Verse:Mwail/Classical Thean
Classical Thean is the most spoken language of Angai Europe. In Timeline 1 of Angai, Classical Thean forms the basis of Literary Thean which was used as a literary language of Thea for over 2000 years before the emergence of Modern Standard Thean.
Todo: Make change-of-state verbs (e.g. 'to die', 'to ripen') the basic lexical items
History
The oldest attested stage of Thean, called Old Thean, uses a logography. The history of Classical Thean begins with the publication and spread of [some religious text; some form of Buddhism I guess] in a phonetic orthography and the rhyming prose tales of [author]. This switch to a phonetic orthography was incentivized by the introduction of the printing press.
Classical Thean phonology
Initials
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | ||||||||
| Stop | tenuis | /p/ p | /t̪s̪/ c | /t/ t | /ts̠/ č | /c/ kʸ | /k/ k | /kʷ/ kʷ | /ʔ/ ʔ |
| voiced | /b/ b | /d̪z̪/ ʒ | /d/ d | /dz̠/ ǯ | /ɟ/ gʸ | /g/ g | /gʷ/ gʷ | ||
| ejective | /pʼ/ pʼ | /t̪s̪ʼ/ cʼ | /tʼ/ tʼ | /ts̠ʼ/ čʼ | /cʼ/ kʸʼ | /kʼ/ kʼ | /kʷʼ/ kʷʼ | ||
| Fricative | /s̪/ s | /ɬ/ ł | /s̠/ š | /ç/ xʸ | /x/ x | /xʷ/ xʷ | /h/ h, /ɦ/ ɦ | ||
| Sonorant | plain | /m/ m | /n/ n, /l/ l | /r̠/ r | /j/ y | /w/ w | |||
| glottalized | /mˀ/ mʼ | /nˀ/ nʼ, /lˀ/ lʼ | /r̠ˀ/ rʼ | /jˀ/ yʼ | /wˀ/ wʼ | ||||
/p bʰ pʼ/ are found in loanwords.
Nuclei
/i e a o u/ i e a o u, unstressed /ə/ ə
Finals
(Codas in parentheses are only found in loanwords)
- Tone A: null -n -y -l -r -d(soft d) (-m -w)
- Tone B: -ʔ -nʼ -lʼ -rʼ -yʼ -dʼ (-mʼ -wʼ)
- Tone C: -h -ł -š -x -s (-ms -ns -ls -rs -ys -ws -ps -ts -ks)
- Tone D: -k -t (-p)
Stress
Very strong final stress
Grammar
Pronouns
- 1sg xey
- 2sg mo
- 1pl tli
- 2pl: tna
The Classical Thean auxiliary
The Classical 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 tsoi, 2sg tso: (or zero), 3sg laː, 1pl.ex, tsol, 2pl tson, 3pl lar
- Present tense interrogative, negative: bhə-gwhai, bhə-gwhau, bhə-gwhaː, bhə-gwhal, bhə-gwhan, bhə-gwhar
- Present tense relative: xwiː, xuː, xwaː, xol, xon, xor
- Focused: gwhaː
- (dhat muː gwhaː xay 'I am your father')
- Past tense affirmative: dzhei, dzhu:, dzheː, dzhel, dzhen, dzher
- Past tense interrogative, negative: 2ə-dzhei, 2ə-dzhu:, 2ə-dzheː, 2ə-dzhel, 2ə-dzhen, 2ə-dzher
- Future tense affirmative: 2ai, 2au, 2aː, 2al, 2an, 2ar
- Future tense interrogative, negative: 2ə-dhai, 2ə-dhau, 2ə-dhaː, 2ə-dhal, 2ə-dhan, 2ə-dhar
- Conditional/subjunctive: dhoi, dho:, dhoː, dhol, dhon, dhor
| → Person | 1sg | 2sg | 3 | 1pl | 2pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | affirmative | coy xey gʷer | (co) mo gʷer | la šru gʷer | col tli gʷer | con tna gʷer |
| interrogative | gʷay xey gʷer | gʷa mo gʷer | gʷa šru gʷer | gʷal tli gʷer | gʷan tna gʷer | |
| negative | gʷay xey wa gʷer | gʷa mo wa gʷer | gʷa šru wa gʷer | gʷal tli wa gʷer | gʷan tna wa gʷer | |
| past | affirmative | |||||
| interrogative | ||||||
| negative | ||||||
| future | affirmative | |||||
| interrogative | ||||||
| negative | ||||||
Syntax
The Proto-Trans-Sarnathian word order was T1 S T2 V O. In Classical Thean, T2 becomes cliticized or lost, and T1 is the only word that inflects in a sentence.
In later OTh, T1 becomes an invariable tense or discourse particle