User:Waahlis/Tlastir

The corresponding sphere and signature of the Tlastir language used on the wiki.

Tlastir /ˈtlæstɪə̯/ (natively In tlastīratl /ɪn t͡ɬäs̪θiːˈɽät͡ɬ/ - that which is a language) is a constructed language heavily inspired by the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl and the Indo-European language Greek. It is a priori, and does therefore not inherit any characteristics from the two languages, but is instead an artistic reinterpretation.

The Tlastir language is odd in a few of its features, for example, the language completely lacks true nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs, instead relying almost completely on verbs.

Tlastir
In tlastīratl
Pronunciation	[ɪn t͡ɬäs̪θiːˈɽät͡ɬ]
Created by	Waahlis
Native to	Mexico, Guatemala
Native speakers	5,380 (2012)
Language family	Tlayah Tlastir
Dialects	Tlastir Tasta'y Mexiqua
Writing systems	Latin Greek
File:Cuarathah.jpg Map picturing the Cuarathah region in Mesoamerica, in Mexico

General Information

The Tlastir language is a relatively small native American language, spoken foremost in the southernmost of Mexico and on the borders of Guatemala and Belize. The number of speakers is currently obscure, but estimations gather around 12 - 15,000 speakers over four main dialects. Distinctive features include the lack of voiced consonants - despite a large inventory, phonemic vowel length as well as labialisation and aspiration on plosive consonants. Similar to some other native American languages, for example Blackfoot, the language has phonemic consonant gemination. Grammar-wise, the language is heavily agglutinative, possesses what could be described as a V(S)O word order, and verb-based grammatical structure.

Whilst distinct from other Native American languages, it has formed a solid Sprachbund with the Uto-Aztecan languages and especially with the isolate Cuoxeh language.

Phonology

Vocabulary
tlātl	sound
natlāllitl	consonant
huōnotlatlicā	phonotactics

This is the Tlastir phonemic inventory of sounds, which possesses about 20 consonants, the majority of them voiceless and gemination is not distinguished. In addition to that, there is a simple five-vowel system.

Consonant phonemes in Tlastir

		Bilabial	Dental			Alveolar		Palatal		Retroflex	Velar			Glottal
			plain	aspirated	labialised	central	lateral	plain	lateral		plain	aspirated	labialised
Nasals		m /m/	n /n̪/		nu /n̪ʷ/						[ŋ]
Plosive		p /p/	t /t̪/	th /t̪ʰ/	tu /t̪ʷ/						c /k/	ch /kʰ/	cu /kʷ/	h /ʔ/
Affricate						tz /t͡s/	tl /t͡ɬ/	x /ɕ - t͡ɕ/
Fricative						z /s/
Approximant		hu /ʍ/						y /j/
Liquids							l /ɬ/		ll /ʎ̥˔/	r /ɽ/

Vowel phonemes in Tlastir

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	ī /iː/			u /u/	ū /uː/
Mid	e /e̞/	ē /e̞ː/			o /o/	ō /oː/
Open			a /ä/	ā /äː/

• ⟨c⟩ is written ⟨qu⟩ when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
• ⟨z⟩ is written ⟨c⟩, also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/, and ⟨s⟩ when preceeding ⟨t, tu, c, cu⟩
• ⟨tz⟩ is written ⟨ch⟩ also when preceeding the front vowels /i/ or /e̞/.
• The labialised consonants and bilabial approximant ⟨nu, tu, cu, hu⟩ are inverted to ⟨un, ut, uc, uh⟩ when final.

Morphophonology

Assimilation

Similarly to Cuoxeh, the Tlastir language tends to assimilate some syllable codas to the neighbouring onset. The syllables of morphemes may be altered when followed or proceeded by certain other morphemes. A list of such assimilations is shown below:

Assimilation
Coda		Onset		Result
Consonants
m	+	y	→	mn
n	+	y	→	nn
l	+	y	→	ll
r	+	y	→	yy
z	+	y	→	zz
x	+	y	→	xx
tz	+	y	→	x
tl	+	y	→	ll
y	+	c	→	cc
l	+	c	→	zc
tl	+	c	→	tz
h	+	C	→	C
l	+	tl	→	ll
l	+	z	→	zz
l	+	r	→	ll
Vowels
Vshort	+	h	→	Vlong
Vshort	+	Vshort	→	Vlong
Vshort	+	Vlong	→	Vlong
Vlong	+	Vshort	→	Vlong

Phonotactics

The Tlastir phonotactics and syllable structure is very close to that of Nahuatl, and the structure (C)V(C) is the general maximum. This grants that all syllables are broken into this structure, no matter if the current form arose through for example allophony: the word mennoh , "for us", is thus split into /me̞n/ +/ˈnoːʔ/ and not /me̞nn/ + /ˈoːʔ/.

It also makes it nigh impossible to have an onset over one consonant long, making consonant clusters with labialised or aspirated impossible, e.g. CʷV not CʷCV.

There are exceptions to this structure, however, and that is clustering the alveolodental fricative /s̪/ with any of the dental or velar plosives in the syllable onset. However, sonority dictates that fricatives may only preceed other fricatives, fricativising the stops. This grants the clusters:

• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨t⟩ = ⟨st⟩ /s̪θ/
• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨th⟩ = ⟨sth⟩ /s̪θ/
• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨tu⟩ = ⟨stu⟩ /s̪θw/
• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨c⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪x/
• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨ch⟩ = ⟨sch⟩ /s̪x/
• ⟨z⟩ + ⟨cu⟩ = ⟨scu⟩ /s̪xw/

Interestingly, this gives a maximum onset of sCwV, far larger than the standard structure. This syllable may only occur in an onset position of a lexeme. The combination z + p never occurs in the language, and is not viable.

Verbal nominalisation

Noun
-			/-/			...
Person		Singular							Plural
		1st		2nd		3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
		masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	neuter
Indicative
	Object enclitics	-yi	-yique	-ti	-tique	-hui	-huique	-in	-itz	-itzque	-itzin
	Predicative	See non-past atelic conjugation
	Relative	meme-	meme-que	tutu-	tutu-que	huhui-	huhui-que	in-	meme-nī-	tutu-nī-	in-nī-
	Applicative	name-	name-que	natu-	natu-que	nahui-	nahui-que	nahin-	name-nī-	natu-nī-	nahin-nī-
	Benefactive	me-yōh	me-quiyōh	tu-yōh	tu-quiyōh	hui-yōh	hui-quiyōh	-yōh	me-nīyōh	tu-nīyōh	-nīyōh
	Malefactive	xime-yōh	xime-quiyōh	xitu-yōh	xitu-quiyōh	xihui-yōh	xihui-quiyōh	xi-yōh	xime-nīyōh	xitu-nīyōh	xi-nīyōh

Verbs

Subject to change.

Verb
nah			/n̪äʔ/			to see
Participles
Non-Past			nahayyāh
Past			nahayyātl
Person		Singular							Plural
		1st		2nd		3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
		masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	neuter
Indicative
	Object enclitics	-yi	-yique	-ti	-tique	-hui	-huique	-in	-itz	-itzque	-itzin
	Past
	Telic
	Atelic
	Retrospective
	Non-Past
	Telic	menātl	menātzque	tunātl	tunātzque	huinātl	huinātzque	nātl	menātzin	tunātzin	nātzin
	Atelic	menāh	menāque	tunāh	tunāque	huināh	huināque	nah	menanīh	tunanīh	nanīh
	Retrospective	menanāh	menanāque	tunanāh	tunanāque	huinanāh	huinanāque	nanāh	menananīh	tunananīh	nananīh
Irrealis		menātza	menātzaque	tunnātza	tunātzaque	huinātza	huinātzaque	nātza	menāxin	tunāxin	nāxin
Imperative		camenātza	camenātzaque	catunnātza	catunātzaque	cahuinātza	cahuinātzaque	canātza	camenāxin	catunāxin	canāxin

Examples

Graded Sentences for Analysis from http://www.potterpcs.net/gsfa/
English	Tlastir
	Gloss
Part 1
Birds sing.	Inhanātzin zimīmtzin
Children play.	Intuallanīh nāthatzin
Dogs bark.	Incuallī mēxin
Bees hum.	Inririnīh steccanīh
The baby laughed.	Inhuāhuatzin nāthayatzin
The sun shines.	Intunāh tunāh
The wind blows.	Inhuīnīh huīnīh