Tengos

Tengos (tengos [tʰeɳ̩gos] ‘word’ or tengos xut [tʰeɳ̩gos xɯt] ‘sky-word’) or Tengosic is an extinct language isolate spoken by the ancient Xunten, who probably constituted part of the Kangju federation by the ancient oasis of Tashkent in Central Asia. Tengos has no demonstrable relatives and is generally classified a language isolate. Using an adapted version of Akkadian cuneiform, Xunten writers have left over 300 lengthy inscriptions, which has allowed the understanding of a significant amount of the language.

Phonology and phonotactics

Consonants

Consonant phonemes in Tengos

↓manner | place→	bilabial	dental		alveolar		velar
nasal	m
stop	p b		n		t d		k g
fricative	f v		s		ʃ ʒ		x
affricate					t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
trill					r
approximant					j		ɰ
lateral					l

• /v/ is [ʋ]
• /r/ is realized as a modal flap [ɾ] intervocalically.
• Voiceless stops are aspirated in initial and medial position.
• /b, d, v, d͡ʒ, ɡ/ are devoiced to [p, t, f, t͡ʃ, k] word- and morpheme-finally, as well as before a consonant.
• /n/ is assimilated before a velar stop and surfaces as [ɳ̩].

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i y ɯ u e ø ɤ o ɑ
Mid
Open

• All vowels but /o a/ have lowered allophones word-finally: [ɪ ʏ ɛ œ ɯ̽ ʊ ʌ].

Vowel diaphora

A system of inverse vowel harmony is present in the word-formation system. Every suffix comes in two forms, one rounded, one not. If the preceding element is rounded, the suffix surfaces in the unrounded form and vice versa. E.g., xutun [xɯtʰun] ‘skies’ but jïrun [ʒyɾɯn] ‘clouds’.

Orthography

The history of writing Tengos is long and varied. Originally written with an adapted form of Akkadian cuneiform, it now regularly romanized using the RST.

Borodin scheme

The language was first given a romanisation by Prof. Jean-Claude Borodin in 1923 at the National University of Uzbekistan (then called First Central Asian State University). His scheme, also known as the Borodin scheme assigns the following graphemes to the vowels:

⟨a⟩ = /ɑ/
⟨e⟩ = /e/
⟨eu⟩ = /ø/
⟨i⟩ = /i/
⟨y⟩ = /y/
⟨o⟩ = /ɤ/
⟨ô⟩ = /o/
⟨u⟩ = /ɯ/
⟨ou⟩ = /u/

Borodin also published a list of the adapted cuneiform signs with their basic meaning in French.

Revised Tengosic Transcription

Revised Tengosic Transcription or Revised Borodin is the latest method of romanizing Tengos. While originally only modifying Borodin's transcription rules, it now also formally includes rules for the transliteration of the cuneiform signs.

In this scheme, the base vowel graphemes are used unrounded vowels while the tremated graphemes stand for rounded vowels.

⟨a⟩ = /ɑ/
⟨e⟩ = /e/
⟨ë⟩ = /ø/
⟨i⟩ = /i/
⟨ï⟩ = /y/
⟨o⟩ = /ɤ/
⟨ö⟩ = /o/
⟨u⟩ = /ɯ/
⟨ü⟩ = /u/

The language's typical vowel diaphora is never indicated in the transcription, as such the language's name is written tengos xut /tengɤs xɯt/ [tengos xɯt] and not tengös xut.

⟨m⟩ = /m/
⟨p⟩ = /p/
⟨b⟩ = /b/
⟨f⟩ = /f/
⟨v⟩ = /v/
⟨n⟩ = /n/
⟨s⟩ = /s/
⟨t⟩ = /t/
⟨d⟩ = /d/
⟨c⟩ = /ʃ/
⟨j⟩ = /ʒ/
⟨tc⟩ =/t͡ʃ/
⟨tj⟩ = /d͡ʒ/
⟨r⟩ = /r/
⟨y⟩ = /j/
⟨l⟩ = /l/
⟨k⟩ = /k/
⟨g⟩ = /g/
⟨x⟩ = /x/
⟨w⟩ = /ɰ/

The consonants remain the same as in the Borodin scheme with the exception ⟨y⟩ = /j/. The transliteration of the Cuneiform is done using the Borodin list as well with a few modifications.

Phonotactics

The basic structure is CV(C)

Clusters

The only allowed medial cluster is nasal+stop, wherefore clusters of the CN type undergo metathesis to NC.

Word restrictions

The only consonants that can occur word-finally are /s, m, n, t, r/.