Tauro-Piscean language

Nouns

N.B. The initial letter of every noun in Tauro-Piscean is capitalised.

Genders

The Piscean language includes three 'logical' grammatical genders. While in many languages, the genders do not often relate to physical properties of nouns, they do in Piscean; therefore, most nouns are neuter, while creatures of the male sex are masculine and creatures of female sex are feminine. If one refers to a creature, but does not wish to distinguish sex, the neuter gender can be used as a substitute. Observe the following examples:

• tet Sunnê - the sun (no sex, so neuter)
• tet Mann - the person (no sex specified, so neuter)
• sê Mann - the man (male, so masculine)
• seo Mann - the woman (female, so feminine)

The above example shows the importance the article plays in Piscean of distinguishing between sexes in a language where one noun fits all.

Articles

Definite articles

Indefinite articles

Singular and Plural

There are several ways to form plural nouns in Tauro-Piscean:

• Bok > Bokê (add –ê to nouns that end in a consonant)
• Äto > Ätos (add –s to nouns that end in a vowel other than ê)
• Sunnê > Sunnên (add –n to nouns that end in ê)

Cases

Tauro-Piscean implements five cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and instrumental.

Nominative case

This case is used for the subject of the sentence (i.e. the noun doing the verb) and as a complement after: 'bean' ('to be'), 'weortan' ('to become') and 'hatan' ('to be called').

• Tet Äto be niwê - the car is new
• Tet Hund bit - the dog bites

Accusative case

This case is used for the direct object (i.e. the noun having the verb done to it/them) and after certain prepositions.

• We bïğ ten Äto - we buy the car
• Ikk et ten Banánê - I eat the banana

When there is no article with the noun, the noun itself must be inflected. To do so with a noun that ends in a consonant, add -en - or, if it is a proper noun, add -'en. If the noun or proper noun ends in a vowel, add -nen or -'nen respectively.

• Infëmaksion - information
• Ikk habb Infëmaksionen - I have information

Note that when inflecting a plural noun, it must be made plural before it is inflected for the accusative (the same applies to the dative, genitive and instrumental cases).

• Äto - car
• Ätos - cars
• Ikk mag Ätosen - I like cars

The accusative case allows for flexible sentence structure that can place emphasis on a certain word by changing its location, yet retaining original meaning. For example:

• Se Hund bit sen Mann - The dog bites the man
• Sen Mann bit se Hund - The dog bites the man

Both of the above Tauro-Piscean sentences have the same translation into English. On first glance, an English speaker might confuse the second example as 'the man bites the dog', although this is because the object comes before the subject. Because the word 'Mann' is preceded by the accusative article and 'Hund', by the nominative, those skilled in Tauro-Piscean can easily deduce the sentence's meaning. Meanwhile, the first example places emphasis on the subject, while the second places greater emphasis on the object.

Dative case

This case is used for the indirect object (i.e. the noun receiving or being given/sent/lent something) and after certain prepositions. This also translates the English word 'to' when it precedes a noun.

• Ikk jef hiten sem Lerärê - I give it to the teacher

The dative case is used when referring to travel:

• Ikk fa tem Sköl - I go to the school

To inflect a noun ending in a consonant when there is no article, add -em, or -'em for a proper noun. For a noun ending in a vowel, add -nem, or -'nem for a proper noun.

• Ikk fa Lunden'em - I go to London

Genitive case

This case is used to denote possession or ownership. 'The man's car' translates literally as 'the car of the man', but with the genitive case translating 'of' (instead of a separate word).

• Tet Äto ses Mann - the man's car (the car of the man)

To inflect a noun ending in a consonant when there is no article, add -es, or -'es for a proper noun. For a noun ending in a vowel, add -nes, or -'nes for a proper noun.

• Tet Rum Sean'es - Sean's room (the room of Sean)
• Tet Abït Gaynor'es - Gaynor's job (the job of Gaynor)

Instrumental case

The first use of the instrumental case is to replace words such as 'with' and 'by' in English in the context that they mean 'by means of' - in other words, to indicate that the noun in question is an 'instrument'.

• Tet Bän - the train
• Ikk fa bänum - I go (by) train
• Ikk fa temum bän - I go (by) the train

• Tet Kuli - the pen
• Ikk rit kulinum - I write (with a) pen
• Ikk rit temum kuli - I write (with) the pen

Despite the rule in Tauro-Piscean that all nouns begin with a capital letter, when in the instrumental case, this capital is dropped.

The second use of the instrumental case is to denote nationality.

• Englas - England
• Ikk zï englas'um - I am English (literally - 'I am by means of England')

To inflect a noun ending in a consonant when there is no article, add -um, or -'um for a proper noun. For a noun ending in a vowel, add -num, or -'num for a proper noun.