Protothanian [PTHN]
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Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 30 November 2021
Language type
Proto-Conlang
Species
Human/humanoid
About Protothanian
Protothanian is the protolanguage of an alien isectoid species called -unsurprisingly- Thanians, one of the two sapient species of my conworld. Protothanian, in-universe, has roots from a ritualistic language used in an emerging religion worshipping logic, chaos, geometry and numbers and rivalling the then dominant religion.
Thanian speech resembles human speech only supeficially; in actuality, the phonology described here is a human approximation of Thanian speech, not what the actual language would sound like.
Protothanian is pretty unique as a language, sporting features that are strange to human languages while discarding features that seem natural to human speakers. For example:
Thanian speech resembles human speech only supeficially; in actuality, the phonology described here is a human approximation of Thanian speech, not what the actual language would sound like.
Protothanian is pretty unique as a language, sporting features that are strange to human languages while discarding features that seem natural to human speakers. For example:
- Almost everything in Protothanian is a noun. Even conjunctions act like nouns. Word classes like verbs are "replaced" with constructs denoting flows of actions through actors while others like adjectives with conjunction nouns that imply a common property.
- Protothanian is an analytical language, however there are some few cases where some words work exclusively as particles. Also, animacy is encoded through tone, instead of other words or particles.
- The concepts of time and space are blurred even more in Protothanian, compared to other languages, with tenses and moods being expressed as flows of actions through periods of time, if expressed at all.
- Everything in Protothanian consists of definitions and premises leading to conclusions. A full sentence in Thanian is considered one where something is understood to be defined.
Language family relationships
Language treeThanian languages
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Protothanian
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Protothanian[view] About Thanian languagesThe Thanian languages are a group of languages that are spoken by a species of insectoid aliens. In universe, all those languages are considered dialects that fall under the umbrella of Thanian. Standard Thanian is the "dialect"/"language" that is us...
Phonology
| Consonants | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Labio- velar | Uvular | |||||
| Nasal | n | ɴ | ||||||||
| Plosive | t tʰ | c cʰ | q qʰ | |||||||
| Fricative | θ | ç | χ | |||||||
| Approximant | j1 | w2 | ||||||||
| Trill | r | ʀ | ||||||||
- When after a consonant, it palatalizes it. Never appears after palatals
- When after a consonant, it velarizes it. Exception are palatals, where it becomes a vowel
| Vowels | Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | |||||
| Near-close | [ɪ]1 | [ʊ]2 | ||||||||
| Mid | ə | |||||||||
| Open-mid | [ɛ]3 | [ʌ]4 | ||||||||
| Near-open | ɐ | |||||||||
- When after a vowel, allophone of /j/
- When after a vowel or palatal, allophone of /w/
- After dentals, excluding palatalized dentals due to /j/, allophone of /ə/
- After uvulars, including velarized dentals due to /w/, excluding palatalized uvulars due to /j/, allophone of /ə/
Syllable StructureThe maximal syllable structure is:
CFJVJFC
Where C represents all consonants except fricatives and glides, F is a fricative and J is a glide.
For simpler syllables, the clusters of the onstop must always follow the order C-F-J and of the coda J-F-C. There cannot be double consonants except from across syllable boundaries. For example, a word like tragghewq would be acceptable in Protothanian (one syllable being trag- and the other -ghewq), but a word like kednna wouldn't be (as one syllable would have to be ked- which is allowed, but the other would have to be -nna, which isn't allowed)
Not all combinations are allowed however.
> The palatals cannot be followed by any other fricative than the palatal one and only by the velar affricate. They also cannot follow the velar fricative.
> The uvular trill cannot be followed by or follow the uvular fricative.
> Aspirated stops cannot be followed by fricatives.
> Nasal consonants cannot be followed by affricates of opposite qualities.
> Two affricates cannot follow one another across syllables. In that case, the former is kept and the second syllable has its tone raised, if the eliminated affricate was velar, or lowered, if it was palatal, if that's allowed.
CFJVJFC
Where C represents all consonants except fricatives and glides, F is a fricative and J is a glide.
For simpler syllables, the clusters of the onstop must always follow the order C-F-J and of the coda J-F-C. There cannot be double consonants except from across syllable boundaries. For example, a word like tragghewq would be acceptable in Protothanian (one syllable being trag- and the other -ghewq), but a word like kednna wouldn't be (as one syllable would have to be ked- which is allowed, but the other would have to be -nna, which isn't allowed)
Not all combinations are allowed however.
> The palatals cannot be followed by any other fricative than the palatal one and only by the velar affricate. They also cannot follow the velar fricative.
> The uvular trill cannot be followed by or follow the uvular fricative.
> Aspirated stops cannot be followed by fricatives.
> Nasal consonants cannot be followed by affricates of opposite qualities.
> Two affricates cannot follow one another across syllables. In that case, the former is kept and the second syllable has its tone raised, if the eliminated affricate was velar, or lowered, if it was palatal, if that's allowed.
Stress informationProtothanian has three tones: high, middle (or neutral) and low
The three tones denote quality of noun: à (inanimate), á (animate), a (abstract)
An exception to this system are the function words of Protothanian which have a tone dependent on how they evolved
The three tones denote quality of noun: à (inanimate), á (animate), a (abstract)
An exception to this system are the function words of Protothanian which have a tone dependent on how they evolved
Other> For two stops that come one after the other: The latter consonant changes to what the former is (thus it results in a geminate consonant). If any of the consonants is aspirated, the result is a geminate aspirated stop. Thus, a cluster like -kd- will will be pronounced like -kk-, a cluster like -qt- as -cc-, while a cluster like -dq- will be pronounced -dd-. This is reflected in the orthography.
> Two fricatives that come one after the other assimilate to the same fricative (the preceding one).
> If an affricate precedes a consonant of a similar quality, then it will assimilate to that fricative, if allowed.
> If a nasal precedes an affricate of an opposite quality, if allowed, they switch places. Otherwise, the nasal assimilates.
> A non-aspirated stop after a nasal becomes voiced.
> For singular syllables, most of the time, the tone represents a concept's animacy. This is not necessarily true for multisyllabic words.
> Two fricatives that come one after the other assimilate to the same fricative (the preceding one).
> If an affricate precedes a consonant of a similar quality, then it will assimilate to that fricative, if allowed.
> If a nasal precedes an affricate of an opposite quality, if allowed, they switch places. Otherwise, the nasal assimilates.
> A non-aspirated stop after a nasal becomes voiced.
> For singular syllables, most of the time, the tone represents a concept's animacy. This is not necessarily true for multisyllabic words.
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Protothanian. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
| ProtothanianOrthography [edit] | ||||||||
| Aa wa /ɐ/ | Cc ce /cʰ/ | Dd de /t/ | Ee we /ə/ | Gg ge /q/ | Hh he /χ/ | Jj jej /j/1 | Kk ke /qʰ/ | Nn ne /n/ |
| Ŋŋ ŋe /ɴ/ | Qq qe /c/ | Rr re /r/ | Tt te /tʰ/ | Þþ þe /θ/ | Ww wej /w/2 | Xx xe /ʀ/ | Yy ye /ç/ | |
| ✔ Shown in correct order [change] | ||||||||
- When after a consonant, it palatalizes it. Never appears after palatals
- When after a consonant, it velarizes it. Exception are palatals, where it becomes a vowel
