Teonaht

Teonaht (/teɪ.oʊnɑːθ/) is a constructed language that has been developed since 1962 by science fiction writer and University of Rochester English professor Sarah Higley, under the pseudonym of Sally Caves. It is spoken in the fantasy setting of the Teonim, a race of hexadactyl humans who have a cultural history of worshiping catlike deities.

Teonaht has several interesting features: an Object Subject Verb (OSV) word order; the end of a sentence is the place of greatest emphasis, as what is mentioned last is uppermost in the mind; and the "Law of Detachment" whereby suffixes can be moved to the beginnings of words for emphasis and even attach onto other words such as pronouns.

External links

• Sally Caves's Teonaht page
• NPR interview with Sally Caves