View source for Teonaht

{{Infobox language
|name=Teonaht
|creator=[[Sally Caves]]
|created=1962
|setting=[[Fantasy]] setting of the Teonim
|familycolor= conlang
|fam1=[[artistic language]]
|posteriori=draws on [[Indo-European languages]]: [[Romance languages|Romance]], [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] and [[Celtic languages|Celtic]]
|iso3=none
|glotto=none
}}
'''Teonaht''', [ˈteɪoʊnɑːθ], is a [[constructed language]] that has been developed since 1962 by [[w:science fiction|science fiction]] writer and [[w:University of Rochester|University of Rochester]] English professor Sarah Higley, under the pseudonym of [[w:Sally Caves|Sally Caves]]. It is spoken in the fantasy setting of the '''Teonim''', a race of [[w:polydactyly|polydactyl]] humans who have a cultural history of worshipping catlike deities.

Teonaht uses the [[w:object–subject–verb|object–subject–verb]] (OSV) word order, which is rare in natural languages. An interesting feature of Teonaht is that the end of the sentence is the place of greatest emphasis, as what is mentioned last is uppermost in the mind. The language has a "Law of Detachment" whereby suffixes can be moved to the beginnings of words for emphasis and even attach onto other words such as pronouns.

Teonaht is a highly elaborated language, and considered one of the finest examples of an [[artistic language]]. It is often cited as an example of the genre in articles on the world of Internet-hosted amateur conlanging.<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20060626235245/http://www.rochester.edu/College/ENG/newsletter/conlang.html</ref><ref>[http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/03-04/03-06-04/c01li475.htm Sprechen sie ELVISH?: 3/ 6/ 2004<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref><ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/24/science/sci-conlang24 Babel's modern architects - Los Angeles Times<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>
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