The following is a grammatical sketch of another language I have invented. Tanach-a Shile (lit. the People's Language) or Old Tongue was started in August of 2002 as a language for a friend's novel. In the process of inventing the language, my friend chose many of the structural characteristics of Tanach-a Shile (going on her intuitions/aesthetic, the characters' names, and typological choices provided by me). Taking that, I fleshed out the details given in this description.
This sketch describes the following areas of Tanach-a Shile grammar:
Given below is the phonemic inventory of Tanach-a Shile. Voiceless sounds are on the left, voiced are on the right. When the symbol in the practical orthography is different from the ASCII-IPA given here, that practical orthography symbol (in bold) appears in parenthesis after the ASCII-IPA.
Consonants |
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Labial |
Dental |
(Alveo-)Palatal |
Velar/Glottal |
|
| Stop | p, b |
t, d |
tS (=ch), dZ (=j) |
k, g |
Fricative |
f, v |
s, z |
S (=sh) |
h |
Nasal |
m |
n |
n^ (=ñ) |
N (=ng) |
Liquid/Rhotic |
l, r |
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Glide |
j (=y) |
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[j] and [w] are also non-syllabic allophones of /i/ and /u/, respectively. In this case, they are written as i and u.
Vowels |
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i |
1 (=ï) |
u |
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e |
o |
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a |
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All content words must have 2 syllables
Possible Syllable types:
CV
V (initial only)
CVC (including words where the second C is a glide)
C (sonorant only)
Stress is regularly placed on the penultimate syllable.
Tanach-a Shile has no length distinction relevant to the phonology.
Back to the topThe following is a heuristic model of the noun and associated words and phrases. The optional elements are represented by parentheses.
| (Genitive Phrase)1 | Noun | (Modifier Phrase)2 | =Case Clitic | (Postposition) |
1A noun phrase in the genitive case, see below.
2Includes adjective phrases and attributive postpositional phrases.
Pronouns behave as nouns, taking case clitics and appear in the noun "slot" above.Their forms are as follows:
| Person | sg. | pl. |
| 1 | nis | eno |
| 2 | med | amï |
| 3 | yol | shen |
These little "words" tell what grammatical function a noun has in the sentence.
| Form | Abbreviation | Name | Function |
| -n | NOM | Nominative | marks subjects |
| -t | ACC | Accusative | marks (definite) direct objects |
| -a | GEN | Genitive | marks possessors |
| -k | OBL | Oblique | marks indirect objects, agents in passive construction and other things |
Almost all nouns have to have one of these entities on the end of them (see below for the principle exception).
An epenthetic -i- is added before the case clitic in instances where there would otherwise be consonant clusters, as one can see in the following declension of fenghos, 'raven.'
| NOM | fenghos-n (the n is syllabic, although fenghos-in occurs in some dialects) |
| ACC | fenghos-it |
| GEN | fenghos-a |
| DAT | fenghos-ik |
One adds on -t only when the object is definite. Compare
Nis-n sochil sel-it tijo
1SG=NOM book this=ACC love
'I love this book.'
with
Nis-n sochil tijo.
1SG=NOM book love
'I love books.' or perhaps more literally 'I book-love.'
(Note that there is no case marking after sochil.)
Possession is expressed by attaching the genitive clitic -a to the end of the possessor
Reiza-a sochil
R. =GEN book
'Reiza’s book'
The same sort of thing holds true for possessive pronouns
nis-a sochil
1SG=GEN book
‘my book’
Note that in actual use possessors are part of larger noun phrases that also get case markers. This gives the appearance of double case marking, though it is not. The following is an example:
Reiza-a sochil-n shuna-k dal?
R=GEN book=NOM what=OBL exist
‘Where is Reiza’s book?’
In this example, Reiza is a full NP and is the possessor, hence why -a is attached. (Note the …a-a is correct). However, Reiza-a sochil ('Reiza’s book') forms another NP that is functioning as the subject of the sentence, hence why -n is attached.
Postpositions are a weird class of words in Tanach-a Shile. Almost all of them are nouns in the oblique case, so they aren’t really formally separate from nouns. However, English speakers should note that the order of adposition and object in Tanach-a Shile is backwards from English. In English, one says behind the table, in Tanach-a Shile, one says table behind. Note that while the "postposition" is a noun in the oblique case, the object of the "postposition" is a noun in the genitive case.
Example sentences with "postpositions."
Sochil-n raugen-a faidï-k dal.
book=NOM table=GEN back=OBL exist
‘The book is behind the table.’
"postposition": faidï-k
obj of post: raugen-a
Sochil-n raugen-a jemin-ik dal.
book=NOM table=GEN top=OBL exist
‘The book is on top of the table.’
"postposition": jemin-ik
obj of post: raugen-a
Nis-n sochil raugen-a jemin-ik-it tijo.
1SG=NOM book table=GEN top=OBL=ACC love
‘I love the book on top of the table.’
"postposition": jemin-ik
obj of post: raugen-a
Verb conjugation in Tanach-a Shile, like in English, French, and many other languages, is a combination of synthetic forms (root + prefix, suffix, or infix) and periphrastic constructions (auxilliary [aka helping verb] + regular verb). I will discuss the synthetic forms first.
The present singular is formed with the bare root of the verb.
Root for ‘love’ = tijo, so
‘I love, I am loving’ = Nis-n tijo, 1SG=NOM love
Eno-n ehache
Eno=n ehach-e
1PL=NOM judge-PL
‘We are judging’
The dependent is formed by an i ablaut. In this ablaut, the -i is placed behind the vowel of the first syllable.Some examples:
| Root | Dependent |
| tesim 'commit' | teisim |
| fecha 'send' | feicha |
| kuñï 'lie (recline)' | kuiñï |
If the vowel of the first syllable is i, then there is no difference between the dependent and the root.
| tijo 'love' | tijo |
If the first syllable ends with a consonant (i.e. has the form CVC.C…), then, the i is placed after the syllable-final consonant, as in the following:
| delshi 'know' | delishi |
Similarly, if the first syllable ends with two vowels (i.e. has the form CVV.C…), the i is placed after the second vowel, as in the following:
| choune 'give' | chouine | [tSowine] |
As the name suggests, one uses the dependent in dependent clauses (more on them later, though, the reader should note this function is very similar to the function of the subjunctive in Spanish, French, German, et al.) and in some other situations like negation (more on that later).
Other verbal concepts are conveyed by separate words called auxiliaries. In Tanach-a Shile, auxiliaries follow the main verb (this is opposite from English). Auxiliaries have two forms: Indicative and Dependent. The following chart below gives the forms:
Verbal Category |
Indicative Aux |
Dependent Aux |
Past |
jos |
dei |
Future |
shot |
she |
Passive |
det |
diti |
Passive det can be the main auxiliary or can be a second auxiliary.
As the main auxiliary ( in the present tense only):
Nis-n tijo det.
1SG=NOM love PSV
‘I am loved.’
As a second auxiliary:
Nis-n tijo det jos.
1SG=NOM love PSV PAST
‘I was loved.’
All the auxiliaries take the bare root of the sense verb, as the above examples illustrate.
The dependent forms are employed when the auxiliary is the last auxiliary (on the right) in a sentence that would normally require a dependent form.
Back to the topBasic Word Order in Tanach-a Shile is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), like in the following sentence:
| Nis-n | med-it | tijo |
1SG=NOM |
2SG=ACC |
love |
S |
O |
V |
| ‘I love you.’ | ||
When there is an auxiliary, it goes at the end of the sentence.
| Nis-n | med-it | tijo | jos |
1SG=NOM |
2SG=ACC |
love |
PAST |
S |
O |
V |
AUX |
| ‘I loved you.’ | |||
However, switching the order of the S and O is possible for pragmatic purposes.
| Med-it | nis-n | tijo |
2SG=ACC |
1SG=NOM |
love |
O |
S |
V |
| ‘You, I love’ or ‘It is you that I love.’ | ||
With a verb that takes an indirect object, the indirect object is generally before the object.
| Nis-n | med-ik | sochil-it | choune | jos |
1SG=NOM |
2SG=OBL |
book=ACC |
give |
PAST |
S |
IO |
O |
V |
AUX |
| ‘I gave the book to you.’ | ||||
Yes-no questions (questions that require either a yes or no answer) are formed with the sentence final clitic -yi. The word order is otherwise unchanged, as in the following example:
Med-n nis-it tijo-yi
2SG=NOM 1SG=ACC love=Q
‘Do you love me?’
For so-called content questions, a set of interrogative pronouns is used. However, these words stay in the normal place in the sentence (this is called "remaining in-situ"). The question clitic -yi is still used.
Some examples
Shuva-n nis-it tijo-yi?
who=NOM 1SG=ACC love=Q
‘Who loves me?’
Med-n shuva-t tijo-yi?
2SG=NOM who=ACC love=Q
‘Who do you love?’
To negate sentences, the negation verb mat is used. Mat is halfway between a regular verb (so it can have auxiliaries to its right and it has a dependent form, me) and an auxiliary (it appears to the right of the main verb). It is different from the other auxiliaries in that it takes the dependent form of the main verb. Some examples:
Med-n nis-ik delishi mat
2SG=NOM 1SG=OBL know.DEP NEG
‘You don’t know me’
Yol-n amï-t choiji mat jos.
3SG=NOM 2PL=ACC write.DEP NEG PAST
‘He didn’t write yous.’
In addition to words being objects, adjectives, and adverbials, so can whole clauses. Clauses do this in Tanach-a Shile (much like English) with the help of complementizers. With these complementizers, clauses are said to be embedded. Some things to remember about embedded sentences (or complementizers phrases (CP for short):
Some kinds of embedded clauses:
Complementizer: zin
Subcategorization: Rightmost verbal thing (auxiliary, main verb or negation) must be in the dependent form
Sentence Configuration: Subj [CP ] V
Examples:
Nis-n [CPmed-n yol-it choji dei zin] delshi
1SG=NOM [CP2SG=NOM 3SG=ACC write PAST.DEP C] know
'I know that you wrote her.'
Nis-n [CPyol-n med-it choiji me zin] delshi
1SG=NOM [CP3SG=NOM 2SG=ACC write.DEP NEG.DEP C] know
‘I know that he won’t write you.’
Note: Me is dependent because of the zin; choiji is dependent because of the me.
Complementizer: Ø (null)
Subcategorization: No verb in the dependent form
Sentence Configuration: [NPHead Noun [CP Adjectival Phrase]=case marker]
Example:
Nis-n [NPdomu [CPmed-n tijo]-t] delshi
1SG=NOM [NPman [CPyou=NOM love]=ACC] know.
‘I know the man you love.’
Complementizers: Several
Subcategorization: Rightmost verb must be in the dependent form
Sentence Configuration: [CP S C] S
Examples:
[CPYol-n med-it meine lush], med-n heki zuri.
[CP3SG=NOM 2SG=ACC see.DEP if] 2SG=NOM run must.
‘If he sees you, you should run.’
[CPNis-n raugen-ik nis-a sochil-it ejong dei ñosuna,]
1SG=NOM table=OBL 1SG=GEN book=ACC put PAST.DEP because,
velur-n yol-it bodis jos.
someone=NOM 3SG=ACC steal PAST
‘Because I left my book on the table, someone stole it.’