Tlalor

Tlalor

And it came to the attention of the earliest members of our people, that fighting each other, or the newer races, would only doom us to irrlevance, so it was agreed that there would be one language, for all the true sons of Macheolia would be intelligible to one another, by force of law. That there would be one true religion, ancestor worship, and all the other trappings and staples of current Tlalor life would be set in law at that early time.

— Priest reading from the Book of Tlalor, Tlalorian date: Trueday 1, Trueyear 11000 (Terran date: Dec 25th 2355).

"I was there, that is such poppycock." Said Killgrave Blizzard.

"Sure grandpa." The teenager started to say, then he remembered grandpa had celebrated 11000 years of age... He, shut his mouth. He realized his grandpa really had been there. Not that it mattered, no biological or technological system they knew of guaranteed information retrieval this long... He had been there, but all memories were suspect. Still, better not antagonize the man, fading memories were a plague and a curse of the Tlalor, and living tis long was certainly an exploit he deserved to be celebrated for, even if he couldn't remember.

"I was there, there was Wajakamal Kundalini, at Macheolia's Tomb. With us were Wallidar Sotorimus, Ubindi Rakas curse his traitor name, Ranjit Rynalor, Srinty Nalalor, "The surgeon of memories" and Phnom Veilar. Much else was discussed then!"

It's s sad, sad note, that this is Killgrave's only untouched, unaltered remaining memory from that long ago, but no one will ever believe him.

Natively known as: law-lor /ˈlawlor/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
pashk na ddá na ddoath peshma pashk na ddow sutsh chí ingkhaw awysh
Pronunciation: /paʃk na dːə na dːoa̯θ ˈpeʃma paʃk na dːow sutʃ ʧɨ ˈiŋxɔ ɔjʃ/
Tlalor word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d dː g h j k m n p s t w x ŋ ŋː ɟ ʃ ʦ ʦː ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ ŋː
Stop	p b		t d dː		c ɟ	k g
Affricate			ʦ ʦː	ʧ
Fricative		θ	s	ʃ		x	h
Approximant					j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e ea̯ i o oa̯ u ɔ ə ɨ
Diphthongs: ea̯ oa̯ ?

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid			ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	aw
ə	á
ɨ	í
c	chy
ʧ	ch
j	y
x	kh
ŋ	ng
ɟ	j
ʃ	sh
ʦ	ts
θ	th
Cː	CC
̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix nuchá /ˈnuʧə/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ew nucháw /ˈnuʧəw/ (verb done to) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ead /ea̯d/ boy	No affix chyo /co/ girl
Plural	Suffix -ed eaded /ˈea̯ded/ boys	Suffix -oa̯ chyooa /ˈcooa̯/ girls

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	o /o/ the	its /iʦ/ a
Plural	ko /ko/ the	yiw /jiw/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	pí /pɨ/ I	keachyh /kea̯ch/ me
2nd singular	ngge /ŋːe/ you	áksh /əkʃ/ you
3rd singular masc	na /na/ he, it (masc)	ba /ba/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	yaw /jɔ/ she, it (fem)	thawsh /θɔʃ/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	de /de/ we (including you)	ní /nɨ/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	sá /sə/ we (excluding you)	odd /odː/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	sawksh /sɔkʃ/ you all	kungs /kuŋs/ you all
3rd plural masc	pa /pa/ they (masc)	tsont /ʦont/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	pá /pə/ they (fem)	kaww /kɔw/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	pí /pɨ/ my
2nd singular	ngge /ŋːe/ your
3rd singular masc	na /na/ his
3rd singular fem	yaw /jɔ/ her
1st plural inclusive	de /de/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	sá /sə/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	sawksh /sɔkʃ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	pa /pa/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	pá /pə/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past
Masculine	No affix doa /doa̯/ (I (masc)/we (masc)/you (masc)/you all (masc)/it (masc)/he/they (masc)) learn(s)	Suffix -ɨwʃ doaíwsh /ˈdoa̯ɨwʃ/ (I (masc)/we (masc)/you (masc)/you all (masc)/it (masc)/he/they (masc)) learned
Feminine	No affix doa /doa̯/ (I (fem)/we (fem)/you (fem)/you all (fem)/it (fem)/she/they (fem)) learn(s)	Suffix -e doae /ˈdoa̯e/ (I (fem)/we (fem)/you (fem)/you all (fem)/it (fem)/she/they (fem)) learned

Tlalor uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: go - go doa /go doa̯/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Tlalor uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: oa̯t - oat doa /oa̯t doa̯/ learns/is learning

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.
Tlalor uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate first part of first syllable doadoa /ˈdoa̯doa̯/ have learned

Numbers

Tlalor has a base-20 number system:
1 - ke
2 - chyoa
3 - já
4 - ínt
5 - tsoa
6 - aw
7 - tha
8 - jush
9 - ochyh
10 - nggu
11 - dimcha
12 - chea
13 - ngge
14 - gap
15 - jawkimch
16 - mo
17 - gi
18 - ddáw
19 - to
20 - tsaw
400 - ginta
8000 - í

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ea̯ŋs
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ə
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -e
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -i
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wn
Else: Suffix -own
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -at
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -om
Tending to = Suffix -ətʃ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wea̯
Else: Suffix -awea̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mʧ
Else: Suffix -amʧ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ea̯
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -iwm
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -oa̯m
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -sə
Else: Suffix -asə
The tlalor language often sounded harsh to first time speakers and foreigners.