Tigol/Proto-Tigol

Background

The Themsaran language constitutes a separate branch of the Zachydic language family, along with other para-Themsaran languages. Themsaran is a typological and lexical outlier in its family due to its long period of isolation and substrate influence. This article describes Classical Themsaran.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Radical	Glottal
Nasal	m		n				ŋ
Plosive	p b			t d			k g	(ʡ)	(ʔ)
Fricative		f v	θ ⟨th⟩	s z	ʃ ⟨š⟩ ʒ ⟨ž⟩		x~χ ⟨ch⟩	ħ~ʜ~ʢ ⟨ħ⟩	h
Affricate					tʃ ⟨ť⟩
Approximant		(ʋ)				j
Trill				r
Lateral app.				l			ʎ ⟨ļ⟩

Vowels

Themaran has six vowels, short and long. Short vowels have one mora, and long vowels have two morae.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩ iː ⟨ī⟩	ʉ ⟨y⟩ ʉː ⟨ȳ⟩	u ⟨u⟩ uː ⟨ū⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩ eː ⟨ē⟩		o ⟨o⟩ oː ⟨ō⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩ aː ⟨ā⟩

The following are the diphthongs, all falling: /ai au ei ie~ia uo~ua/ ⟨ai au ei ie ua⟩. All diphthongs are bimoraic.

Grammar

Themsaran is a strongly head-initial and head-marking language. Its morphosyntax is nominative-accusative.

Nouns

Nouns inflect for number, definiteness and possessedness, but not for case. Nouns have two genders, masculine and feminine. In third-person possessed forms, Themsaran makes a distinction between absolute possessed form, the last noun in a possessive noun phrase, and the conjunct possessed form, found within a possessive NP.

Adjectives

Adjectives agree in not only number, definiteness and gender with their heads, but also in possessedness. Adjectives also take degree inflection (positive, "less/least", "more/most", elative, "X enough", "too X").

Verbs

Finite verbs are marked for TAM, degree (positive, "more/most"), voice, the subject's person, number, and gender and, if the direct object is definite, may be marked with the direct object's person, number, and gender. The verb may agree with an indirect object (usually 1st or 2nd person) instead of with the direct object. There are also several non-finite forms, used with various subordinating conjunctions.

Syntax

The default constituent order is verb-subject-pronominal oblique object-direct object. The subject or the direct object may be topicalized or focalized by being placed in front of the verb.