Thahal*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

---

"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: qir le akuá ni turi akumuna qir ni ume úp akuzú khi béb
Pronunciation: qir le aˈkuá ni ˈturi ˌakuˈmuna qir ni ˈume úp aˈkuzú xi béb
Thahal word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d g k l m n p q r s t x z/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p b	t d	k g	q
Fricative		s z	x
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l

Vowel inventory: /a á e é i í u ù ú/

	Front	Back
High	i í	u ú ù
High-mid	e é
Low	a á

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, x, z
Mid-word consonants: b, d, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, x, z
Word final consonants: b, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, z
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• l → ɫ / V_V
• s → t / _#
• {p,t,k} → [+voice] / [+nasal]_
• [+nasal] → ∅ / _{p,t,
• d → r / V_V
• i → e / _C
• V → [+long] / _CC
• x → s / _k
• l → j / #_iC
• r → rː / _[+nasal]
• k → c / _#

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
x	kh

Grammar

Main word order: Object Subject Verb (Prepositional phrase).
"Mary opened the door with a key" turns into The door Mary opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Nouns have three cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Nominative	No affix nap /nap/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sù- sùnap /ˈsùnap/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix ni- ninap /ˈninap/ dogʼs

Articles

Thahal has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	geb /geb/ I	i /i/ me	mu /mu/ mine
2nd singular	za /za/ you (masc)	khí /xí/ you	ur /ur/ yours
3rd singular masc	le /le/ he, it	bén /bén/ him, it	ni /ni/ his, its
3rd singular fem	ti /ti/ she, it	sùk /sùk/ her, it	ger /ger/ hers, its
1st plural	ker /ker/ we	pùq /pùq/ us	lez /lez/ ours
2nd plural	déb /déb/ you all	mú /mú/ you all	di /di/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	khir /xir/ they	ma /ma/ them	khé /xé/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	mu /mu/ my
2nd singular	ur /ur/ your
3rd singular masc	ni /ni/ his
3rd singular fem	ger /ger/ her
1st plural	lez /lez/ our
2nd plural	di /di/ your (pl)
3rd plural	khé /xé/ their

Verbs

Present	Prefix qi- qiakupir /ˌqiaˈkupir/ learn
Past	No affix akupir /aˈkupir/ learned
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lú- lakupir /laˈkupir/ will learn

Progressive aspect
The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Thahal uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: qa - qa akupir /qa aˈkupir/ is learning

Habitual aspect
The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Thahal uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix me- makupir /maˈkupir/ learns

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Thahal uses the word for ‘finish’ akuqan for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Thahal has a base-10 number system:
1 - nu
2 - ú
3 - dé
4 - khí
5 - kúl
6 - tú
7 - te
8 - kube
9 - éti
10 - kú
11 - nu qir kú “one and ten”
100 - nu sé “one hundred”
101 - nu sé nu “one hundred one”
200 - ú sé
1000 - nu mekum “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix za-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix tú-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ke-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix za-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mú-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pi-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix a-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix ré-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ke-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix e-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix i-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ke-
Diminutive = Prefix i-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix q- Else: Prefix qa-

Dictionary

4429 Words.