Verse:Mwail/European Neo-Thean

This concerns one of many timelines for Angai.

In Angai, Thean (/ˈθiːən/, natively shreñ³²³ Thidh³⁵) or Theic is a family of analytic monosyllabic tonal languages. Thean is head-initial and SVO. Timeline 1's European Neo-Thean is inspired by Northern Athabaskan languages.

Thean is derived from Zzea /θīə/, the Kua pronunciation of the place name Thidh³³.

Thean is natively written in a deep orthography reflecting Classical Thean pronunciation.

Phonology of Modern Standard Thean

Modern Standard Thean is one of the more conservative varieties of Modern Thean. Other Thean lects have lost some or all finals.

Initials

	Labial	Inter- dental	Alveolar			Retroflex	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral			plain	labialized
Stop	/p/ b	/tθ/ ddh	/t/ d	/ts/ dz	/tɬ/ dl	/ʈʂ/ dr	/tʃ/ j	/k/ g	/kw/ gw	/ʔ/
Fricative	/f/ f	/θ/ th		/s/ s		/ʂ/ shr	/ʃ/ sh	/x/ x	/xw/ xw	/h/ h
Sonorant	/m/ m		/n/ n		/l/ l	/ɻ/ r	/j/ y		/w/ w

Nuclei

i, e, a, o, u /i e a o u/

Finals

-p -t -k -m -n -ñ -dh -w -y -r /-p̚ -t̚ -k̚ -m -n -ŋ -ð̠˕ -w -j -ɻ/ (null is allowed)

-p and -m finals are only found in words that don't go back to Proto-Trans-Sarnathian.

Tone

Modern Standard Thean has 9 phonemic tones (shamelessly stolen from Kam):

Rom.	IPA	English name	Example	Description
ā	/˥/ (55)	high
a	/˧/ (33)	mid
a̱	/˩/ (11)	low
a̗	/˩˧/ (13)	low-rise
á	/˧˥/ (35)	mid-rise
à	/˥˧/ (53)	high-fall
a̖	/˧˩/ (31)	mid-fall
a̬	/˧˨˧/ (323)	dip
â	/˦˥˧/ (453)	peak

Tone diachronics

Tone chart

syllable type→ initial↓	A (null or resonant final)	B (glottal stop final)	C (fricative final)	D (stop final)
glottalized initial	55	323	53	55
modal initial	35	13	453	33
breathy initial	11	31	33	11