Old Thean

Textual witnesses

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

• 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.

(I gotta have weird stuff like Welsh zero for 2sg present)

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