Tameï: Difference between revisions

|nativename      = lâvõh Tameïchön

|pronunciation = {{IPA|[ˈlᵞɒwe̙χ tʲæmʲe̘ˈi̘ːɕɤn]}}

|script        = Extended [[w:Latin alphabet|Latin]]

|agency        = Central National Committee of the Tameïan Language (''Gõlawunuy Lânnychär′äychon Kömiteta mu Lâvõh Tameïchön'' - ''GLKLT'')

'''Tameï''' ({{IPA|[tʲæmʲe̘ˈi̘ː]}} or ''lâvõh Tameïchön'' {{IPA|[ˈlᵞɒwe̙χ tʲæmʲe̘ˈi̘ːɕɤn]}}; also ''Tamei'' in modern orthography) is a language isolate spoken in the Tameï Islands (''hyâmõy Tameïchey'' {{IPA|[xjɑmɤ͡ɘɨ̯ tʲæmʲe̘ˈi̘ːɕɘ͡ee̝̯]}}), an independent volcanic archipelago country in the [[w:Indian Ocean|Indian Ocean]], along the [[w:Ninety East Ridge|Ninety East Ridge]], about 1000 km WSW of [[w:Sumatra|Sumatra]] and roughly halfway between [[w:Sri Lanka|Sri Lanka]] and the [[w:Australia|Australian]] territory of the [[w:Cocos (Keeling) Islands|Cocos (Keeling) Islands]].

Tameï is Earth's second most spoken language isolate (after [[w:Korean language|Korean]]), being the native tongue of about 42 million people, mostly in the Tameï Islands but also in countries of the former [[w:Soviet Union|USSR]]. Tameï is one of two official languages in the country - the '''Tameïan People's Socialist Republic''' (officially ''Lânny Tameïchey mu Risöpübölika Sachalisütitchesükümü'' and ''Социалистическая Республика Тамеиского Народа'') as [[w:Russian language|Russian]] is still official for historical and cultural reasons, despite actual Russian native speakers being only 1% of the Tameï population.

Despite fairly regular contacts with the peoples of Indonesia through centuries, the first major external influence in the Tameï Islands came with the first Western contact in 1559 through a French expedition by Bénoit de Neuilly on the ship L'Orléanaise. Established in 1602 as a French colony, the Tameï islands remained under French rule until 1814, when they were conquered by the British. They remained a British colony until the Communist Revolution of 1934 which saw the Tameï Islands, extremely rich in raw materials, become an important partner of the USSR, a role fulfilled until the dawn of the 21st century, with multi-party elections first being allowed in 1999. Self-defined Tameï people (even if heavily intermixed with other groups) are the majority, forming 57% of the population; there are also substantial Pashtun (21%) and Punjabi (13%) components. Religiously, there is no absolute majority; the largest religion is [[w:Sufism|Sufi Islam]], followed by 30% of the population, with atheism or irreligiousness (28%) and more or less syncretic modern forms of Tameï shamanism (24%) also being relevant percentages.

This history, and the varied ethnic composition of the Tameï state (which saw a large influx of West and South Asians during the British period, as well as European communists during the 20th century), are reflected in its language, which has up to 20% of its lexicon of foreign origin, with early loans from [[w:French language|French]] (borrowed early enough to have underwent Tameï vowel shifts), then from [[w:English language|English]], [[w:Persian language|Persian]], [[w:Pashto language|Pashto]] (the latter two especially in more colloquial registers), and more recently from Russian and [[w:Japanese language|Japanese]] (the latter because of heavy Japanese cultural influence since the end of the Communist era). Tameï was first written under French rule in a French-derived spelling which did not consistently represent all the sounds of the language; however, its modern, Latin spelling, was only created after the Revolution of 1934. Today's Tameï orthography is not completely phonemic, and has a few etymological spellings; some words (mostly French and Russian proper names) keep the original spelling (transliterated in the case of Russian), but pronounced as a Tameï word, like the city of ''Stalinahâly''<ref>Tameï for "Stalin City".</ref>, is {{IPA|[ˈtʲælʲinæˌχɑj]}}.

Tameï is a mostly agglutinating language, with complex inflected verbs but light nominal morphology (mostly consisting of highly irregular pluralization patterns). On the phonetic side, it has a system of vowel harmony which deeply characterizes the language and is also extended to loanwords: Tameï has, therefore, a complex vowel inventory with 10 monophthongs and at least 18 or 19 diphthongs. Together with [[w:Damin|Damin]], Tameï is one of only two non-African languages using [[w:Click consonant|click consonants]].

==Phonology==

<!--The 7 monophthongs are /i u e o ɛ ʌ～ɔ a/, mainly written 〈i u e o ä ʌ a〉; /i u/ may also be spelled 〈ī ū〉for etymological reasons, while many speakers still distinguish /a/ from /aː/ (the latter consistently written 〈â〉). The ''â'' vowel has such treatment because, unlike 〈ī ū〉from historical /eː oː/, it is not historical /aː/ (which became /ʌ/ in all Tameï dialects), but a later development mainly from /aɣ/ (and also /aŋ/) sequences - in fact, the French and the Neykachūnī orthographies show the earlier forms; compare the earlier spellings of "person" as ''laguenaï'' and ''лағнай'' with modern ''lâney''. For an /aŋ/-derived ''â'', see the name ''Françoise'', which was still written with /ŋ/ in the Neykachūnī orthography as ''Фыранғсѧсы'' /fɯɹaŋˈsɑːzɯ/, but in the modern spelling it is ''Furâxʌz'' (or the variant ''Furâxʌzī''), representing /fuɹaˈsʌz(i)/.<br/>This consonant-loss and lengthening process was ongoing in the late 19th century, as also shown by other sources like /ah/ followed by a consonant, as in the Persian loan ''châr'' [ɕa(ː)ɹ] from شهر ''šahr''<ref>Standard Persian /æ/ usually corresponds to Tameï /a/, not /æ～ɛ/.</ref> (Neykachūnī orthography ''шахыр'', representing /ˈɕahɯɹ/).

Note that the grapheme '''i''' always represents a vowel and is therefore always in hiatus with any preceding or following vowel, unless it forms a plural noun in ''-iemi''.-->

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