Tigol/Proto-Tigol

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Tigol/Proto-Tigol
gávthȁ themsármā
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Nominative-accusative
Head direction
Initial Mixed Final
Primary word order
Verb-subject-object
Tonal
Yes
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Yes
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
Affricate tʃ ⟨ť⟩
Approximant (ʋ) j
Trill r
Lateral app. l ʎ ⟨ļ⟩

Allophony

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 ái
Low à ȁ ài
Falling - â âi
Rising - ǎ ǎi

The pitch accent of a word 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 is the notation used for marking Themsaran pitch accent:

  1. High lexical tone is marked in the initial syllable; low tone is not marked, unless necessitated by rule 2.
  2. The tonic syllable is always marked:
    1. 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.
    2. If the downstep occurs between the two morae of a long syllable, the syllable has falling tone.
  3. 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. A word final high short vowel occurring in isolation, was realized as a falling, short vowel.

Phonotactics

Orthography

Grammar

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.

First declension
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 consists primarily of feminine nouns.

Second declension
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.

Third declension
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

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

Irregular adjectives

Pronouns

Personal

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, may be marked with the direct object's person, number, and gender. The verb may agree with an indirect object (usually 1st or 2nd person) instead of with the direct object. There are also several non-finite forms, used with various subordinating conjunctions.

Active

Monopersonal affixes
Bipersonal affixes

Mediopassive

Monopersonal affixes
Bipersonal affixes

Periphrastic TAMs

Tonal patterns

Applicative

Prepositions

Numerals

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

Equational sentences

Relative clauses

Coreferentiality

Derivational morphology