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| Name: Tirian
Type: Agglutinative Alignment: Ergative Head Direction: Initial Number of genders: 3 Declensions: Yes Conjugations: Yes
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Alphabet[]
Reading The Table of Consonants[]
Consonants are formed by obstructing the flow of air from the lungs. There are 25 Consontants in Tirian, in comparison to English’s 21. As a first approximation, Consontants vary in these dimensions:
Place of articulation-- where the obstruction occurs:
Labial: lips
Dental: teeth
Alveolar: behind the teeth
Palato-alveolar: further back from the teeth
Palatal: top of palate
Velar: back of the mouth
Uvular: way back in the mouth
Glottal: back in the throat.
Degree of closure.
This proceeds in steps
- from stops (stopping the airflow entirely: p t k)
- to fricatives (impeding it enough to cause audible friction: f s sh kh)
- to approximants (barely impeding it: r l w y).
- An affricate is a stop plus a fricative, which must occur at the same place of articulation: t + sh = ch, d + zh = j.
Voicing: whether the vocal cords are vibrating or not. When this makes a difference to the letter, it is usually indicated with a ΄ symbol.
Nasalization: whether air travels through the nose as well as the mouth. For instance, English m, n, and ng are stops like b, d, g, but only the oral airflow is stopped.
The Table of Consonants[]
The table below shows the position of the Consontants in Tirian with their English equivalents. Note that not all Tirian Consontants have an English equivalent, these are explained below.
|
Labial |
Lab-Dnt |
Dental |
Dnt-Alv |
Alveolar |
Alv-Pal |
Palatal |
Velar |
Glottal | |
|
Stop |
p, b |
ђ* |
l(d) |
t |
k, g |
||||
|
Fricative |
f(v), v(f) |
ћ(th), ћ́(th) |
s, ś(z) |
ş(sh), ʝ(zh) |
h | ||||
|
Affricate |
ц(ts) |
c(ch) |
x(kh) |
||||||
|
Approximant |
λ(l) |
ĭ |
r |
ғ* | |||||
|
Nasal |
m |
n |
- The letter ђ is a Dental-Alveolar Stop. It sounds like ‘dthe’ as your tongue is placed over your teeth and just behind your teeth. It is voiced. Ғ is a glottal approximate. It is pronounced like ‘rer’ but in the back of the throat.
The Table of Vowels[]
The most important aspects of Vowels are openness and frontness.
- Openness:how open the inside of the mouth is. The usual scale is Open, Middle then Closed. This is sometime replaced with height.
- Frontness: how close the tongue is to the front of the mouth. Vowels can be classified into front, central or back. In this table, only Front and Back are used.
The table has been divided up into two sections; Long and Short Vowels. Most of the Vowels have a corresponding Vowel in the other section. The long version of a short Vowel is usually indicated with a ˉ symbol. The letter Ï is omitted from the chart as it doesn’t fit anywhere. It is pronounced like the ‘i’ in ‘like’.
| Short | Long | |||
| Front | Back | High | Low | |
| Closed | i(pit) | y(put) | ī(peat) | ȳ(you) |
| Middle | e(pet) | u(putt) | ē(there) | ū(part) |
| Open | a(pat) | o(pot) | ō(port) | |
Full Alphabet[]
The full Tirian alphabet has a total of 36 letters though most of the extra letters are letters that are in the English alphabet with symbols attached to them. The order of the Tirian alphabet is quite different to the English one. It is as follows:
|
A |
B |
L |
I |
Ī |
Ï |
Ĭ |
Ћ |
Ћ́ |
C |
Λ |
M |
N |
Ц |
O |
Ō |
P |
S |
Ś |
Ғ |
V |
E |
Ē |
X |
F |
K |
J |
R |
Ş |
Ђ |
T |
G |
H |
Y |
Ȳ |
U |
Ū |
|
a |
b |
l |
i |
ī |
ï |
ĭ |
ћ |
ћ́ |
c |
λ |
m |
n |
ц |
o |
ō |
p |
s |
ś |
ғ |
v |
e |
ē |
x |
f |
k |
ʝ |
R |
ş |
ђ |
t |
g |
h |
y |
ȳ |
u |
ū |
Word Formation[]
As in English, there are rules in Tirian as to how syllables can be formed.
In the section below, the capital letter S means a Stop can be there. V means Vowel and C means Consonant. Symbols in brackets are sections of the syllable that do not have to be there. Lower case letters are letters that can go in that position, they do not signify anything.
Multiple Letter Words[]
(V)(C)(C)(V)V(C)(S)(f v)
The maximum letters in any one syllable is eight. In every syllable of a multiple letter word, there must be at least one Vowel. An example of a word using the F or V at the end of the syllable is the Tirian word for Lifetime, Īnigvty (ee-NIG-ftoo). The first syllable is Īningv.
Single Letter Words[]
(S ʝ)(V)
Single letter words are much simpler. They can have either a Stop or a Vowel, unlike English single letter words, which can only have a Vowel.
Basic Grammar[]
Basic Sentences[]
The Tirian Language is an OSV, which means Object, Subject Verb. This is sentence order. English is and SVO, or, Subject, Verb, Object. In the example below, ‘Andy’ is the Subject (who the Sentence is about), ‘ate’ is the Verb (what he did) and ‘apples’ is the Object (what he did it to). Also, when there is more than one word in the object (adjective describing the object, amounts, etc.) the object is compliled into one word.
English: Andy ate apples.
Tirian is a bit different; as it is OSV, the Object is first. In Tirian, the Object is followed by a semicolon (;).
Tirian: Apples; Andy ate.
Or: Pomin; Andy Inhymōʝ.
Tense[]
In English, there are different words for different tenses (E.g. See and Saw) as well as a suffixes and Prefixes. Tirian has prefixes to change tense. There is a prefix for:
- Past tense (Inhy)
- ‘Currently doing’ (Kōnï)
- Future tense (Inʝy).
For example, ‘dfeş’ means ‘see’, ‘inhydfeş’ means ‘saw’, ‘inʝydfeş’ means ‘will see’ and ‘kōnïdfeş’ means ‘seeing’.
Ownership[]
To signify the ownership of a noun in Tirian, the suffix ‘Scy’ is added. Also, the word for ‘happy’ in Tirian is ‘biescy’ whereas ‘bie’ means ‘good’.
Gender[]
In Tirian, there is no gender except when a noun is referring to a person of a specific person. So, when talking about any nouns that isn't a person, one would say 'Y Neyv' (the table) and 'Y Yfci' (the window) but it is 'Ni Fλebis' (the actor) and 'Onu Fλebōnu' (the actress) as they refer to people.
Example Text[]
We are true to our country and the world. If anyone isn’t at all true, they will be shamed for the rest or their lives.
Say; bil gλok, iuno bilscy fertonoc e y Joyλ. J iksan; gλok fvoyλ limuc, inhyciλlona; sλoy limuc inʝygλok gλok lopf īnigvtyscy.
Dictionary[]
A[]
A-Uno
Abandon-Siλiĭic
Abbreviate-Abkūśen
Abide-Krofiғē
Able-Lȳtena
Above/Over-Ineksyn
Abuse(non-physical nouns)-Umtisen
Academic-Şoλūʝ
Accept-Jugślïren
Account(n)-Dusteλ
Account(v(to account for))-Aλʝenīsћunvenisōn
Acknowledge-Tufēђon
Actor-Fλebis
Actress-Fλebōna
Adamant-Hedisīci