Thärín

Thairien.png
I am just getting started with this & am at the "things I didn't know I didn't know"/"Wikipedia everything" stage, so if you notice I've set myself up with something stupid, illogical, or self-contradictory please do let me know.

General information
Thärín, the primary language of Thälâ, originated as a nomadic dialect of Illiaster. The languages diverged sharly following the Wars of Dust, when the remaining Thäq 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 Thäq's vocabulary.

Alphabet
Thärín did not have a distinct alphabet prior to the settlement of Thälâ, when written records became increasingly necessary. Illiaster has two written forms, but the Thäq 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.

Prefixes are followed by a punctuation mark to distinguish them from consonant clusters. In Thärín script it looks similar to a comma, but is generally written as an apostrophe in transliterations. Single-letter suffixes are not punctuated. Suffix syllables are separated from the word by a dot or dash.

Phonotactics
Syllables consist of [C][V]. Dipthong vowels only follow single consonants (bä, water), and monothong vowels only follow consonant clusters (mhi, animal).

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 Thäq's nomadic era.

The consonant Y is mute and paired with either type of vowel, to allow for the effect of a vowel-only syllable.

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 brekêlú (bre-kəʊ-lʊɛ), is a compound from bre (human) + kên (curved) = brekê (woman) + lúsh (to hold) = brekêlú (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 bre, kê, and lú mean human, 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 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.

Example text
English: We see the mountain. It is not far. The men will walk there.

Thärín: Bâq lâyí-sü dë-hê. Bî mìkân-rú dù-hê. Bresèbìm mì hä-rì.

Pronounciation: Baʊq laʊɪə-sʊɪ deɪ-həʊ. Bɪu mɪäkaʊn-rʊɛ dʊə-həʊ. Bresəɪbɪäm mɪä haɪ-rɪä.

Grammar: First-person-plural-animate-pronoun  mountain (earth+big) third-person-inanimate-article  see (eye, verb form) present-tense. Third-person-singular-inanimate-pronoun  far (there+many) negative  be present-tense. Man (human+straight) third-person-animate-article there walk (foot, verb form) future-tense.