Verse:Mwail/Classical Thean

Textual witnesses

Early Old Thean (perceived as a poetic register during the Late OTh period)

• A rhyming prose tale, The Tale of the Alchemist, committed to writing during the Late Old Thean period
• An Odyssey analogue (with more regular meter)

Late Old Thean (basis of Literary Thean)

• The Code of Lady Naa¹³-Xay¹¹ (<- Tentative ModThean reading)

Late Old Thean Phonology

Simple initials

• /m n l r/ m n l r
• /p t tθ k kʷ/ p t tz k kw
• /bʰ dʰ dðʰ gʰ gʷʰ/ bh dh dzh gh gwh
• /pʼ tʼ tθʼ kʼ kʷʼ/ b d dz g gw
• /θ s̠ x xʷ ʔ/ z s h2 h3 h1
• /j w/ y w

Nuclei

/i e a o u iː eː aː oː uː ai au ei eu oi ou/

Finals

/-m -n -l -r -j -w -mʔ -nʔ -lʔ -rʔ -jʔ -wʔ -ʔ -p -t -k -kʷ, -s, -Cs/

The Early Old Thean auxiliary

The Early Old Thean clause-initial auxiliary was inflected for subject agreement, tense, mood, and independent vs. dependent clauses in a system about as complex as Colloquial Welsh. In subordinate clauses, the auxiliary often cliticized to the subordinating conjunction used.

The auxiliary had a zero form for the 2nd person present independent. (Cf. Welsh zero for 2sg present)

• Present tense affirmative: 1sg soi, 2sg sou, 3sg laː, 1pl.ex, sol, 2pl son, 3pl lar
• Present tense interrogative, negative: bhə-gwhai, bhə-gwhau, bhə-gwhaː, bhə-gwhal, bhə-gwhan, bhə-gwhar
• Present tense relative: h3iː, h2uː, h3aː, h2ol, h2on, h2or
• Focused: h1ə-gwhaː
  • (dhat muː h1ə-gwhaː h2ay 'I am your father')
• Past tense affirmative: dzhei, dzheu, dzheː, dzhel, dzhen, dzher
• Past tense interrogative, negative: h1ə-dzhei, h1ə-dzheu, h1ə-dzheː, h1ə-dzhel, h1ə-dzhen, h1ə-dzher
• Future tense affirmative: h1ai, h1au, h1aː, h1al, h1an, h1ar
• Future tense interrogative, negative: h1ə-dhai, h1ə-dhau, h1ə-dhaː, h1ə-dhal, h1ə-dhan, h1ə-dhar
• Conditional/subjunctive: dhoi, dhou, dhoː, dhol, dhon, dhor

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