Rarut asTaniq

Rarut asTaniq (/ˈɾaɾut asˈtaneq/, "tongue which is Taniq") is intended to be an exercise in what one could call the "Tolkien" method of conlanging; that is to say, to begin with a proto-language and apply a series of regular sound changes in order to produce a developed language with a specific sound. Rarut asTaniq, then, is to be the precursor of several daughter languages.

Proto-Talgic *Rarut asTaniq
Type	analytic/agglutinative
Alignment	Active-Passive
Head direction	First
Tonal	No
Declensions	Yes
Conjugations	Yes
Genders	No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Progress	4%
Statistics Nouns 0% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 13% Words 86 of 500
Creator	Dghmonwiskos

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m	n		ŋ	ɴ
Plosive	p b	t d		k g	q ɢ
Fricative			s
Approximant	β̃	ð̃		ɰ ɰ̃	ʁ ʁ̃
Flap or tap	β ~ ⱱ		ɾ	(ɰ)	(ʁ)

The language's consonants included some typologically uncommon ones, such as the voiced uvular plosive /ɢ/ and nasalised approximants. Most of these would later develop into more common sounds, often with differing outcomes depending on the position. It should be noted that the "flap" series is an inaccurate term; in truth, the only flap present is the alveolar /ɾ/, the other consonants of the series being pronounced as weak approximants, with a flapped realisation only occurring intervocalically (and only ever for the bilabial series). It is hypothesised that the alveolar flap developed itself from an approximant, most likely */ð/.

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
High	i				u
Near-high
High-mid
Mid	(e)				(o)
Low-mid
Near-low
Low			a

Only the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ existed as phonemes in this language. However, [e] and [o] existed as allophones of /i/ and /u/, respectively, when adjacent to uvular consonants. There were no length distinctions in vowel sounds; a sequence of two identical vowels was always pronounced as two separate syllables. However, stressed vowels might be pronounced with some (non-contrasting) length; hence a word such as "taniq", meaning "speaks", would have pronounced as [ˈtaˑneq].ˈ

Phonotactics

The vast majority of roots appeared solely in the form CVCVC, with no restraints as to which consonants and vowels could appear. Consonant clusters were not permitted within roots, but could arise from affixation of grammatical or derivational markers, as well as in compound words. This meant that a maximum of two consonants could occur adjacent to one another. Pronominal and particle roots tended to be shorter, taking the form (C)V(C).

Stress is dynamic and predictable, with the first syllable of the first disyllabic root taking primary stress, and any following roots taking secondary stress on their first syllable. Thus the word "rarut", meaning "tongue" would be pronounced /ˈɾaɾut/, while the compound "rarutpuqim", meaning literally "tongue-skill" (i.e. poetry) would be pronounced /ˈɾaɾutˌpuqim/, and it's inflected form "añrarutpuqim" ("for poetry") would be pronounced /aŋˈɾaɾutˌpuqim/ (with no stress on the initial syllable as the prefixed root is not disyllabic).

Writing System

Letter
Sound
Letter
Sound
Letter
Sound

Grammar

Nouns

All roots are split between those which are intrinsically active, and those which are passive. Nouns are conjugated differently depending on what type of root they are based on; for example, the root *bikuñ, meaning "child", is considered active and declines as follows:

	Singular	Plural
Active	bikuñ	ñabikuñ
Possessive	bikuñ bi	ñabikuñ bi
Genitive	bikuñ ka	ñabikuñ ka
Dative	bikuñ su	ñabikuñ su
Essive	bikuñ pik	ñabikuñ pik
Comitative	bikuñ am	ñabikuñ am

It is immediately notable that a passive case, to correspond to the active case seen on the table, is not present. This because that case, as well as other "corresponding" cases, are seen to belong to the "passive" class of roots. For example, a word like *kamañ, meaning "name", will be declined in a very different way.

	Singular	Plural
Passive	kamañ	uskamañ
Relational	kamañ bi	uskamañ bi
Ablative	kamañ ka	uskamañ ka
Allative	kamañ su	uskamañ su
Locative	kamañ pik	uskamañ pik
Instrumental	kamañ am	uskamañ am

Here we can see that the plural marker changes for passive nouns. It is perhaps better to see these markers, rather than as "active" and "passive plurals", as markers denoting "many different X" and "a group of X", respectively. Indeed, some nouns, such as *arag ("forest"), appear to act as plurals in their unmarked forms, requiring a special singulative marker *bu to denote individual members of a group (in this case, a single tree). Hence, the declension of a noun such as those would be:

	Singular	Plural
Passive	buarag	arag
Relational	buarag bi	arag bi
Ablative	buarag ka	arag ka
Allative	buarag su	arag su
Locative	buarag pik	arag pik
Instrumental	buarag am	arag am

Of course, the very nature of this system would seem to indicate that words for "child", "father", "animal" etc. were doomed to act as agents in every sentence in Proto-Talgic, just as words for "forest", "mountain", "knife" would be condemned to be passive. The way around this was to have passive and active markers that could be applied to each noun in order to express cases normally reserved to the opposite class. Hence, *vibikuñ referred to a specifically passive child, *arkamañ referred to a name as an agent, and *ararag referred to an active forest. Applying these markers would sometimes slightly change the meaning of the original noun; for example, *ǧutuňh, an active root, meant water as something more or less sentient, and was applied to rivers, rain, and as the name of a deity. The word *arǧutuňh, however, while still meaning water, generally referred to lakes, puddles, and the substance as used by humans. Whether or not the use of these passive/active markers was to denote semantic or grammatical nuance was presumably understood through context.

Lexicon

No.	English	Taniq
1	I	ki (animate); miki (inanimate)
2	you (singular)	nu (animate); unu (inanimate)
3	he/she/it	da (animate and inanimate)
4	we	kiña; mikiña
5	you (plural)	nuña; unuña
6	they	daña
7	this	mi
8	that	u (medial); da (distal)
9	here	nami
10	there	nau; nada
11	who	uñ
12	what	unda
13	where	nauñ
14	when	uñvaqir
15	how	uñburis
16	not	si
17	all	dakimh
18	many	vakun
19	some	tadañ
20	few	sikun
21	other	dadañ
22	one	urum (single); miñar (together)
23	two	panuk (apart); quniñ (a pair)
24	three	imunh
25	four	tutuk
26	five	ñhirud
27	big	vamhuk
28	long	bamim
29	wide	gudus
30	thick	ñapar
31	heavy	butur
32	small	miñhis
33	short	ñhinip
34	narrow	kukap
35	thin	siñik
36	woman	ñamuñ
37	man (adult male)	tiǧhut
38	man (human being)	taniq
39	child	bikuň
40	wife	tañim
41	husband	ǧiñad
42	mother	mamam
43	father	papap
44	animal	subat
45	fish	nhanup
46	bird	qapim
47	dog	qupar
48	louse	karugh
49	snake	ghisan
50	worm	vivumh
51	tree
52	forest
53	stick
54	fruit
55	seed
56	leaf
57	root
58	bark (of a tree)
59	flower
60	grass
61	rope
62	skin
63	meat
64	blood
65	bone
66	fat (noun)
67	egg
68	horn
69	tail
70	feather
71	hair
72	head
73	ear
74	eye
75	nose
76	mouth
77	tooth
78	tongue (organ)	rarut
79	fingernail
80	foot
81	leg
82	knee
83	hand	ñhirud
84	wing
85	belly	nanhar
86	guts
87	neck
88	back
89	breast
90	heart
91	liver
92	to drink
93	to eat
94	to bite
95	to suck	mamum
96	to spit	pituñ
97	to vomit	baraǧ
98	to blow	vuvur
99	to breathe	ghighun
100	to laugh	qaqaǧh
101	to see
102	to hear
103	to know	puqim
104	to think
105	to smell
106	to fear
107	to sleep	sisuv
108	to live
109	to die
110	to kill
111	to fight
112	to hunt
113	to hit
114	to cut	tutuk
115	to split
116	to stab
117	to scratch	kirik
118	to dig
119	to swim
120	to fly
121	to walk
122	to come	nunug
123	to lie (as in a bed)
124	to sit
125	to stand
126	to turn (intransitive)
127	to fall
128	to give
129	to hold
130	to squeeze
131	to rub
132	to wash
133	to wipe
134	to pull
135	to push
136	to throw
137	to tie
138	to sew
139	to count
140	to say	i-taniq
141	to sing	karagh
142	to play
143	to float
144	to flow
145	to freeze
146	to swell
147	sun
148	moon
149	star
150	water	ǧutuňh
151	rain
152	river
153	lake
154	sea
155	salt
156	stone
157	sand
158	dust
159	earth
160	cloud
161	fog
162	sky	manid
163	wind
164	snow
165	ice
166	smoke
167	fire
168	ash
169	to burn
170	road
171	mountain
172	red
173	green
174	yellow
175	white
176	black
177	night	barad
178	day
179	year
180	warm
181	cold
182	full
183	new
184	old
185	good	vagham
186	bad
187	rotten
188	dirty
189	straight
190	round
191	sharp (as a knife)	baruq
192	dull (as a knife)
193	smooth
194	wet	ǧutuňh
195	dry	kighap
196	correct
197	near	ñimip
198	far	ñadat
199	right
200	left
201	at
202	in	na
203	with
204	and
205	if
206	because
207	name	kamañ
208	to rule	saquq

Example Text

Kiŋamad (as) taniq.

Translation: I-being (who) sentient = I am a sentient being, I am Taniq, I am human

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

father(voc) which-us(gen), which-sky(loc), name(pass) which-you(gen) hallow(imp, pass). which-rule(stat) come(imp, stat).

Papap as-nakiña, asnamanid, rakamañ asnaunu ghunitik.

[ˈpapap ˌasnaˈkiŋa] [ˌasnaˈmanid] [raˈkamaŋ ˌasnaˈunu ɰuˈnitik]