Tylan Language

The Tylan language (Tyl. Rheagda Tulasra) is an officially recognized language in the Empire of Mechyrdia, and the official language of the Tylan Republic.

Phonology

K, G, and H before /j/, are palatalized into /c/, /ɟ/, and /ç/, respectively.

Tylan has word-final consonant devoicing, meaning that voiced consonants in voiced-voiceless pairs are replaced with their voiceless counterparts in word-final position. /ɾ/ and /l/ are exceptions, they are not replaced with /r̥/ or /ɬ/. /g/ is replaced with /x/ when after back vowels, and /ç/ when after front vowels.

R /ɾ/ and FV/V /v/ have the allophones /ɹ/ and /w/, respectively, when next to another consonant sound.

There are 7 vowel phonemes; four front, three back, as well as 8 diphthong phonemes:

The hiatus

The apostrophe ' is only used to split digraphs and diphthongs. For example:

• do'ag "loyal (ethereal)" is pronounced /do.ax/ with a hiatus, because OA is a diphthong.
• ket'hela "galaxy" is pronounced /ket.he.la/ with a separate T and H, because TH is a digraph.

It is not used in the actual Tylan alphabet for this purpose; rather, ' is used as a blank consonant letter to start words in writing that are spoken starting with a vowel, e.g. the transliterated odivan "to see" is 'odivaE in the original writing.

Stress accent

Tylan has a stress accent; the location of the stressed syllable in a word is determined by the following:

• Words with one syllable: the stress falls on the only syllable
• Words with two syllables: the stress falls on the penult/first syllable in the word
• Words with three or more syllables:
  1. Is the penult a single I before a vowel? (e.g. the I in Mechurdia "Mechyrdia") If so, the stress falls on the antepenult. Otherwise, continue to 2.
  2. Is the antepenult a single I before a vowel? (e.g. the I in legiones "Roman legions") If so, the stress falls on the penult. Otherwise, continue to 3.
  3. Is there a consonant cluster or doubled consonant letter (including ss, ff and fv) between the penult's nucleus and the ultima's nucleus? (e.g. the SHT in vorstashtam "country", the TT in imperattar "Roman emperor") If so, the stress falls on the penult. Otherwise, continue to 4.
  4. Is the vowel in the penult a diphthong (ae, au, ea, ei, eo, oa, oe, ui) or inherently long (eu, ou) vowel? If so, the stress falls on the penult. Otherwise, it falls on the antepenult.

Some examples of these rules include:

• sig "I" has its stress on the only syllable: /'siç/ because it has one syllable.
• Tula "Tyla" has its stress on the first syllable: /'ty.la/ because it has two syllables.
• tourvakula "password" has its stress on the antepenult: /tuɾ'va.ky.la/ because there is only one consonant /l/ between the penult's and ultima's nuclei.
• jeveishar "favorite" has its stress on the penult: /je'vei̯.ʃaɾ/ because the penult's nucleus is a diphthong /ei̯/.
• raschashtam "bank" has its stress on the penult: /ɾa'sxa.ʃtam/ because there are two consonants /ʃt/ between the penult's and ultima's nuclei.

Grammar

Tylan is a fusional language; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and pronouns use various endings to inflect meaning.

Nouns

Tylan has three noun classes: terrestrial, ethereal, and spiritual. These noun classes determine the endings that adjectives use for the nouns that they describe.

Tylan also has three cases:

• Nominative-Accusative: For the subject of a sentence, if before the verb, or the direct object, if after the verb. Also used for referring to the listener directly (vocative).
• Dative: For the indirect object of a sentence, e.g. "I gave the nuclear codes to the Burgundians." In that case, "the Burgundians" is a dative noun. It is also used in a benefactive sense, e.g. "For the Empire!" becomes Kjarshtae! (the dative form of Kjarshtam)
• Genitive: For possession or partition, e.g. "my house", "jar of piss". Also used for most prepositions.

Tylan has two numbers: singular and plural.

*In Latinate names borrowed into Tylan, such as Varo, Varonnes "Varro" (N-stem) or Anderas, Anderattes "Andrew" (T-stem), the stem consonant may be doubled as indicated in the table.

Tylan has many declensions: O-stem, E-stem, A-stem, U-stem, and I-stem are the vowel declensions; nasal-stem, L-stem, T-stem, R-stem, and G-stem are the consonant declensions.

Nouns may use any declension; adjectives may use any declension other than U-stem or I-stem. A-stem and G-stem adjectives change forms for all three classes, E-stem, nasal-stem, and T-stem adjectives change forms between terrestrial/ethereal and spiritual, and O-stem, L-stem, and R-stem adjectives are invariant for noun class.

Articles

Tylan has one type of article: the definite article, used for marking definiteness on nouns. Unlike noun declensions, the definite article does distinguish the nominative and accusative cases.

The terrestrial and ethereal singular nominative articles undergo contraction; the terrestrial se contracts when in front of a word beginning in a vowel, a plosive, or H, the ethereal sot contracts when in front of a word beginning in a plosive. For example:

• Se nerig the father
• S- karar the soldier
• S- aentar the vector
• S- helar the star
• Sot nara the woman
• So- tmora the lake

The spiritual plural nominative article sot does not do this. Also, hyphens are used instead of apostrophes in Tylan contracted words.

Pronouns and Correlatives

The possessive forms of personal pronouns are inflected as adjectives: seolar, paelar, and doalar are A-stem adjectives, while moret and auret are E-stem.

The reflexive pronoun is used to refer back to the subject of a sentence, e.g. Sig vrelesset dochi throna paela "I gave your money to myself."

Third-person pronouns have standard forms for their genitive cases, not adjectival forms like in the first-person or second-person.

Deictic pronouns don't distinguish between the Nominative or Accusative.

Interrogative pronouns don't distinguish number.

Tylan correlatives are the various interrogative, demonstrative, and universal forms of various concepts.

Some correlative meanings may seem inconsistent in translation, however they still make sense from a Tylan perspective.

The demonstrative suffix forms are used with the prefixes pro- for proximal demonstratives and ral- for distal demonstratives.

Adjectival degrees

Tylan has four degrees of adjectives:

• Positive (the default): kjal vlaret, "long spear"
• Comparative "more than something else": srokjal vlaret, "longer spear"
• Superlative "most": vlakjal vlaret, "longest spear"
• Exclamative "how <adjective>!": gjag kjal vlaret!, "look at how big this spear is!"

Verbs

Verbs have two conjugation patterns: front-stem and back-stem.

There are six tenses:

• Gnomic: I tend to verb. (as a general fact)
• Present: I am verbing.
• Imperfect: I was verbing.
• Aorist: I verbed.
• Perfect: I have verbed.
• Future: I will verb.

These six tenses are put into three groups of terrestrial, ethereal, and spiritual; these groups have a past-like tense and a non-past tense.

There are also two moods:

• Indicative, for actions that are. (realis)
• Subjunctive, for actions that should/would/could be. (irrealis)

There are also some participles and infinitives.

Verbs also consider the number of the subject: singular subjects take one form, plural subjects take another.

(F) indicates vowel fronting in the vowel before the stem ending:

For example, the verb vralen "to give" has a fronted stem vrel-, giving forms such as vreltet (imperfect singular) or vrelvel (perfect plural).

Vowels not listed above are not affected by vowel fronting.

Back-stem verbs are conjugated as follows:

Back-stem verbs have a different vowel stem than front-stem verbs, but are otherwide identical. Again, (F) indicates vowel fronting.

Formation of passive participles

Tylan passive participles take either an E-stem declension form (for front-stem verbs) or an O-stem declension form (for back-stem verbs), but they also take a prefix. That prefix depends on the meaning of the verb:

• ke- (from the preposition kef meaning "with, at the same place as") for verbs representing motion
• vu- (from the preposition vuth meaning "about, regarding") for verbs representing thoughts, feelings, or opinions
• ta- (from the preposition taka meaning "against") for verbs representing violent actions, as well as contrary or insulting rhetoric
• kje- (from the preposition kjeg meaning "on") for verbs representing weather and natural occurrences
• dha- (from the word order-reversing prefix) for verbs representing some states and relations
• vlo- (from the preposition vlod meaning "with, accompanied by") for most other verbs

Formation of imperatives

In archaic speech, the subjunctive forms of verbs are also used as the imperative, however in modern speech, the infinitive is used as the imperative.

• Archaic speech:

  Pae krajanot vara!

  Kill him! (lit. you should kill him/may you kill him)

• Modern speech:

  Krajan vara!

  Kill him! (lit. to kill him)

Irregular verbs

Tylan has three irregular verbs: vesso "to be" (copula), kaun "to make" and tvashon "to believe".

Unlike vesso, kaun does have passive forms.

The verb tvashon has no past tense forms.

Verb clitics

• -las: Strengthens the sentence, or adds an argumentative or patronizing tone: Pjoal kinar-las! "Wow, nice cock!", Sig sro'ivrastat-las kirg vers heuknal pae. "Well, in fact, I know more about this than you do."
• -veu: Reduces urgency. In sentences, marks the information as not being as important as it would be without the clitic. In questions, marks the answer as not being immediately needed. In imperatives, marks the command as not being immediately needed: Gjak rotset-veu paelar nensar? "I wonder where your son is.", Aetkaeskan-veu holoskrei "Can you turn off the holoscreen?"
• -choe: Increases urgency. In sentences, marks the information as important and needing to be acted on now. In questions, marks the answer as being important now. In imperatives, marks the command as extremely urgent: Kasas Diadochas aumkaeskat-choe keustos! "The Diadochi ships are raising their shields!"
• -tauk: Politeness clitic, only used on imperatives. Equivalent of the word "please": Satta, vralen-tauk sirga vredhan. "Mom, can you please give it back to me?"
• -kvas: Superiority clitic, only used on imperatives. Marks commands as being absolutely required: Nelshan-kvas se konpar! "Fire the torpedo, that is an order!"

Syntax

Tylan is an SVO language; the subject usually comes first, then the verb, then the object. However, the word order can be different using article or pronoun cases. It's also a V2 language; the verb typically comes second in the sentence. However again, that isn't always the case; for instance, yes/no questions use V1 word order. Adjectives can come either before or after the noun, and always agree with the noun in class, case, and number.

Partitive nominative and accusative

To express the concept of "some of" in Tylan, the partitive is used: prepending a definite article in the genitive case to a noun in the nominative-accusative case. For example:

• Homasras veishal pashral

  (All) Humans like pashral

• Sae homasras veishal pashral

  (All of) the Humans like pashral

• Sent homasras veishal pashral

  Some humans like pashral

Likewise, this is done with the accusative case as well.

• Pae klintho ljouka

  You drank all milk (in existence)

• Pae klintho sok ljouka

  You drank all of the milk (in the fridge)

• Pae klintho sos ljouka

  You drank some milk

The noun itself stays nominative-accusative; it's merely the article that takes the plural genitive.

Honorific vocative

While Tylan does not have T-V distinction in pronouns, it does have T-V distinction in vocative nouns. Tylan does not have a proper vocative case distinction, but when nouns, such as names or titles, are used in a vocative sense, the proper usage is to use the singular number in a familiar or informal context, and the plural number in a formal context. For example:

• Bochranes, kaupet pae ftanar?

  Bochra (formal), do you have a pencil?

• Bochra, kaupet pae ftanar?

  Bochra (familiar), do you have a pencil?

This is also used with titles used in a vocative context:

• Kasavres, kasas aktalae andejat!

  Captain (formal), enemy ships decloaking!

• Kasavret, kasas aktalae andejat!

  Captain (familiar), enemy ships decloaking!

With vot and a family name, the family name takes the plural, while vot remains in the nominative-accusative singular.

• Vot Rekias, ganthen vara

  Miss Rekia (formal), can you say that again?

• Vot Rekia, ganthen vara

  Miss Rekia (familiar), can you say that again?

Passive voice

Tylan does not have a passive voice; instead, it has a construct for reversing word order. By putting the prefix dha- onto the verb, Nom-Acc case nouns become accusative before the verb, and nominative after.

• Psekna aktethesset Shokar

  Psekna insulted Shokar.

• Psekna dha'aktethesset Shokar

  Shokar insulted Psekna.

Yes/no questions

Tylan uses V1 word order for yes/no questions, contrasting with traditional V2 word order.

For example:

• Helasrar aktethesset paura.

  Helasrar insulted you.

• Aktethesset Helasrar paura?

  Did Helasrar insult you?

For answers to these questions, the modal verb ejan is used:

• "Aktethesset Helasrar paura?"
  
  Ejo.

  "Did Helasrar insult you?"

  Yes he did.

• "Aktethesset Helasrar paura?"
  
  Nau'ejo.

  "Did Helasrar insult you?"

  No he didn't.

• "Aktethesset Helasrar paura?"
  
  Ejava.

  "Did Helasrar insult you?"

  No, but he will.

• "Aktethesset Helasrar paura?"
  
  Nau'ejava.

  "Did Helasrar insult you?"

  No, and he won't.

Subordinate clauses

Pi (nom-acc), puni (dative), or pis (genitive) with a verb is never split.

Purpose and result clauses take an indicative verb if the purpose or result was accomplished (i.e. realis), or the subjunctive if it either failed or was not yet accomplished (i.e. irrealis).

More on V2 word order

The verb usually comes second in the clause that it's in. This applies to both independent clauses and dependent clauses.

Examples:

• Sig srangaso paura! "I'm going to kill you!" (SVO word order)
• Paura srangaso sig! "It's you I'm going to kill!" (OVS word order)
• Geiret. "It's snowing." (Impersonal verb, V word order.)
• Seola jeda kjegeiret! "It's snowing on my house!" (OV word order with impersonal verb.)
• Sig pserchast seg kaeskalar seg jadrikar pi aetkaeskast. "I pressed the button to deactivate the reactor." (SVO word order in the independent clause, OV word order in the dependent clause.)
• Gjan aetkaeskasset pae seg jadrikar? "When did you deactivate the reactor?" (VSO word order with initial question word.)
• Gers jeskevasset minko pae? "Whose phone did you steal?" (VOS word order with initial question word.)

Relative clauses

Nouns in a relative clause take a relative clause marker suffix, and the verb takes a relativizer suffix -lev. The suffix that the noun takes depends on its case in the relative clause.

For example:

• Se katoreha, sig vrelvetlev djeteras miha, truhat sok miha pi srangat refvas.

  The person, to whom I had given a doomsday device, is using that device to destroy cities.

In the case of a genitive noun that modifies another noun, the noun takes the suffix -lev. For example:

• Se katoreth, Helar Dje srengast vaelig terulev, stavet prau vreokan.

  The person, whose home planet was destroyed by the Death Star, now seeks revenge.

Normal word order still applies in relative clauses, thus it is still "Helar Dje srengast vaelig terulev", with the modified noun after the verb.

Numerals

Tylan numerals use a simple position-based system, in base 12.

Number words

Tylan number words are listed here:

These words are suffixed with the following multipliers for different digit places, and are added together when in sequence:

For example, the number 16,383₁₀ is rendered in base 12 as 9,593₁₂, which becomes skachs-vad vtirk-ja skachs-nam mrei. The numbers that are added together must all agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. However, this only occurs with the declinable numbers 0, 1, and 2.

The ordinal number 16₁₀-th is rendered in base 12 as 14₁₂-th, which becomes eilig-nam tvorchet in the terrestrial class, eilag-nam tvorchet in the ethereal class, and eilog-nam tvorcheth in the spiritual class. Again, all of the added numbers must all agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Unlike the cardinal numbers, however, all of the ordinal numbers have declensions, making it important for learners of Tylan to pay attention to their numbers.

Low speech

The low speech (Tyl. vkagot skatha) of Tylan, in recent years, has been described by linguists as a step backwards in Tylan's linguistic evolution, returning to old forms, meanings, and sounds from the language's history. This is mostly for political reasons: many young Tylans wish to rebel against the progressive Tylan Republic and human-dominated Empire of Mechyrdia by, among other things, adopting archaic manners of speaking.

Vkagot skatha contrasts with Rheagdashtam "language-ness", which refers to what most older Tylans, as well as the Tylan republican government, consider to be "proper" Tylan.

• Kelmarin vigannet mus a seg storamal (Rheagdashtam)

  "Yesterday went-(AOR) we-(NOM) to the-(ACC) shoppingmall-(NOMACC)"

• Kelea marini erkoshanem mus vigannet (Vkagot skatha)

  "Previous-(DAT) day-(DAT) workhouse-(ACC) we-(NOM) went-(AOR)"

The modern word kelmarin is decomposed into its archaic components kelet "previous" and mari "day", and put into the dative case to construct a dative absolute, a feature of Tylan grammar that hasn't been used for hundreds of years. The loadword storamal "shopping center" is replaced with the native Tylan word erkosha "workhouse", which is put into the old accusative case that no longer exists. Finally, the whole sentence is in topic-focus word order, with the topic being what happened yesterday, and the focus being the mall; Rheagdashtam uses V2 word order, with the adverb kelmarin being the first element of the sentence.

• Sok linossa dhalet mus tsherfan (Rheagdashtam)

  "The-(ACC) fort-(NOMACC) it-is-necessary-(PRES) we-(NOM) take-(INF)"

• Linossa kirpantha jash misa (Vkagot skatha)

  "Fort-(NOM) take-(GERUNDIVE-NOM) it-is-(PRES) we-(DAT)"

Vkagot skatha uses many grammatical features not used in modern Tylan, in addition to reversing some sound changes on some words. The verb tsherfan "to take, seize" is reverted back to its old form kirpan, and is put into the gerundive form to describe the noun linossa "fort", as opposed to Rheagdashtam which uses the impersonal verb dhalet "it is necessary (that)" instead of the old gerundive constructions. The archaic present-tense copula jash is used, where the modern standard would use a null verb.

Naming customs

Tylan naming customs are similar to Mechyrdian customs; a given name, followed by a matronymic, and ending with a family/house name and patron god. They differ in that Mechyrdian uses patronymics for sons, and uses titles of accomplishment instead of a patron god's name.

Given name

The Tylan given names are mostly inherited from the other, extinct languages that used to exist on Tyla, before the Lihann Empire wiped them out.

Common given names

Male

• Althanar (gen. Althanas)
• Aurans (gen. Aurantes), diminutive Aura (gen. Auranes)
• Bochra (gen. Bochranes)
• Chshaejar (gen. Chshaejas), diminutive Kashir (gen. Kashis)
• Hjofvachi (gen. Hjovachines), diminutive Jovas (gen. Jovates)
• Koldimar (gen. Koldimas), diminutive Koljar (gen. Koljas)
• Kor (gen. Kores)
• Ljomas (gen. Ljomates)
• Shajel (gen. Shajel)
• Shokar (gen. Shokas)
• Tolavajel (gen. Tolavajel)
• Voskar (gen. Voskas)

Female

• Althe (gen. Althenes)
• Anaseil (gen. Anaseil), diminutive Anja (gen. Anjas)
• Asetbur (gen. Asetbus)
• Atautha (gen. Atauthas), diminutive Attila (gen. Attilanes)
• Aurantia (gen. Aurantias)
• Ilasheva (gen. Ilashevas), diminutive Ilja (gen. Iljas)
• Kalora (gen. Kaloras)
• Kotolva (gen. Kotolvas), diminutive Kotva (gen. Kotvas)
• Psekna (gen. Pseknas), diminutive Pesha (gen. Peshas)
• Shenera (gen. Sheneras)
• Reoka (gen. Reokas)
• Velga (gen. Velgas)

Matronymic

The Tylan matronymic is derived from the genitive form of the mother's given name, followed by a hyphen, and the word Nensar "son" or Nahra "daughter".

Family/house name

The Tylan house name is the terrestrial (for men) or ethereal (for women) form of the house name. e.g. the house name Shtam Kaesarsteijam becomes Kaesarsteijar/Kaesarsteija as a house name.

Order name

Members of Tylan religious orders (Tyl. aultanes) take the genitive form of their order's name, followed by the word aultasra (as only women can join religious orders). This replaces the family name.

Patron god name

Upon a Tylan's 12th birthday, they enter a ceremony known as the Tachsuvan (Readying), where the Tylan chooses a god from the Pantheon as their patron. Back in the days of the Theocracy, this would also lock them into a certain education path and career, however the Tylan Republic is more flexible. The god's name is put into the genitive form, and hyphenated with the word Rho'et (follower).

Members of religious orders have their patron god name replaced with Vargetan-Rho'et, or "follower of the gods", as they serve the entire pantheon, not one specific god.

Example names

Some example names (and their broken-down forms) are:

• Voskar Aurantias-Nensar Tauniskrar Turas-Rho'et

  Voskar, son of Aurantia, of the house Tauniskram, follower of Tyra (the Tylan god of war)

• Psekna Kotvas-Nahra Varchontet Tsachnas-Rho'et

  Psekna, daughter of Kotva, of the house Varchonteth, follower of Tsachnar (the Tylan god of law and order)

• Kalora Velgas-Nahra Talsas Ar'hjas Aultasra Vargetan-Rho'et

  Kalora, daughter of Velga, of the Order of the Golden Guard, follower of all the gods

Alphabet

The Tylan language has its own alphabet; this website uses the Revolutionary transliteration, however the alphabet can be sampled below:

Romanization

The romanization for the Tylan language that this website uses was created by the All-Tylan Revolutionary Committee, in an attempt to emulate the humans to the galactic west. However, it was abandoned by the Mechyrdians, who restored the old alphabet to preserve some of Tyla's cultural heritage.

Tylamoticons

Tylamoticons (Tyl. Tulamotiko, plural Tulamotikones) are emoticons made using the Tylan alphabet. Typically using the Tylan letters ' and h along with vowel diacritics, Tylamoticons have the potential to be very expressive. Some examples of Tylamoticons are:

• 'O#'o Angry, cursing
• ha/hu Confused, raised eyebrow
• he-he Neutral, disappointed
• >n< Frustrated, yelling
• 'on'O Sad

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