Tsaran
| Language | |
| Spoken in: | NE United States / Eastern Canada |
| Timeline/Universe: | Modern day, Non-specific alternate earth |
| Total speakers: | < 1000 |
| Genealogical classification: | Unknown isolate |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | Agglutinative |
| Created by: | |
| Jashan A'al | 1985-current |
'Tsaran' refers to any of the various forms of the Tsaran language throughout history. It is spoken by the Tsara people, a nomadic and xenophobic tribal people thought to have originated in the area of present-day Romania. The language is at root a linguistic isolate, but has borrowed a great deal of Gallo-Romance vocabulary and features due to the Tsara's length stay in France.
History
The origins of the Tsaran language are a mystery. Lack of any known sister or parent languages, as well as lack of documented material prior to the Elder Tsaran period, has proven a formidable blockade.
Without a doubt, the Tsaran tongue is a linguistic isolate, related none of its surrounding neighbors, Indo-European or otherwise. The features of the language do resemble a neighbor have quickly been found to have been borrowed or coincidental. It is supposed from the Tsaran oral history that the Tsendashai may have spoken either a related language or a distinct dialect of Tsaran itself; however, without written records or samples of this speech, this is purely hypothetical.
Proto-Tsaran
The sole known example of pre-Elder Tsaran speech was found on a fragment of pottery found near Galati, Romania in 1963 (although it remained unidentified until 1998). Whether or not it was written by the Tsara or a neighboring people is unknown. It consists of a single line:
- Ky taan ky derentah sul
A possible partial translation was found nearby in 1967:
- ...(the) moon the ...(mid)night sun....
It is interesting to compare this to the Elder Tsaran equivalent:
- Taandais, sana-elanadais eiah
Assuming that it is accurate that the older inscription (dated to approximately 500 BC, four hundred years before the mark of "classical" Elder Tsaran) is indeed a precedessor of Tsaran and not, as some believe, an extinct relative, one can only guess as to what changes and influences must have taken place in the following centuries.
Elder Tsaran (Ley Arah)
The true "Elder Tsaran" period of the language begins at approximately 200 C.E. and extends through the last decades of the Genocide in the late seventh century. This marks the first structured and recorded instances of the Tsaran language.
Elder Tsaran is marked by an extremely agglutinative structure both in its nominal and verbal systems; words ranging up to 7 or more syllables are common place. Suffixes are predominant, with only a few prefixes being present. In very early Elder Tsaran, there is evidence of a split first-person plural; an "inclusive we" (the speaker and the person spoken to) and an "exclusive we" (the speaker and some other person, but not the person being spoken to). This distinction was lost early in the history of the language. Also appearing sporadically in Elder Tsaran is a base-nine numbering system, although by the time of "Classical Elder Tsaran" (from which the majority of linguistic evidence comes) the numbering method had been replaced by a decimal (base-ten) system. Elder Tsaran was primarily a V-S-O language, with some instances of S-V-O.
Elder Tsaran survives to an extent as a scholarly and learned language among well-educated Tsara today (similar to Latin or Sanskrit for Europeans), although it is increasingly rare.
Example:
- Selah'dais isalem arapahjes uun arah, oi'eldahel isalem arapahjes rogana
- [Long ago] the whole world had one language, and the people had a common speech
Middle Tsaran
The Middle Tsaran period began with the destruction of the Elder Tsaran linguistic records and literature, and the Scattering of the Tsaran people. The lack of literacy and geographic isolation encouraged linguistic variation and change. Middle Tsaran was marked by a gradual preference towards shorter, more analytical constructions, although the inherent agglutinativeness of the language was still extremely apparent. Suffixes and prefixes became more regularized and simplified in their usage. The word order entered a state of flux, becoming about equally V-S-O and S-V-O.
The most striking result of the Middle Tsaran period was simplifications of diphthongs into their initial vowel sound. Diphthongs throughout the language first lengthened ("ai" becoming "aai"), then dropping the final component ("aa"), and finally shortening in length ("a"). The pronominal system was affected most drastically by this and other sound changes, which set the stage for the elimination of the native pronominal system in favor of a Gallo-Roman one in later years.
Example:
- Seladais is arapjhes un ara, o'eldahel is arapjhes rogana. (Early Middle)
- Selade as aravajhis un ara, o'eldahel as aravajhis rowana. (Late Middle [Eastern])
Dialect Divergence
After the Crossing of the La'esh Na, the Tsaran people were effectively split into two major groups -- the free Eastern population, and the Western population trapped in Pomeillean territory. The two eventually established distinct dialects, although the Western dialect went extinct with the death of the Western Tsara in approximately 750 C.E.
Within Eastern Tsaran itself, several minor dialects arose and flourished for a period of time. However, with the Renaissance and re-standardization of the Tsaran language between 900 and 1000 C.E., the majority of dialects became moribund in favor of the standardized speech. Nowadays, "dialect" is more a term of accent and a few small vocabularic differences.
Example:
- Selade as aravajhis un ara, o'eldahel as aravajhis rowana.
- (Late Middle Eastern Tsaran)
- Ara cojhes seladas is un ara, o'ara cojhes rogana ela is
- (Late Middle Western Tsaran)
