Tolosian

English name Native name
Spoken in:	Tolos
Timeline/Universe:	Alternate Earth
Total speakers:	300 000
Basic word order:	VSO
Morphological type:	Agglutinating/synthetic
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Accusative
Created by:
Taelis	01/2006

Tolosian is meant to be a personal conlang for my conworld, Tolos. It's based on a few rules : 144 roots, and only them ; simple grammar rules ; simplification of speech to make the pronunciation easier.

Roots and word formation

There is 144 roots, classed in twelve columns of words (the koti). This repartition is a key example of the importance of the sacred number 12 and its multiples or divisors.

• Koti'lo
  • lo (water), ai (sky), ta (tree), te (cliff), to (earth), fe (grass), cho (wind), ko (stone), la (flower), li (light), om (sun), nu (moon)
• Koti'ia
  • ia (eagle), zi (lizard), se (snake), ka (guanaco), vi (dragonfly), bou (fish), mi (cat), of (wolf), chi (sparrow), qua (frog), hi (mouse), zo (rabbit)
• Koti'ad
  • ad (more), ni (less), en (between), ji (to), in (into), lu (next to), equ (outside of), eb (from), un (away from), di (this), ye (who/which), iv (almost)
• Koti'onn
  • onn (turtle), ar (crow), wi (seagull), ks (cicada), mu (ant), be (sheep), he (goat), re (puma), bo (bear), kr (tuco-tuco), ze (bee), ki (hedgehog)
• Koti'ja
  • ja (fire), pa (house), so (beach), che (snow), tu (hole), lou (pearl), si (sand), do (shell), gou (fruit), fo (cloud), vy (corn), is (salt)
• Koti'go
  • go (around), ab (on), zu (under), fi (few), mo (many), oun (extremely), yd (and/with), ak (itself), dou (for), ek (because), mm (my), op (the most)
• Koti'ti
  • ti (hand), chu (nose), ba (mouth), de (skin), io (eye), du (teeth), ob (body), iou (ear), fu (hair), ra (arm), za (leg), ap (foot)
• Koti'ru
  • ru (old), jo (big), va (moving), rou (soft), ud (hard), pi (small), id (new), it (useful), chou (good), que (bad), wa (fast), och (slow)
• Koti'at
  • at (sign), ea (art), ma (love), su (humor), am (beginning), ya (end), im (middle), yo (action), da (time), el (knowledge), no (material), oum (place)
• Koti'or
  • or (human), fa (woman), ge (man), ol (job), quo (choice), xa (word), tou (part), na (gift), oa (grace), je (defect), yi (yes), ne (no)
• Koti'ev
  • ev (to be), ga (to have), sa (to want), od (to can), ed (to take), on (to give), ke (to must), oup (to carry), cha (to become), er (to forget), ag (to receive), jou (to hold)
• Koti'sou
  • sou (to learn), ot (to search), et (to stay), we (to win), fou (to lose), pe (to seem), ouk (to break), ib (to bring), pou (to throw), em (to dream), ay (to open), bi (to close)

All others words are based on these, by association of ideas.

• Example : omnu (the day) is made from om and nu, and means literally "from the sun to the moon".

When the pronunciation becomes difficult between two consonants, the first one drops and the second one is doubled. Moreover, it hold a sign ᵛ (called an atru) on the first doubled letter.

• Example : talafežzu (root) comes from talafet (plant) and zu (under), where the t drops and the z is doubled.

Some words come from the same type of transformation but don't take the atru ; they are generally more recent or more used words, since the atru marks the transition between old and new tolosian.

• Example : loutto (year) = loud (circle) + to (earth), meaning the circle which is taken by the Earth around the sun.

Sounds

Pronunciation

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n
Plosive	p	b				d_d	t						k	k_w	g	?
Fricative			f	v			s	z	S	Z	C			R
Affricate
Approximants		w									j
Trill
Lateral Approximant								l

• All consonants are pronounced, even doubled ones : mma (my) will be pronounced m-ma.
• /S/ is transliterated ch.
• The sound /Z/ is actually found only in /dZ/ which is transliterated as j.
• /k_w/ is transliterated qu.
• The letter x is pronounced /gz/ in the North (and is considered more 'pure'), /ks/ in the South.
• Similarly, the letter y is pronounced /sj/ in the North and /C/ in the South.

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i	y								u
Near-high
High-mid			e							o
Mid
Low-mid			E
Near-low
Low					a

• The letter i is pronounced /i/ with consonants, and /j/ with vowels.
• The letter e is pronounced /e/ before a vowel, /E/ before a consonant.
• /u/ is transliterated as ou
• The cases are indicated with vowels, they are pronounced separately from the rest of word. For example, lai (from the flower) will be pronounced /lai/ and not /laj/.

Stress

Tolosian words are stressed on their last syllable and on the case ending.

Script

Script order

The script order is the order of the 144 roots. So words beginning by lo are before words beginning by ai, and lohe (milk) will be found before loio (tear) since he is part of the 4th column while io is part of the 7th.