Old Thean

Textual witnesses

Early Old Thean (perceived as a poetic register during the Late OTh period)

• A rhyming prose tale, The Tale of the Alchemist, committed to writing during the Late Old Thean period

Late Old Thean

• The Code of Lady Na¹³-Khai¹¹ (<- Tentative ModThean reading)

The Early Old Thean auxiliary

Word of God

The Early Old Thean clause-initial auxiliary was inflected for subject agreement, tense, mood, and independent vs. dependent clauses. In subordinate clauses, the auxiliary often cliticized to the subordinating conjunction used.

The auxiliary had a zero form for the 2nd person present independent. (Cf. Welsh zero for 2sg present)

Syntax

The Proto-Trans-Sarnathian word order was T1 S T2 V O. In Old Thean, T2 becomes cliticized or lost. In Early Old Thean, T1 is the only word that inflects in a sentence.

In later OTh, T1 becomes an invariable tense or discourse particle