Tigol/Proto-Tigol: Difference between revisions

|region = Tálsym

|fam2= Raxo-Talsmic?

|fam3= [[Talsmic languages|Talsmic]]

:''See also: [[{{PAGENAME}}/Sound changes from Proto-Talsmic]].

The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' (/θɛmˈsɑɹiən/) '''language''' ({{PAGENAME}}: ''gáthvar thensárimar'' [gáθʋàr θè̞nsárimàr] "the {{PAGENAME}} throat") is a language classified into an [[Talsmic languages|isolated subbranch]] of the [[Raxo-Talsmic languages|Raxo-Talsmic]] language family, along with other para-{{PAGENAME}} languages which are/were natively spoken in the peninsula of Tálsym in the northwestern part of the Gameda subcontinent. The language remains clearly related to its continental relatives such as [[Naquian]] (It is often said that {{PAGENAME}} uses the same affixes as Raxic with different meanings); however, due to its long period of isolation and substrate influence (the substrate is sometimes speculated to have been a head-initial polysynthetic language), {{PAGENAME}} was a typological and lexical outlier in the larger family, within which it was distinguished by its heavily head-marking inflection in both clauses and possessive NPs as well as its strongly head-initial syntax and and its verb system approaching polysynthetic languages in complexity. The name of the {{PAGENAME}} language comes from the Thensár region, from whose dialect arose the prestige language of the Andaegṓr Empire. This elevated register/lect existed in a state of diglossia with the vernacular "dialects", diverse and often mutually unintelligible but still quite similar at this time. The prestige language described in this article, called Noble {{PAGENAME}} (''themsárimar ħéntar''), was used as a living language by the ruling class for a period spanning 600 years until its demise in the year ca. 220 v.c., and was continued to be used as an important literary, academic and religious language on the peninsula and surrounding mainland areas.

In keeping with the greater Talsmic and Raxo-Talsmic milieu {{PAGENAME}} employs a mixed fusional and agglutinative inflectional morphology, notably doing so by using a combination of tone changes and affixes, and the use of a 3-gender system. The language is unusual for using a number system based on a generic-specific opposition.

The standardized {{PAGENAME}} alphabet, whose variants are also used to write other Talsmic languages, is a native alphabetic script consisting of consonant and vowel letters in addition to diacritics for vowel length and tones. It has developed from a runic alphabet. In the earliest texts vowel length and tone were not recorded; diacritics for these were first devised for religious and official purposes and gradually came to be universally mandatory. In texts meant to be sung (e.g. poetry or hymns) the tone marks are substituted with various cantillation marks that 'correspond' to the tone. Tone is generally ''not'' assigned when transcribing foreign words.