Terahnyan Sjol
Terahnyan Sjol
Terahnyan Sjol was first documented on Earth in multi-species urban communities in the early 24rd century. It is clearly related to the official language of the Klingon Empire, but it is more characteristic of an indigenous Earth language, such as French, Navajo, or Antarctican. It is believed to have emerged in Klingon-speaking communities who became more pluralistic after local Klingon authorities had established administrative and cultural centers.
Phonology
The sounds of Terahnyan Sjol are as follows:
Vowels
- a - like "a" in "father"
- e - like "ai" in "aircraft"
- i - like "ee" in "feet"
- o - like "oa" in "boat"
- u - like "oo" in "school"
Diphthongs
- ay - like "i" in "pipe"
- aw - like "ou" in "output"
- ew - no English equivalent, like German "ö" or French "eu"
- ey - like "ay" in "ray"
- iw - no English equivalent, like German "ü" or French "u"
- ua - like "wa" in "schwa"
- ue - like "wea" in "swear"
Consonants
- b - as in English
- d - as in English
- h - as in English. Unlike in English, this occurs at the end of syllables, though in many dialects it is dropped in such a position.
- k - as in English
- l - as in English
- m - as in English
- n - as in English
- ng - as in English
- p - as in English
- r - as in Spanish or Italian (trilled)
- s - as in English
- sj - like "sh" in "ship"
- t - as in English
- th - like "th" in "think"
- t - as in English
- v - as in English
- w - as in English
- y - as in English
- z - as in English
- zj - like "si" in "provision"
Consonant Clusters
- dzj - like "j" in "jump"
- ny - like "ny" in "canyon"
- tsj - like "ch" in "chair"
Assimilation
When either of the sounds s or z occurs adjacent to either of the sounds sj or zj within a word, the second sound's articulation point changes to match that of the first.
- s+sj becomes ss
- z+zj becomes zz
- sj+s becomes sjsj
- zj+z becomes zjzj
- s+zj becomes sz
- z+sj becomes zs
- sj+z becomes sjzj
- zj+s becomes zjsj
Noun Morphology
TS is agglutinative. Nouns have 5 types of suffixes. A noun may have at most one suffix of each type, and the suffixes must be ordered according to their type numbers.
Type 1
- -hah : augmentative
- -sjom : diminutive
Type 2
- -mey : plural
Type 3
Note: Type 3 suffixes are archaic and only used in highly stylized language. Their meanings are difficult to capture in English, so we paraphrase them here.
- -nah : "That which I know to be"
- -sjey : "That which I believe to be"
- -kok : "That which I ironically call"
Type 4
- -vam : this, these
- -veth : that, those
- -wiz : my
- -liz : your (singular)
- -daz : his, her, its
- -maz : our
- -raz : your (plural)
- -staz : their
Type 5
The default case for nouns is accusative. The other cases are:
- -heh : nominative
- -dak : locative
- -voh : ablative
- -vad : dative
- -moh : causative
- -loh : instrumental
Verb Morphology
Verb suffixes are governed by rules similar to those for noun suffixes. The exception is type 1 verb suffixes, of which a verb may have more than one. The type 1 suffixes still occur in a specific order, so they are often classified as 1A, 1B, and 1C.
Type 1
- (A) -sjah : equivalent to dis- or anti- in English. Indicates opposite or undoing.
- (B) -mosj : causative/transitivizer
- (C) -stuh : implies totality or absolution of action or state
Examples:
- yon - be satisfied
- yonsjah - be dissatisfied
- yonmosj - satisfy
- yonstuh - be completely satisfied
- yonsjahmosj - dissatisfy
- yonmosjsjtuh - completely satisfy
- yonsjahstuh - be completely dissatisfied
- yonsjahmosjsjtuh - completely dissatisfy
Type 2
- -hezj : reflexive
- -stuk : reciprocal
- -luh : passive
Examples:
- kip : hit
- kiphezj : hit oneself
- kipstuk : hit one another, hit each other
Type 3
- -stosj : begin, become
- -kah : resume
Examples:
- nudstosj - begin examining
- nudkah - resume examining
Type 4
These suffixes indicate aspect of verbs.
- -puh - perfect
- -tasj - continuous
- -besj - anticipative
Examples:
- sam - find
- sampuh - just found
- samtasj - finding
- sambesj - about to find
Type 5
These represent the verb modalities.
- -lasj : be able to
- -kang : want to
- -nis : need to
- -stoh : ought not to
- -vip : be afraid to
Type 6
These represent the qualifiers.
- -bez : I know that...
- -bah : it is obvious that...
- -lawh : I think or have heard that...
-bez indicates firsthand knowledge, while -lawh indicates secondhand knowledge. -bah indicates shared knowledge and is used simply to stipulate some established information, often when changing the subject.
Type 7
- -moh - conjunction (because)
- -vis - conjunction (while)
- -dih - conjunction (when)
- -stuzj - conjunction (if)
- -pah - conjunction (before)
- -bozj - relativizer (who, which, that)
- -mesj - purpose clause (in order to)
- -zjast - gerund (-ing)
Nominalization
No root word can be both a noun and verb. Often a verb will have a noun form that differs only by the addition of one nominalizing suffix.
- -zjast - gerund
- -wih - agentive
- -lih - patientive
- -loh - resultative
- -nah - general nominalizer
Syntax
Basic Word Order
Basic word order in TS is SOV.
- Sjodheh yas wahdist lezj. The captain sees the first officer.
- Yas wahdistheh sjod lezj. The first officer sees the captain.
The suffix -heh indicates the subject of the sentence.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases occur almost anywhere in a sentence, but most neutrally they are found right before the verb.
- Sjodheh yas payh lezj. The captain suddenly sees the officer.
- Sjodheh yas mesjdak lezj. The captain sees the officer on the bridge.
Tense
Tense is usually contextual and implicit, but it can be emphasized with special adverbs.
- Sjodheh yas dasj lezj. The captain now sees the officer.
- Sjodheh yas nyuzj lezj. The captain then saw the officer.
- Sjodheh yas zjik lezj. The captain then will see the officer.
Voice
The suffix -luh indicates passive voice.
- Yasheh lezjluh. The officer is seen.
- Yasheh sjodmoh lezjluh. The officer is seen by the captain.
All transitive verbs are assumed to have an object, even if it is implicit.
- Terahnyanmeyheh sop. Terrans eat them.
If the object must be indefinite, the pronoun vayh can be employed.
- Terahnyanmeyheh vayh sop. Terrans eat.
Focus
Noun phrases may follow verbs if they are focal or indefinite.
- Yas lezj sjodheh. A captain sees the officer. The CAPTAIN (as opposed to someone else) sees the officer.
- Sjodheh yas lezj mesjdak. The captain sees the officer on a bridge. OR ... on the BRIDGE (as opposed to somewhere else).
Accusative nouns cannot occur after the verb. The passive must be employed.
- Sjodmoh lezjluh yasheh. The captain sees an officer. The captain sees the OFFICER (as opposed to someone else).
Adjectives
A noun may be preceded by a stative verb.
- tin duz : big ship
Possessive
Two nouns that occur next to each other form a possessive construction. The first noun is the possessor, while the second is the possessee. The second noun must be followed by -daz or -staz (depending on the number of the possessor).
- sjod duzdaz : captain's ship
- zazjmey nusjsjtaz : the enemies' weapon
Nominals
The suffix -zjast creates a gerund out of an entire verb phrase.
- kohmey posmosjzjast - opening worlds
- Kohmey posmosjzjastheh tsjath. Opening worlds is difficult. (It is difficult to open worlds.)
- Sjoltezmeyheh kohmey posmosjzjast tiv. Linguists enjoy opening worlds.
Serial Verbs
Many verbs can occur in serial to form more complex phrases. These often correspond functionally to English prepositions.
- mihtsjed kel zath : talk-consider math (talk about math)
- pah hel yit : walk-enter room (walk into the room)
Other verbs can be used in an adverbial sense. These are often idiomatic and difficult to apply broadly.
- stev stop : bite-separate (bite off)
- mez puv : fly-leave (fly away)
- lim chong : sleep-delay (sleep in)
- sal sayhmosj : clean-ascend (clean up)
Pronouns
The nominative pronouns are as follows:
- zi - I
- so - you (singular)
- zja - he, she
- ho - it
- ma - we
- thi - you (plural)
- sta - they (plural of zja)
- bi - they (plural of ho)
The accusative pronouns are as follows:
- mu - me
- ni - you (singular)
- lu - him, her, it
- nu - us
- li - you (plural)
There are is no accusative pronoun corresponding to "them". Transitive verbs are assumed to have an object, which is always "them". If it is important to emphasize "them", the passive can be used.
The other cases for pronouns are formed by attaching type 5 noun suffixes to the nominative forms of the verbs.
- hodak - on/in/at it
- zivad - for/to me
- sovoh - from you
- stamoh - due to them
Conjunctions
The simple conjunctions can be used to join any kind of phrase.
- X hez Y - X and Y
- X koz Y - X or Y or both
- X pazj Y - X or Y
