Tauro-Piscean language

Models

Tauro-Piscean is an a posteriori constructed language, whose vocabulary is adapted primarily from Old English and German. There is also a growing influx of words from French and Old Taurusian where adapted words are not felt to be appropriate: for example, Avion (‘aeroplane’, from French avion) is used in place of German Flugzeug. Coinages, which often translate entire English phrases, are formed from various Romance languages. Because Old Taurusian orthography was based on phonetic English and, to a lesser extent, French spelling, it was changed to Taurusian before being consumed into Piscean, which uses a Piscean orthography, e.g. Old Taurusian Rougeonstul > Taurusian (Tauro-Piscean) Ruǧonstull.

Due to Piscean's history of borrowing from different Germanic and Romance languages, modern Piscean has 'recessive' vocabulary, i.e. it has words that mean the same as one another in their source languages, but now have different meanings in Tauro-Piscean. For example, there are four words that originally translated as 'day':

• Dominant: 'Deej' (Germanic) - 'day'
• Recessive 1: 'Tag' (Germanic) - 'typical day'
• Recessive 2: 'Scharne (Romance) - 'personal holiday'
• Recessive 3: 'Pee' (Germanic) - 'bank holiday'

The last form was imported into early Old Piscean from modern English ('pé', a corruption of 'day'); the third, into middle Old Piscean from French/Italian ('jarna', compare 'jour' and 'giorno'); the second, into late Old Piscean from German ('Tag'); the first, into modern Piscean from Old English (reformed spelling: 'daeg'). Therefore, Tauro-Piscean could now be compared to English, albeit the language of Anderson and Partridge arguably has a much more consistent method of assigning vocabulary. See also: Piscean language

Reform 07/12/07

The Reform of December has meant that in Tauro-Piscean, the letter G in words of Old English origin will be replaced by the letter J. Previously, in Piscean, some were replaced, but the substitution is now made complete. Observe:

• Godendeej (modern Piscean) > Jodendeej (Tauro-Piscean)
• frignan (modern Piscean) > frijnan (Tauro-Piscean)
• geond (modern Piscean) > jeond (Tauro-Piscean)

Also in words of Old English origin, the letters HW are replaced by W in Tauro Piscean and the letters WR are replaced by R.

• hwit (modern Piscean) > wit (Tauro-Piscean)
• hweet (modern Piscean) > weet (Tauro-Piscean)
• writan (modern Piscean) > ritan (Tauro-Piscean)

Furthermore, as of late December, the multigraphs SCH, TSCH, SCG (in Romanisation, to represent changes to the Partridgo-Andersonic alphabet) are replaced by and Š, TŠ and Ǧ respectively:

• Geschäft (modern Piscean) > Ješäft
• Schablone (modern Piscean) > Šablone

Words from Taurusian

Tauro-Piscean, in addition to Romance and Germanic influences, is influced by Taurusian. Taurusian vocabulary is invented spontaneously by Partridge and, as a result of which, can cater for unique words among the Piscean language that often help to make communication quicker and less ambiguous. Observe (Piscean elements of infinitives are enclosed in square brackets):

• pars [bean] - to have mixed emotions
• Hijfíĵs - someone that opposes one's ideas or mannerisms
• Dijnumm - AstroTurf, flat 'artificial turf' used for sports
• Ruǧonstull - registration at regular intervals to affirm attendance
• Handjular - personal computer (PC)
• Cornipáznaj - compact disc (CD)
• Bude - box set
• lijtáccan - to be taken lightly
• Waterdogg - subwoofer
• fuzdulaársan - to rub it in someone's face