Ring N/X: 2/11: Thalassan

Phonology Notes: An apostrophe following a stop indicates glottalization of that stop; e.g. |t'| = /t_>/. If an apostrophe follows a non-stop consonant, however, it indicates palatalization; e.g. |l'| = /l_j/.

Thalassan has canonical SOV word-order in indicative sentences, but basically allows for rather free word-order due to its large number of cases. Imperative sentences typically have objects follow the verbs, however. In the present text, all oblique arguments precede the imperative verb unless they modify the object of the sentence; this is frequent in texts with imperative usage and also indicates proper "style."

All the verb forms in the text are in the second-person imperative, which is just the bare verb root/stem.

There are no articles. There is no copula in the present tense.

Adjectives do *not* agree with their head nouns in either case or number. There is no grammatical gender in nouns.

Cases

* Note: Nouns whose roots/stems end in resonants or fricatives 'absorb' the |h| /x/ of the dative ending with compensatory lengthening of the stem-final consonant. For example, kaminni < kamin-hi 'to (the) oven.'

** Note: The ablative plural represents a 'long' |t'| /t_>/.

Dative uses: indirect object, motion (in)to, delimiter (as in 'towards x'), 'in order to' (with masdar/gerund).

Ablative uses: motion (out) of, instrumentality (as in 'with x'), delimiter (i.e. indicating that each member of a set is treated individually, used with a form of san 'one, each').

Thalassan has no infinitives per se. What it does have is a masdar or gerund verbal form, which is basically a non-finite deverbal noun indicating the activity of the verb. This is formed with the suffix -ma and can be inflected for case and number like any other noun.

The forms of "and": Thalassan has two forms of "and", athi and -qin. The former is related to Indo-European *eti (e.g. Latin et) and is used *only* in linking two independent clauses. That is, '[clause1] athi [clause2]' means '[clause1] and [clause2].' The later is related to IE *-kWe (e.g. Latin -que) and also Finnish -kin '(and) also'; it is used mainly in linking two or more nouns in a clause but can sometimes be used the same way as athi. In the latter case, the two verbs *must* be adjacent to each other in the sentence and therefore must have the same core arguments (subject(s) and direct object(s)). Its usage is then similar to that of Latin -que.

Like many other languages (particularly the Uralic tongues), direct objects in Thalassan do not take the accusative when the verb is in the 2nd-person imperative form.

(All nouns are given in the nominative singular and all verbs are in the 1sg present indicative.)