Tarkandamonian

Tarkandamonian
Tarkandamon
Pronunciation	[/tar'kandamɔn/]
Created by	Anyar
Setting	Earth
Native speakers	436,232 (1980)
Language family	Language Isolate Tarkandamonian
Official status
Official language in	Ōran Kan (“Beautiful Land”)

Introduction

Tarkandamonian, from the word Tarkandamon, meaning "Those who speak properly", is the official language spoken in Ōran Kan, a country situated between the border of the Pakistani-admininstered Gilgit-Baltistan region, and Indian-administered Kashmir. It is separated from Ladakh by a small strip of land approximately 25KM in length extending from Gilgit-Balikstan to Kashmir. It is estimated that roughly 100,000 speakers live outside of Ōran Kan, the vast majority having fled the country after a military coup led by Brigadier General Enor Gavilna overthrew President Gar Tindra in early July 1983. The majority of the expatriate community lives in various parts of the EU, with the largest number in Spain and Italy.

Knowledge of the language's history is unknown prior to the 1870's, when British explorers arrived after the First Anglo-Sikh War and began documenting the language. Although phylologists and linguists have attempted to the link the language to neighbouring Indo-Aryan and Sino-Tibetan languages, as well as the language isolate Burushaski also located in the same geographical region, Tarkandamonian shows no genetic relationship to any of its neighbors. More exotic relationships have been proposed, the most prominent of these being the Austronesian theory proposed by Samuel Burdock from the University of Kentucky. Proponents of the theory point to the preponderance of circumfixation in verb forms, even though none of these circumfixes show any similarity in form or function as those of the Austronesian languages.

Typologically, Tarkandamonian is a fusional language, with SOV syntax and Nominative-Accusative alignment. Nouns do not inflect for gender, number, or case (with the exception being the construct state case marker). Core case relations are expressed by strict word order of the core noun arguments, with the nominative argument preceding the patient argument; however, when the direct object is omitted, obligatory agreement markers surface in the verb forms. Postpositions mark oblique nominal arguments. The language lacks both definite and indefinite markers, although indefiniteness can be explicitly expressed by the cardinal number nom ("one").

Pronouns display more inflectional complexity. Unlike nouns, they do mark for number. There are portmanteau forms that encode agent and patient core arguments. While the language does not mark for gender, it differentiates third person core arguments with two distinct forms, a proximal and obviative form.

Grammar

Pronouns

Tarkadamonian pronouns mark for person and number. The pronouns are divided into two classes based on polarity, one class for positive statements, and the other for indicating negation. The so-called negative personal pronouns are unusual in that unlike the positive class, the negative class can optionally mark for direct objects, provided that an overt direct object does not surface. Additionally, they obligatorily encode tense, aspect, and mood (TAM). TAM and polarity marking in the negative class arose from cliticization of pronominal forms to a copula, which itself encoded negation.

Positive Forms

	Singular					Plural
	1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv		1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv
	va	ata	ahen	iria		na	ta	he	ria

Negative Forms

	Singular					Plural
	1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv		1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv
Declarative Present	vala	atala	lan	lassi		nala	tala	hela	rila
Perfective	valak	atlak	lanak	landri		nalak	talak	lak	lāti
Imperfective	valan	atunla	lana	lasse		nalan	taluna	lan	lāse
Future	valak	atalla	lakan	lassar		nalak	tala	lakan	lāsar
Future Imperfective	vala	ataltal	lana	lassati		nala	tala	lan	lasāti

Verbs

	Object Pronominal Affixes	Verbal Affixes			Examples
		Preverbal Affix	Verbal Infix	Postverbal Affix
Declarative Present	v- vi- van(d)-	-	-ind-	-a	Va himindaza Root: maz "to learn" Translation: "I learn it, I am learning it" Va kimindassa Translation: I am learning that other thing Note: z of root maz assimilates to s (second part of the 3S.OBV object circumfix)
Perfective	var-
Imperfective	valan
Future	valak
Future Imperfective	vala

	Object Pronominal Affixes										Verbal Affixes			Examples
	Singular					Plural					Preverbal Affix	Verbal Infix	Postverbal Affix
	1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv		1	2	3 Prox	3 Obv
Declarative Present	v- vi- van(d)-	t- ti- tan(d)-	h- hi- hen(d)-	k(V)--s(V)-		n- nan(d)-					-	-ind-	-a	Va himindaza Root: maz "to learn" Translation: "I learn it, I am learning it" Va kimindassa Translation: I am learning that other thing Note: z of root maz assimilates to s (second part of the 3S.OBV object circumfix)
Perfective	var-	tar-	har-	sar-		nar-
Imperfective	valan	atunla	lana	lasse		nalan	taluna	lan	lāse
Future	valak	atalla	lakan	lassar		nalak	tala	lakan	lāsar
Future Imperfective	vala	ataltal	lana	lassati		nala	tala	lan	lasāti

Syntax

Tarkandamonian exhibits strict SOV order, and modifiers to heads also display strict ordering: adverbs precede the adjectives and verbs they modify, the positive polarity particle vor always appears as the initial element of a clause, while its counterpart, the negative polarity pseudo-verb -la-, follows the subject in intransitive clauses, and between the subject and object clausal arguments. Any oblique arguments, including the indirect object, always occurs after the direct object in transitive verbs, and after the pseudo-verb -la-, if expressed in intransitive clauses. The interrogative particle tunima obligatorily appears immediately before the verb; it is the only particle that may appear between the verb and any of its adverbial modifiers.

Vocabulary

Tarkandamonian	Meaning
tuva	tuva: yes tuvata: there is filled with healthy
-la-	(Pseudo-verb) no, not, is not, does not
gota	stranger foreigner hostile
asik	leader to lead to conquer (w. Allative)
domai	mountain
sivga, sijga	mountain stream, river
suin	brilliant; glorious; civilization
kopen	kopen to wander to go into exile to immigrate to flee shameful kopentan: expatriate
-hoz-	hoz: to attack to chase to hunt hozka: war hozkadi: long war hozkinert: victory mozai: absence of war armistice cease-fire mozanai: anti-war protesters mozkinertan: disappointment failure