Old Thean

Textual witnesses

Early Old Thean

• An epic poem, The Tale of the Alchemist, committed to writing during the Late Old Thean period

Late Old Thean

• The Code of Lady Na¹³-Khai¹¹ (<- Tentative ModThean reading)

The Early Old Thean auxiliary

Word of God

The Early Old Thean clause-initial auxiliary was inflected for subject agreement, tense, mood, and independent vs. dependent clauses. In subordinate clauses, the auxiliary often cliticized to the subordinating conjunction used.

Syntax

The Proto-Trans-Sarnathian word order was T1 S T2 V O. In Old Thean, T2 becomes cliticized or lost. In Early Old Thean, T1 is the only word that inflects in a sentence.

In later OTh, T1 becomes an invariable tense or discourse particle