Tolakiso

Tolan Tolakiso
Pronunciation:	['to.la.ˌki.so]
Spoken in:	Tola, Tolan Empire
Conworld:	Kalna
Total speakers:	None
Genealogical classification:	Kalnaean Seranic Tolan
Writing System:	Tolan Syllabary
Basic word order:	SVO
Morphological type:	Agglutinating
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Created by:
Ian Cook	August 1, 2012

Tolan (Tolakiso ['to.la.ˌki.so]) is an ancient language which was once spoken on the continent of Seran in the region of Tola and by the Tolan Empire on the planet of Kalna. Tolan is the only member of the Seranic language family to survive after the Tolan Empire conquered and ruled Seran. However, its descendants were all influenced by the other languages of the various regions.

Tolan is typologically highly agglutinative, although it shows occasional fusional and isolating characteristics. It modifies and inflects nouns (though nominative and accusative are shown through word order), pronouns, and verbs, depending on their roles in the sentence. There are twelve noun cases, and verbs conjugate to show four moods, three tenses, two voices, and three aspects.

Phonology

Primary stress on Tolan words is always given to the first syllable in the word. Secondary stress is usually placed on alternating syllables thereafter, but it is often such a small stress that it is barely noticeable. In compound words, each component after the first receives secondary stress on its first syllable.

Tolan has five vowels, however there is some allophony based on the different regions in which Tolan was spoken. Allphones are shown in parentheses below.

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i [i]	(i) [y]								u [u]
Near-high				(i) [ɪ]				(u) [ʊ]
High-mid		e [e]								o [o]
Mid					(e) [ə]
Low-mid			(e) [ɛ]							(o) [ɔ]
Near-low				(a) [æ]
Low					a [a]					(a) [ɑ]

All vowels are analyzed as occurring within the time frame of one mora Therefore, doubled vowels are treated as a sequence of two identical vowels, rather than as a long vowel. Two different vowels in sequence are treated as distinct syllables, rather than as a diphthong.

Tolan uses only twelve consonants. None of the plosives or fricatives are voiced, and there are no affricates. Voiced plosives and fricatives will be heard as allophones for their unvoiced counterparts.

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m [m]						n [n]
Plosive	p [p]						t [t]						k [k]
Fricative			f [f]				s [s]								h [h]
Approximants		w [w]										y [j]
Flap or Tap								r [ɾ]
Lateral Approximant								l

The basic syllable structure is (C)V(n) where "C" is any consonant, "V" is any vowel, and "n" is the letter "n". This can create long strings of vowels, all of which are considered separate syllables, but can not create any consonant clusters.

Orthography

The Tolan language is written using the Tolan Syllabary.

Grammar

The Tolan language is highly inflected, often through agglutination, but sometimes shows fusional and isolating tendencies. The morphosyntactic alignment is nominative-accusative, but unlike any other cases, neither nominative nor accusative are marked morphologically, being distinguished only by word order. There are twelve other distinct noun cases.

Verbs are highly inflected, though they are not marked for person. They are, however, inflected for four moods and three tenses, two voices, and three aspects.

Nouns

Tolan does not distinguish gender in any nouns or pronouns.

Cases

Tolan has fourteen noun cases: four grammatical cases, six marginal cases, and four locative cases.

Tolan Cases
Case	Glossing Abbr.	Suffix	English prep.	Example	Translation
Grammatical
Nominative	nom	-	-	rami	house
Accusative	acc	-	-	rami	house
Dative	dat	-ti	to	ramiti	to (a) house
Genitive	gen	-sa	of/-'s	ramisa	of (a) house
Marginal
Vocative	voc	-	O	rami	O house
Instrumental	inst	-ko	with/using	ramiko	using (a) house
Benefactive	ben	-hin	for	ramihin	for (a) house
Causal	cau	-te	because of	ramite	because of (a) house
Comitative	com	-ru	with	ramiru	with (a) house
Abessive	abe	-ya	without	ramiya	without (a) house
Locative
Lative	lat	-we	to	ramiwe	to (a) house
Adessive	ade	-mo	at/in/on	ramimo	at (a) house
Ablative	abl	-han	from	ramihan	from (a) house
Prolative	prol	-fu	through/via	ramifu	through (a) house

Note that neither the nominative nor the accusative take a morphological suffix. Instead, these cases are determined by word order. A noun is distinguished as nominative if it is located before the verb, and as accusative if it is located after the verb.

Plurals

Nouns do not decline to show plurality. Unmarked nouns have no number, and the specific number is left ambiguous. This is called transnumeral. To specify the number of a noun, a number or another modifier must be used. For example:

Ken enma unfa

one cl17 sheep

One sheep

Yuwa enma unfa

some cl17 sheep

Some sheep

Liten enma unfa

many cl17 sheep

Many sheep

In the above examples, unfa is the Tolan word for "sheep" while enma is the noun classifier for most non-human mammals.

Definiteness

Tolan does not have any articles, and thus nouns have no inherent way to express definiteness. Instead, this is expressed using demonstratives and numbers. For example:

Mui

man

(A/The) man

Ken onru mui

one cl15 man

A man or One man

Kanso onru mui

this cl15 man

This man

Onru mui

cl15 man

Men (in general)

In the above examples, mui is the Tolan word for "man" while onru is the noun classifier for humans.

Classifiers

Noun classifiers, also called measure words, are independent lexical items which are used to classify the referent of countable nouns according to their meaning. This is done any time a noun is being modified by a demonstrative or a number. These classifiers are also used as third-person pronouns. The Tolan language has a total of 78 noun classifiers.

Tolan Noun Classifiers
CL#	Classifier	Usage
cl01	ra	Generic classifier
cl02	wori	Generic classifier, naturally occurring in pairs
cl03	un	Generic classifier, naturally occurring in threes
cl04	ki	Generic classifier, naturally occurring in fours
cl05	punyin	Generic classifier for groups
cl06	yilen	Long, thin objects
cl07	unsan	Group of long, thin objects
cl08	pan	Flat objects
cl09	pun	Group of flat objects
cl10	hon	Round objects
cl11	finu	Group of round objects
cl12	mu	Small, grain-like objects
cl13	fon	Group of small, grain-like objects
cl14	innon	Objects which can be rolled up
cl15	onru	Humans
cl16	rope	Group of humans
cl17	enma	Most non-human mammals
cl18	enko	Group of most non-human mammals
cl19	rasi	Cats and dogs
cl20	wan	Groups of cats and dogs
cl21	an	Birds and bats
cl22	unnin	Groups of birds and bats
cl23	tonyo	Reptiles and amphibians
cl24	nen	Groups of reptiles and amphibians
cl25	ifu	Other land animals
cl26	into	Group of other land animals
cl27	on	Whales, dolphins, sharks, and fish
cl28	anre	Groups of whales, dolphins, sharks, and fish
cl29	yenne	Other aquatic animals
cl30	epe	Group of other aquatic animals
cl31	hoken	Flying insects
cl32	tanfen	Group of flying insects
cl33	sonli	Non-flying insects
cl34	len	Group of non-flying insects
cl35	puwo	Trees
cl36	lun	Group of trees
cl37	hanwi	Flowers
cl38	won	Group of flowers
cl39	pe	Other plants and fungi
cl40	le	Groups of other plants and fungi
cl41	akon	General food
cl42	wehu	Groups of general food, sections of a meal, courses
cl43	enyan	Slaughtered meat
cl44	uyun	Small fruit
cl45	sahi	Group of small fruit
cl46	tuma	Large fruit
cl47	lo	Vegetables
cl48	tako	Group of vegetables
cl49	nanyon	Herbs and spices
cl50	ho	Baked food
cl51	irun	General liquids
cl52	wofun	Drinkable portions of liquid
cl53	uyi	Rivers and large bodies of water
cl54	pemi	Land formations
cl55	iwen	Meteorological phenomena, volcano eruptions, and earthquakes
cl56	sin	Celestial bodies
cl57	min	Buildings and other large, immobile, man-made objects
cl58	witin	Portions of land, property, and countries
cl59	in	Sea, air, and space vehicles
cl60	usan	Land vehicles
cl61	nitu	Tools and machines
cl62	pa	Containers
cl63	ori	Piles
cl64	amu	Stacks
cl65	wuyu	Rows
cl66	munta	Weapons, armors, other tools of war, and magic
cl67	rin	Arts
cl68	ane	Colors and sounds
cl69	talin	Languages and parts of languages such as words
cl70	fona	Books and other texts
cl71	si	Wool, hair, fur, clothing, blankets, sheets, towels, fabrics, and things made from fabrics
cl72	fansin	Classes and lessons
cl73	okan	Fire and explosions
cl74	ito	Emotions, sensations, dreams, states, ideas, and supernatural/spiritual entities
cl75	eso	Time
cl76	setu	Distance and directions
cl77	nolo	Position, turn, and order
cl78	fi	Occurrances, number of times, degrees of temperature and angles

Pronouns

The pronouns in Tolan are inflected much in the same way that their referent nouns are.

Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns are used as substitutes for proper or common nouns.

Personal Pronouns
Tolan	English
Singular
no	I
ta	you
sahu	he/she/it
yu	one (generic)
Plural
wonia	we
ontu	you
moni	they
wu	they/*ones (generic)

Reciprocal Pronouns

Reciprocal Pronouns
Tolan	English
pawi	each other, one another

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns
Tolan	English
honti	oneself, himself, myself, etc.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns
Tolan	English
kanso	this
kansoni	that

The demonstrative pronouns are also used as determiners.

Relative Pronouns

Relative Pronouns
Tolan	English
suro	restrictive
fasi	non-restrictive

No iweto muiti suro wuna unfa.

I.nom search.pres-prog man.dat rstr.pro have.pres sheep.acc

I am looking for a man who has a sheep.

I do not have a specific man in mind, but the group of "men" is restricted to the subset of men who have a sheep.

No iweto muiti fasi wuna unfa.

I.nom search.pres-prog man.dat nrstr.pro have.pres sheep.acc

I am looking for a man who has a sheep.

I have a specific man in mind, and the information that he has a sheep is extra.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns
Tolan	English
saki	what
sakionru	who (literally "what person")
sakan	when
sana	where
saen	why
satu	how
sahe	which
sama	whether

The interrogative pronouns can also be used as determiners.

Note that the pronoun saki can be prefixed to any of the noun classifiers in the same way as sakionru.

Indefinite Pronouns

The indefinite pronouns are a list of all pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories above.

Interrogative Pronouns
Tolan	English
yen	any
yen-cl	anyone/anybody/anything
yuwa	some
yuwa-cl	someone/somebody/something
na	all
na-cl	everyone/everybody/everything
kan	none
ka-cl	no one/nobody/nothing
fai	other/another
powa	each
tesi	either
tesiko	neither
patu	enough
rosan	too much
kun	both
niki	several
hoke	such

Note that most indefinite pronouns can be prefixed to any of the noun classifiers in the same way as yen, yuwa, na, and kan.

Verbs

Tolan verbs are conjugated through an extremely regular process of agglutination. They are inflected to show four moods, three tenses, two voices, and three aspects.

Tolan Conjugation
Inflection	Glossing Abbr.	Suffix
Tense-Mood
Present-Indicative	prs	-
Past-Indicative	pst	-he
Future-Indicative	fut	-hu
Imperative	imp	-ka
Conditional	cond	-sa
Present-Subjunctive	prs.sjv	-fa
Past-Subjunctive	pst.sjv	-fe
Future-Subjunctive	fut.sjv	-fu
Voice
Active		-
Passive	pas	-wi
Aspects
Perfect	prf	-(e)n
Progressive	prog	-to
Habitual	hab	-ru

The verbal infinitive is formed as simply an unmarked verb (as though in the active present indicative) with the addition of the preposition ni.

Note that although a verb can take only one tense-mood and can take only one voice, it can have any combination of aspects. Further, the tense-mood, voice, and aspects can all be added together to add more meaning to the verb. For example:

ni ye

inf carry

to carry

No ye.

I.nom carry.prs

I carry.

No yeheto.

I.nom carry-pst-prog

I was carrying.

No yehun.

I.nom carry-fut-prf

I will have carried.

No yehuwintoru.

I.nom carry-fut-pas-prf-prog-hab

I will have been being carried (habitually).

To negate a verb, precede it with the particle ka. For example:

No ka ye.

I.nom not carry.prs

I do not carry.

Lexicon

Tolan has a highly productive system of agglutination for derivation by adding prefixes and suffixes to root words.

Sample Translations

Each of the following translations from English to Tolakiso will include the original text, the translated text, a gloss of the translated text, and a retranslation of the text back to English.

Schleicher's Fable

Schleicher's Fable is an artificial text which was composed by August Schleicher in his version of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language in 1868. Schleicher was the first scholar to compose a text in Proto-Indo-European.

Schleicher's Fable by August Schleicher

On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses". The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool". Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Kianika Selakeresa Aguseta Selakerete

Sa oenmo, ken enma unfa hekotaya tenahe yuwa enma run, ken enma manfaheto heni omuso, ken yeheto faanla fenhuso, i ken yeheto mui suli. Unfa minihe runti: "Ennou nosa konu no, tenato mui suro pinto run". Run minihe: "yooka, unfa, ennou woniasa konu wonia sakan wonia tena kanso: mui, anlio, wuo hekotako samin enyuso hontihin. I kansoni unfa ka wuna hekota". Sakan unfa minyahe kanso, sahu unkohe feuni ironwe.

story-dim Schleicher-gen August Schleicher-cau

on hill-ade, one cl17 sheep.nom wool.abe see-pst some cl17 horse.acc, one cl17.nom pull-pst-prog wagon.acc be.heavy-part, one.nom carry-pst-prog load.acc be.large-part, and one.nom carry-pst-prog man.acc be.quick-adv. sheep.nom say-pst horse-dat: "heart.nom I-gen hurt.pres I.acc, see.pres-prog man.acc rstr.pro drive.pres-prog horse.acc". horse.nom say-pst: "listen.imp, sheep.voc, heart.nom we.gen hurt.pres we.acc when we.nom see.pres this.acc: man.nom, master.nom, make.pres wool.inst clothing.acc be.warm-part self-ben. and that sheep.nom not have.pres wool.acc". When sheep.nom hear-pst this, it.nom flee-pst in grassland-lat.

Schleicher's Little Story by August Schleicher

On a hill, a sheep without wool saw some horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a large load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: “My heart hurts me, seeing a man who is driving horses”. The horses said: “Listen, sheep, our hearts hurt us when we see this: a man, master, makes with wool warm clothing for himself. And that sheep does not have wool.” When the sheep heard this, it fled into the grassland.

The North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables by the ancient Greek slave and storyteller Aesop.

The North Wind and the Sun by Aesop

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

The King and the God

The King and the God is a text by S. K. Sen loosely based on the "king Harishcandra" episode of Aitareya Brahmana and translated into Proto-Indo-European.

The King and the God by S. K. Sen

Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: “May a son be born to me!” The priest said to the king: “Pray to the god Werunos”. The king approached the god Werunos to pray now to the god. “Hear me, father Werunos!” The god Werunos came down from heaven. “What do you want?” “I want a son.” “Let this be so”, said the bright god Werunos. The king's lady bore a son.

The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is a story from the Book of Genesis which tells of how God spread the peoples of the world throughout the earth and gave them distinct languages.

The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.