Tigol/Proto-Tigol
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| Tigol/Proto-Tigol gávthȁ themsármā | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Type | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fusional | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alignment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nominative-accusative | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head direction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial | Mixed | Final | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Primary word order | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verb-subject-object | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tonal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Declensions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conjugations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case | Number | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voice | Mood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Person | Number | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tense | Aspect | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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. The language possesses strongly head-initial syntax, head-marking in both clauses and possessive NPs, mixed fusional and agglutinative inflection, and nominative-accusative morphosyntax. 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~ɦ ⟨h⟩ | ||
| Affricate | tʃ ⟨ť⟩ | ||||||||
| Approximant | (ʋ) | j | |||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Lateral app. | l | ʎ ⟨ļ⟩ |
[ʔ] may occur only in morpheme boundaries.
Conditioned allophony
| Phoneme | Allophone | Condition(s) |
|---|---|---|
| /ħ/ | [ħ~ʜ] | #_, C[+voiceless]_ |
| [ʡ~ʢ] | V_V, C[+voiced]_ | |
| /h/ | [ɦ] | V_V, C[+voiced]_ |
| C[+obstruent, ±voiced] | C[+obstruent, ∓voiced] | _C[+obstruent, -guttural, ∓voiced] |
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.
Pitch accent
Pitch accent, or tone, is phonemic in Themsaran. The following is the notation for tones:
| Short | Long | Diphthong | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unmarked | a | ā | ai |
| High | á | a̋ | ái |
| Low | à | ȁ | ài |
| Falling | - | â | âi |
| Rising | - | ǎ | ǎi |
The pitch accent of a word (of more than one mora) consists of two components: the lexical tone, and the position of the downstep (the latter is confined to appear after the 3rd-to-last mora). A high-tone word is consistently high until the downstep, whereafter the pitch drops sharply. A low-tone word starts low and has the highest pitch at the tonic mora, which is immediately before the downstep.
The following are the rules governing the marking Themsaran pitch accent:
- High lexical tone is marked in the initial syllable; low tone is not marked, unless necessitated by rule 2.
- The tonic syllable is always marked:
- If the downstep occurs after a long syllable (syllable with a long vowel or diphthong), the syllable is rising in a low-tone word, and high in a high-tone word.
- If the downstep occurs between the two morae of a long syllable, the syllable has falling tone.
- If the first syllable has high tone and precedes a downstep, the second syllable is marked as low.
If the downstep occurred word-finally, the first syllable of a following high tone word would have slightly lower pitch. In pausa, a word final high short syllable is realized as a falling, short vowel.
Orthography
Grammar
NB.' In structural glosses, a, b, c... are coreference indices, and i, j, k... are agreement indices.
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 the absolute possessed form, which indicates a noun possessed by a pronoun, and the conjunct possessed form, used to indicate a possessive relationship between two nouns and agreeing with the gender of the possessor.
First declension
The first declension consists primarily of masculine nouns.
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |||||
| Unpossessed | ||||||||
| 1sg | ||||||||
| 2sg.m | ||||||||
| 2sg.f | ||||||||
| 3sg.m | ||||||||
| 3sg.f | ||||||||
| 4sg.m | ||||||||
| 4sg.f | ||||||||
| 1ex | ||||||||
| 1in | ||||||||
| 2pl.m | ||||||||
| 2pl.f | ||||||||
| 3pl.m | ||||||||
| 3pl.f | ||||||||
| 4pl.m | ||||||||
| 4pl.f | ||||||||
Second declension
The second declension, consisting of vowel-final nouns, consists primarily of feminine nouns.
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |||||
| Unpossessed | ||||||||
| 1sg | ||||||||
| 2sg.m | ||||||||
| 2sg.f | ||||||||
| 3sg.m | ||||||||
| 3sg.f | ||||||||
| 4sg.m | ||||||||
| 4sg.f | ||||||||
| 1ex | ||||||||
| 1in | ||||||||
| 2pl.m | ||||||||
| 2pl.f | ||||||||
| 3pl.m | ||||||||
| 3pl.f | ||||||||
| 4pl.m | ||||||||
| 4pl.f | ||||||||
Third declension
The third declension consists mainly of mass, collective and abstract nouns of both genders.
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |||||
| Unpossessed | ||||||||
| 1sg | ||||||||
| 2sg.m | ||||||||
| 2sg.f | ||||||||
| 3sg.m | ||||||||
| 3sg.f | ||||||||
| 4sg.m | ||||||||
| 4sg.f | ||||||||
| 1ex | ||||||||
| 1in | ||||||||
| 2pl.m | ||||||||
| 2pl.f | ||||||||
| 3pl.m | ||||||||
| 3pl.f | ||||||||
| 4pl.m | ||||||||
| 4pl.f | ||||||||
Tonal patterns of nominals
Every noun falls under one of three tonal paradigms.
Irregular nouns
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"). Adjectives exhibit tonal ablaut like those of nouns.
Declension
Degree
Adjectives with degree inflections may be nominalized to derive, for example, meanings such as "supreme strength" from "the very strongest".
Irregular adjectives
Pronouns
Personal
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.ex |
na̋ |
châm |
| 1.in |
táŋên | |
| 2.m |
zéi |
srâs |
| 2.f |
véi |
srâth |
| 3.m |
žá |
žû |
| 3.f |
žî |
žân |
| 4.m |
ťá |
ťû |
| 4.f |
ťî |
ťân |
Demonstrative
The demonstratives have identical endings to personal pronouns in feminine singular and the plural. The adnominal demonstratives are mé (near speaker), ħé (near hearer), and ťá (distal; identical to 4th person pronoun), and the pronominal demonstratives are imé, iħá, and iťá.
Reflexive
Reciprocal
The reciprocal pronoun, "each other", is nadnék. It originated from an adverb that was later reanalyzed as a pronoun.
Distributive
Table of correlatives
Verbs
Finite verbs are marked for TAM, degree (positive, "more/most"), voice (active and mediopassive), the subject's person, number, and gender and, if the direct object is definite, is obligatorily marked with the (usually direct) object's person, number, and gender in most TAMs, except in the imperative. The verb may agree with an indirect object (which is typically animate) instead of with the direct object. Verbs also have several non-finite forms, used with various subordinating conjunctions and relative clauses.
Tense-aspect-mood
Imperative
The imperative is used to issue positive, direct orders.
Jussive
The jussive bears a wide range of uses:
- optatives (wishes) and hortatives (urging);
- prohibitions, with the prohibitive marker;
- imperatives in indirect speech, with a complementizer;
- purpose clauses, as relative clauses or as subordinated or coordinated clauses.
Conjugation of the active
The active voice is the default voice, used when the subject is the agent of the verb.
The three conjugations of Themsaran verbs are demonstrated below respectively with the verbs mól - 'thank', chrīgá - 'walk backwards', ga̋le - 'sing'. The first conjugation subsumes ħ-stem verbs, where the ħ assimilates into any consonant that begins an ending, and h-stem verbs, for which only fricative-beginning endings are so geminated, and for other consonants, undergoes compensatory lengthening of the vowel preceding the ending.
Subject affixes
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.in |
- |
mólèns! |
| 2.m |
mól! |
mólèls! |
| 2.f |
mólt! |
mólèrs! |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.ex |
mólȉ |
mólmà |
| 1.in |
mólènse | |
| 2.m |
mólèr |
mólèlse |
| 2.f |
mólȅ |
mólèrse |
| 3.m |
mólè |
mólvì |
| 3.f |
mólìs |
móltì |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.ex | ||
| 1.in | ||
| 2.m | ||
| 2.f | ||
| 3.m | ||
| 3.f |
Non-finite forms
The non-finite forms are participles and two infinitives.
The participle is formed by infixing ⟨an⟩ before the nucleus of the first syllable of the stem.
The first infinitive is formed by suffixing -s to the 2nd person masculine singular imperative.
Conjugation of the mediopassive
The mediopassive marks the subject as a patient of the verb. Apart from passivity, mediopassives may have a derivational function; they may indicate reflexive action or change of state. As such there are quite a few deponent verbs, verbs that are inherently mediopassive, and also mediopassive counterparts of active intransitive verbs.
Subject affixes
| Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.in | |||||
| 2.m | 2.f |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.ex | ||
| 1.in | ||
| 2.m | ||
| 2.f | ||
| 3.m | ||
| 3.f |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.ex | ||
| 1.in | ||
| 2.m | ||
| 2.f | ||
| 3.m | ||
| 3.f |
Object affixes
The object affixes combine at the end of the verb, sometimes in less predictable ways, to agree with the direct object.
| 1sg | 2sg.m | 2sg.f | 3sg.m | 3sg.f | 4sg.m | 4sg.f | 1ex | 1in | 2pl.m | 2pl.f | 3pl.m | 3pl.f | 4pl.m | 4pl.f |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -(e)n | -ze | -ve | -(j)u | -(j)i | -thu | -thi | -am | -(e)nt | -sŋa | -sŋe | -(e)ch | -(e)r | -thech | -ther |
Non-finite forms
Tonal patterns
Applicative
Prepositions
Numerals
| Cardinal | Ordinal | Multiple | Distributive | Fractional |
|---|
Syntax
The default constituent order is verb-subject-pronominal oblique object-direct object. The subject or the direct object can be topicalized or focalized by being placed in front of the verb.
Noun phrases
Numerals precede nouns; possessors follow their possessa; demonstratives occur after attributive adjectives, which follow nouns. Whether a quantifier precedes or follows the noun depends on the specific quantifier. Within these boundaries there is a lot of leeway; an attributive adjective or a demonstrative can occupy any position between its head and the relative clause.
Distributive possession
To express the meaning of "our/your/their respective NP", the last noun of the NP is reduplicated in absolute possessed forms. The plural persons are decomposed as follows:
- 1ex.m: noun-1sg›sg noun-3sg.m›sg or noun-3sg.m›sg noun-1sg›sg
- 1ex.f: noun-1sg›sg noun-3sg.f›sg or noun-3sg.f›sg noun-1sg›sg
- 1in.m: noun-2sg.m›sg noun-1sg›sg or noun-1sg›sg noun-2sg.m›sg
- 1in.f: noun-2sg.f›sg noun-1sg›sg or noun-1sg›sg noun-2sg.f›sg
- 2pl.m: noun-2sg.m›sg noun-2sg.m›sg
- 2pl.f: noun-2sg.f›sg noun-2sg.f›sg
- 3pl.m: noun-3sg.m›sg noun-3sg.m›sg
- 3pl.f: noun-3sg.f›sg noun-3sg.f›sg
These exact forms are always used disregarding the finer aspects of gender composition in the group. Thus, for example, if the only male in a group speaks of "our (exclusive) respective villages", he will still use the "his" form.
Equational sentences
The copula vák is rarely used in the present tense. Instead, a 3rd- or a 4th-person pronoun (cliticized and therefore toneless) agreeing with the subject may be used anywhere in the sentence, or omitted. Both subject-predicate and predicate-subject orders may be found. The predicate-subject order tends to indicate a more permanent state of being, while the subject-predicate order denotes a more temporary state. When the subject is a pronoun, the uncliticized pronoun is used.
Coreferentiality
There are several situations where the strictly head-marking language tracks coreferentiality, or which agreeing noun a verb or pronoun taking a given agreement refers to, with fourth person pronouns or by other means.
Across clauses
Content questions
The fourth person object suffix is used on the verb, not the third person, when the interrogative word is the direct object. This distinguishes "Who killed him?" from "Whom did he kill?"
Possessives
If an absolute possessed noun has a possessor who is the subject of the clause it is in, the third person is used. All other possessors of the same gender and number are in the fourth person.
Relative clauses
Any pronoun which corefers with the head of the relative clause is in the fourth person. The non-resumptive third-person pronouns are all ordinary third person.
Indirect speech
If the complement clause's subject corefers with the subject of the main clause, it is left unstated in the complement clause. Otherwise the third- or fourth-person pronoun is used as the subject as appropriate.
"Impersonal" sentences
There exists impersonal pronouns (identical to the interrogative "who"/"what", and distinguished by not being fronted), but it is only used as an intransitive subject. In other cases, the verb is put into the mediopassive (or mediopassive of causative or applicative, as appropriate).