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|script = Extended [[w:Latin alphabet|Latin]] | |script = Extended [[w:Latin alphabet|Latin]] | ||
|agency = Central National Committee of the Tameïan Language (''Gõlawunuy Lânnychär′äychon Kömiteta mu Lâvõh Tameïchön'' - ''GLKLT'') | |agency = Central National Committee of the Tameïan Language (''Gõlawunuy Lânnychär′äychon Kömiteta mu Lâvõh Tameïchön'' - ''GLKLT'') | ||
|image = Tameï-flag.png | |||
|imagealt = Flag of the Tameï Islands | |||
}} | }} | ||
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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. | 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|[ | 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]], one of only two non-African languages using [[w:Click consonant|click consonants]]. | 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]], one of only two non-African languages using [[w:Click consonant|click consonants]]. | ||
==Phonology== | ==Phonology== | ||
[[File:Tamei-Islands.png|thumb|The Tameï Islands]] | |||
Modern Standard Tameï (''lâvõh tameïchön âbõrâsowuy'', based on the dialect of the capital, Namihlewchany, in central-southern Mimbachugih island) has a phonemic inventory of 10 monophthongs, 18 or 19 diphthongs, and 29 or 30 consonants (including 8 clicks). | Modern Standard Tameï (''lâvõh tameïchön âbõrâsowuy'', based on the dialect of the capital, Namihlewchany, in central-southern Mimbachugih island) has a phonemic inventory of 10 monophthongs, 18 or 19 diphthongs, and 29 or 30 consonants (including 8 clicks). | ||
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