutinative character in its formation of words.

=Phonology= Native English speakers should be familiar with many of the phonemes in Taila, especially most of the consonants; however, there are a few consonants and vowels that will have to be practiced and mastered.

Consonants
The sounds listed in the table below are the "standard" phonemes of the language, and do not show allophones that appear in certain environments. Where sounds are in pairs, the symbol to the left is unvoiced and the one to the right is voiced.

The palatal consonants will be the most difficult for English speakers because all except j are entirely foreign.

Vowels
There are five vowels which are not centralized in any syllables.

The phonemes /i/ and /u/ are sometimes reduced to /j/ and /w/ when placed between a consonant and another vowel (/bia/ becomes /bʲa/ and /lui/ becomes /lʷi/). The only true diphthongs are ai and au.

Orthography
The alphabet is listed below, along with the names of each letter:

Certain common digraphs and trigraphs also have their own names:

The last three letters from the English language that are missing in the Taila alphabet are /Cc/ esatta, /Qq/ ekatta, and /Xx/ ekse. These are only used in foreign words and names, and are fairly rare.

=Basic Grammar= Because Taila is an analytic language, it lacks any sort of declension or conjugation like in many Western languages. In order to express number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, or anything else, separate particles must be added in the clause to indicate these.

Noun Functive Particles
After a noun phrase (a string of one or more nouns), a postpositional grammatical particle must be inserted to indicate the role of this phrase in the sentence. In English this is primarily done through word order (The baby ate it versus It ate the baby) and a modest amount of declension when dealing with pronouns (I vs me vs my vs mine). In Taila, the positioning of the noun phrase within the sentence is somewhat loose as long as it is properly marked for thematic role. Please note well that these particles do not show subject or object like in English, but instead agent, patient, etc.

The first six particles are collectively known as the "core" particles and must be fully understood before any sentences can be formed in Taila. As already mentioned, these particles do not show subject or object, instead they indicate thematic role. In the English sentence "Erika was pushed by Jesse", Erika may by the subject of the sentence but Jesse is the one doing the pushing, and thus would be labeled the agent. Erika is simply the receiver of the action, so she is known as the patient. Because the core is somewhat difficult to understand for English speakers, each particle will be discussed separately.

Oblique particle. This is close to a "neutral" particle and provides the least amount of information as to the noun phrase's role in the sentence. It is often used with very simple intransitive phrases and in the place of copular statements. The thematic role it describes is content or theme. ''I gave her the book. He likes cereal. The tree is tall.'' Some verbs only take nouns in the oblique as their subject. In colloquial speech, this particle can sometimes be dropped.

Inductive particle. When the agent and the patient of an action are identical, the inductive particle is used to indicate this relationship. '' You jumped. They danced to the song.'' In simple inductive intransitive statements, this particle can be replaced with the oblique particle to emphasize the action itself over the inductor when speaking colloquially.

Agentive particle. An agent is the willful initiator of an action affecting another party (typically the patient). Often this is equivalent to the subject of an active sentence or the object of a passive sentence in English. '' We pushed them. The mailman was bit by the dog .''

Patientive particle. A patient is the recipient or experiencer of an action initiated by another party (typically the agent), and undergoes a change of state due to this action. Often this is equivalent to the object of an active sentence or the subject of a passive sentence in English. ''We pushed them. The mailman was bit by the dog. The bird fell from the sky.'' Notice the lack of an agent in the last example sentence.

Effectuative particle. The effectuative particle shows the enabler of an action that causes a chain of events, ultimately resulting in the final stated action. Taking the sentence The man emptied the water from the tub, if the man is placed in the effectuative then it means he caused the tub to be emptied (probably by pulling the drain plug); if the man is placed the the agentive then it means he is actively removing water from the tub (possibly by pouring it out somehow).

Affective particle. This particle indicates a passive experiencer of an involuntary action. Typically it is used with the senses, emotional states, and bodily functions. '' The child coughs. The loud noise startled her. He was very upset.''

Choosing to use different thematic particles can change the way the sentence is translated into English completely. Often, this change is reflected in the verb used. For example, gödza is a verb indicating an act of sight and the "standard" way to use this verb is: Man– AFFECTIVE see book– OBLIQUE. The man sees the book. However, by toying with the thematic role of each of these nouns, different nuances can be described: Man– INDUCTIVE see book– OBLIQUE. Idiom.The man reads the book. Man– AGENTIVE see book– PATIENTIVE. The man watches/inspects the book. Man– INDUCTIVE see. The man looks (around). Man– EFFECTUATIVE see woman– AFFECTIVE book– OBLIQUE. The man causes the woman to see the book. (He shows her the book). Book– OBLIQUE see. The book is seen. The remaining particles are called the "periphery", and their use is fairly straightforward.
 * Konsa han gödza anul (ja).
 * Konsa su gödza anul (ja).
 * Konsa on anul tja gödza.
 * Konsa su gödza.
 * Konsa mön sinsa han gödza anul (ja).
 * Anul ja gödza.

Noun Possessive Particles
English possessives are quite ambiguous in many instances. If someone hears "Mark's jacket", they cannot know for sure the exact way that Mark relates to the jacket. Is this a jacket that he's currently wearing? Is it a jacket he bought? Is it one he personally designed? The possessive "Mark's" can indicate all of these things in English. In Taila, however, there are ways to distinguish some of these meanings from one another.

The possessive particle (se) is the most common of these four, and can be used in many situations. Typically, it refers to more temporary possession and does not indicate ownership. "Konsa se anul" (the man's book) may refer to a book that he's currently holding or reading, but does not show that he owns the book or that he authored it. The relative particle (djun) indicates that the "possessor" has somehow influenced the "possessed"—although using this terminology may be a little misleading because no ownership is implied. "Konsa djun anul" (the man's book) may refer to a book that he wrote or edited or simply has a connection to, but it does not show that he is reading it or holding it. The genitive particle (rai) is the particle that shows ownership, and it only shows ownership, nothing more. "Konsa rai anul" (the man's book) only indicates that it belongs to him.

Certain kinds of possessions, typically things intrinsic to the possessor that cannot be separated from him/her, do not need any sort of possessive particle. In order to say "the man's father", "konsa se baba", "konsa djun baba", and "konsa rai baba" are all incorrect because someone's father is an inalienable possession; in this case, "konsa baba" is sufficient.

Numeral Classifiers
Taila, like many East Asian languages, makes extensive use of numeral classifiers to quantify countable nouns. A similar phenomenon is seen in English with words like rice. It doesn't make sense to say a rice, a countable quantifier must be inserted, for example a grain of rice. The word grain in this sentence is acting as a measure word. In Taila, a classifier is required whenever any noun is being assigned a number. In order to say "one rabbit", the phrase tonsai lai (rabbit one) is incorrect. The measure word appropriate for animals lanu must be used, making it tonsai lai lanu  (rabbit one- ANIMAL ). Sometimes nouns are used with their classifier in the absence of a number when talking generally; for example, tonsai lanu means "rabbits (in general)". Classifiers are also commonly used with demonstratives, which will be covered in the section below on demonstrative pronouns.

In order to further illustrate how classifiers are used, here is an example using the noun konsa (man) and its classifier min:

Sometimes, classifiers can be used alone when the context is clear. For example, "How many men are coming?" "Sen min" (Two). Other classifiers are almost always used alone, especially measurement classifiers. For example, "lai unte" (one year) and "sen kilometer" (two kilometers). Even these, though, are sometimes used with the appropriate noun: "vadzjam lai unte" (one year of time) and "dülje sen kilometer" (two kilometers of distance).

Personal Pronouns
There are two sets of personal pronouns that can be used in Taila which differ in formality. The formal pronouns are typically used in business settings, between strangers, when talking to large groups, and in most everyday situations. The familiar pronouns are used among close friends and family. Notice that there is a distinction made between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns. English does not make this distinction in its pronouns, but it is fairly easy to learn. Exclusive pronouns can be thought of as "us WITHOUT you", and inclusive pronouns can be thought of as "us ALONG WITH you".

The bare form is the most common and it leaves number to be inferred from context. Often it indicates a singular or generic meaning, and when it is important to know further information about the specific number, quantifying particles can be added such as li and do and gu. The paucal particle do shows a few of something—generally no more than a handful. The collective particle is used when referring to a large group of something, especially when working together as a cohesive unit.

These pronouns should not be used in more formal situations because their use can be seen as overly familiar and unwarrated, sometimes even rude. Also worth noting is that siane can be written as two words, sia ne.

In highly formal situations, there is another pronoun that is used, üden. This pronoun is always paired with a demonstrative pronoun, and can refer to any of the three persons. Üden ni can mean "I/we", üden da can mean "you", and üden jo can mean "he/she/it/they".

Demonstrative Pronouns
English has a two-way distinction in demonstratives, but Taila makes a three-way distinction: proximal (this), medial (that), and distal (yonder). The base demonstrative pronouns are listed below. When these pronouns are being used as determiners, they should normally be placed immediately after an appropriate classifier. As an example, the noun ozain "house" is used along with its classifier sodo.

Relative Pronouns
English has many relative pronouns, but Taila doesn't use them at all. Instead, the particles an and dze are used to form subordinate clauses. For example, a gloss of "the man who likes Mary" would look like "man an likes Mary dze", and "the man whom Mary likes" would look like "man an Mary likes dze". There is another way to form subordinate clauses, which is by compounding, but this will be covered later.

Interrogative Pronouns
The only relative pronouns in Taila are: seja ("what?") and kamy ("which?"). The difference between these two lies in the nature of the objects they are describing. If it is an open set (ie, there are an indefinite number of options), then the pronoun seja is appropriate; for example, "What is your name?" would use seya because there isn't a limit to the number of names you can have. On the other hand, if it is a closed set (ie, there is a definite number of options), then use kamy; for example, imagine a teacher asking "Which students are absent?" because there are a limited number of students in the class. With only these two interrogative pronouns, in order to fulfill the roles of English interrogative pronouns like "where?" or "when?", they are combined with an appropriate measure word. Here are a few combinations to be aware of:

Adjectives and Adverbs
In practice, Taila makes no distinction between adjectives and adverbs. A single word like kyrip can be used to mean both "quick" and "quickly", depending on whether it happens to be modifying a noun or a verb or an adjective. This part of speech, however, does have a few things to watch out for.

First off, degrees of comparison are made by using the particles tonh "as/like", bi "more", dzü "most", and gyn "too/excessively". So, using the above example, the following can be constructed:

Second, when modifying a noun, adjectives normally follow the word they modify, but they can also be combined with the noun. In this case, the adjective appears before the noun, often with the infix -e- separating the two. This construction changes the restrictiveness of the adjective: from unspecified to restrictive. Again, English does not typically make this distinction. A non-restrictive adjective describes the noun without limiting its scope, whereas a restrictive adjective in addition to describing the noun also limits its scope. For example, the expression "the black pen" can refer to a pen which happens to be black, or it can point to a black pen as opposed to a pen of any other color. The former case is non-restrictive because it simply describes, and the latter is restrictive because it also separates this particular pen from others. Thus, in Taila, the expression konsa kyrip "the quick man" can be restrictive or non-restrictive, but kyripekonsa can only be restrictive.

Lastly, some words can only be used as either an adjective or an adverb, but these are typically fairly obvious because trying to use it in the other sense doesn't make sense. For example, nahüt "often" can only be used as an adverb.

Polarity
The main negating particle is si "not", which can be used to negate adjectives and verbs and many other particles. Thus, zuntia "to go" corresponds to zuntia si "to not go". The other important negating particles are masi and ma. The first, masi, is used to negate nouns and pronouns. The second, ma, is used (typically with adjectives) to show that the adjective is not true, but neither is its opposite. For example, anom "tasty" vs anom si "not tasty" vs anom ma "not tasty, but not un-tasty"/"not quite tasty".

Numbers
The numbers in Taila are fairly simple, and just amount to addition and multiplication.

Using this method, number names can get very long (654,321 is dju-rod-byn-nhua-vöt-hav-mau-rod-sen-nhua-lai). Often above 1000, the numbers are just read in order, so 654,321 becomes dju-bun-ved-mau-sen-lai or dju-bun-ved-hav-mau sen-lai and 50,403 is byn-ze-vöt-ze-mau or byn-ze-hav-vöt-ze-mau.

Ordinal numbers are easy to form. They are simply their cardinal counterpart preceded by the ordinating particle dai. So, "the first rabbit" is translated to tonsai dai lai lanu, and "the 27th rabbit" is tonsai dai sen-nhua-nüs lanu.

Verbs
In many languages, verbs are of two types: transitive and intransitive. However, in Taila, the transitivity of a verb depends on the number and type of nouns used in conjunction with it. The main distinction made among verbs is between verbs and auxiliaries, which can only be used in conjunction with "proper" verbs. This is very similar to the English conception of helper verbs, except the category is must broader. For example, the auxiliaries pal- and gut- can be combined with the verb zuntja "to go" to make the compound verbs palzuntja "to enter" and gutzuntja "to exit".

Another aspect of verbs that can be unusual for speakers of Western languages is the lack of conjugation. Tense, polarity, aspect, mood, and other verbal qualities are all expressed through the use of separate particles. Each quality will be discussed below.

Tense
There are three commonly used tenses: present, past, and future. Each of these tenses has a dedicated particle which is generally placed immediately before the verb, but tenses behave differently than in English. In English, every verb must be conjugated for the proper tense, but in Taila, verbs do not have to be used with a tense marker. In fact, they are only used when it is important to specify the time. To this end, there is an additional marker habu that can be used to express remoteness.

The tense particles can be negated to form the nonpast (du si), nonpresent (nja si), and nonfuture (tjum si) tenses.

Polarity
The affirmative polarity is standard, and shows that an action is happening, but there are two other polarities: negative and nondescriptive. In order to negate a verb, the particle si is placed after the verb: hoi han gödza (I see) becomes hoi han gödza si (I don't see). The nondescriptive polarity particle ma is used less commonly with verbs than with adjectives, but it indicates that neither the affirmative nor the negative polarity is appropriate; often, it translates into English as "kind of".

Aspect
The aspect particles are generally placed right after the verb and they describe the temporal flow of the action. There are three true aspect particles which are used to express the continuous, perfective, and habitual aspects. Further aspects can be shown using adverbs, such as: prospective, inceptive, pausative, resumptive, and cessative.

In compound sentences and highly formal speech, this particle can also be placed at the end of the sentence; for example, the perfective aspect's example sentence from above could be Ta su gödza anul ja bu or Ta su anul ja gödza bu.

Mood
The modality of a verb is separate from tense in Taila, unlike in English. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult for English speakers to settle on the proper mood to use in a phrase. The mood particle normally appears at the end of the sentence, and is considered to be separate from the verb phrase. Thus, it can even appear when the verb in a sentence is dropped or implied. This practice, however, is really only common with the interrogative particle, and is considered to be a colloquialism.

Notice that some moods have multiple uses. For example, the optative mood can be used as a cohortative mood, functioning as a more polite alternative to the imperative.

Illocution
Illocution shows the type of speech act that you are making, which is a concept highly foreign to English speakers. An utterance can either be locutionary (act of saying something) or illocutionary (act performed by saying something). If a verb is locutionary, a distinction can also be made whether it is introducing new information or not.

Because a locutionary verb is standard, use of the locutionary particles also tends to emphasize the topic/focus (first noun or pronoun) of the sentence.

Evidentiality
The last important group of particles shows the evidentiality of the phrase; that is, the certainty of the speaker as to the validity of the sentence. If I know first-hand or for a fact that something is true, the direct evidentiality is used. If I know second-hand or I am inferring something, the indirect evidentiality is used.

Sentence Structure
The order of the different pieces of a sentence is fairly loose, and is actively changed to stress different parts. The first thing mentioned in the sentence is the topic, and in simple sentences oblique objects are often placed after the verb (in colloquial speech, the postposition ja can be dropped). In compound sentences, the verb normally must be the last piece of the clause in order to clearly separate the arguments of each verb in the compound. However, there are many rigid rules when forming a sentence. The generic template for a sentence is: Not all of these positions need to be filled in order to form a complete sentence. In fact, it is rare that a phrase will have all of these at once.

As an example of the loose word order, this simple sentence, Konsa su gödza anul ja "The man reads the book", can be rerranged into the following phrases: man IND read book OBL The man reads the book.
 * Konsa su gödza anul ja.
 * Konsa su anul ja gödza. (slightly more formal)
 * Anul ja konsa su gödza. (stresses the book)
 * Anul ja gödza konsa su. (sounds awkward)
 * Gödza konsa su anul ja. (sounds awkward)
 * Gödza anul ja konsa su. (sounds awkward)

A more complex sentence would have different ways of arranging: I AFF want man IND get-read woman PAT give-tell book OBL I want the man to read a book to the woman.
 * Hoi han gari konsa su deigödza sinsa tja zuidzanhy anul ja.
 * Hoi han gari konsa su anul ja deigödza sinsa tja zuidzanhy. (slightly more formal)
 * Hoi han gari anul ja konsa su deigödza sinsa tja zuidzanhy. (stresses the book)

Copular Statements
There is no verb equivalent to the English verb "to be". Instead, copular statements are formed using the noun particles. The particle used is chosen based on the meaning, and then both pieces of the statements are placed side-by-side in this thematic role. For example, "The man is Bob." would be Konsa ja Bob ja. "I am at the store" would be Hoi ve liahare ve.

=Lexicon=

Dictionary
Due to the somewhat strange parts of speech to an English speaker, here is an explanation of the way words will be listed in the dictionary:

If at any point additional usage notes are necessary, they will be written within angular brackets (<>).

Two topical sections have been included on this page, but further words must be looked up in the dictionary.

People – Konsa
lesa n. (min) person, human, human being, homo sapien

min class. humans: konsa, sinsa, ledam.

konsa n. (min) man, male human, adult man

sinsa n. (min) woman, female human, adult woman

adam a. young, youthful

ledam n. (min) human child

kondam n. (min) boy, male human child

sindam n. (min) girl, female human child

byvy a. old, having lived/existed for many years

lebyv n. (min) old human

konbyv n. (min) old man, male senior

sinbyv n. (min) old woman, female senior

ba/saba n. (min) father, dad, step-father, male parent

ma/sama n. (min) mother, mom, step-mother, female parent

son/sason n. (min) brother, step-brother, half-brother, male sibling

tun/satun n. (min) sister, step-sister, half-sister, female sibling

njöm/sanjöm n. (min) son, male child

ljen/saljen n. (min) daughter, female child

When using kinship terms, the single syllable forms are very familiar and would only be used with one's own family. The forms with the prefix sa- are more formal, and can be used when referring to other people's family.

Time – Vadzjam
vadzjam n. time, passage of time 

neudzjam n. a point in time, moment

nhero class. day (a period of 24 hours)

duen class. period of time: ljapte, badjo, vadzjam

sanja n. (nhero) day of the week

sanjalai n. Monday

sanjasen n. Tuesday

sanjamau n. Wednesday

sanjavöt n. Thursday

sanjabyn n. Friday

sanjadju n. Saturday

sanjake n. Sunday

tsjüval a. last, final, ultimate; lastly, finally, ultimately

hydvo a. first, initial, primary; firstly, initially

badjo n. (duen) week (seven days)

ljapte n. (duen) month; class. month

lai ljapte n. January

sen ljapte n. February

mau ljapte n. March

nhua ljapte n. October

nhua-lai ljapte/sym ljapte n. November

nhua-sen ljapte/ke ljapte n. December

unte n. (duen) year; class. year

ondu n. (duen) hour; class. hour

minut n. (duen) minute; class. minute

segondo n. (duen) second; class. second

gözen n. (pa) morning (6am-10am)

hendi n. (pa) midday, noontime (10am-2pm)

ratsa n. (pa) afternoon (2pm-6pm)

munsun n. (pa) evening (6pm-10pm)

dabon n. (pa) night (10pm-2am)

wanje n. (pa) early morning (2am-6am)

When naming the days of the week and the months of the year, there are some irregularities involving the words ke and sym. Ke means "final" or "last", and sym means "next-to-last" or "penultimate", but these words are not normally used outside of set expressions such as these. Note that Sunday can only be said sanjake not sanjanüs, but November and December can be said either way: nhua-lai ljapte and nhua-sen ljapte, or sym ljapte and ke ljapte.

The date is always expressed from longest to shortest component. So, March 25, 2004 would be Sen-Ze-Ze-Vöt Unte Mau Ljapte Sen-Nhau-Byn Nhero which is normally written either 2004 unte 3 ljapte 25 nhero or 2004/3/25 or in shorthand, 2004u 3l 25n. The same phenomenon can be observed with time. So, 6:19 can be dju ondu nhua-hin (the word minut is seldom used when saying the time); however, the terms "am" and "pm" are not used with the 12-hour clock. Instead, the time of day is said after the time, so 6:19am would be dju ondu nhua-hin gözen , and 6:19pm would be dju ondu nhua-hin munsun . Although the above times of day have general time periods listed, these are not exact. Thus, 5:00pm could be translated as either byn ondu ratsa or byn ondu munsun without issue.

=Example Texts=

Well-Known Passages
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
 * Konsa zara ti saban yensiato avat partil bu biniam i halid zi. Sam diaran ti aidi bu wastun i midix ya. Sonson ya nin kiotet no sam diaran tomo tiau.
 * All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Translation Challenge
From the Translation Challenge page, this passage has been chosen to be translated: