Asso-Thrystian Languages

Phonology

Consonants

Standard Asso-Thrystian
		Bilabial		Dental/alveolar		Velar
		Plain	Palat.	Plain	Palat.	Plain	Palat.
Nasal		m	mʲ	n	nʲ	(ŋ)	(ŋʲ)
Stop	Unaspirated	p	pʲ	t	tʲ	k	kʲ
	Aspirated	pʰ	pʰʲ	tʰ	tʰʲ	kʰ	kʰʲ
	Voiced	b	bʲ	d	dʲ	ɡ	ɡʲ
Affricate	Unaspirated			t͡s ~ t͡ʃ	t͡sʲ ~ t͡ʃʲ
	Aspirated			t͡sʰ ~ t͡ʃʰ	t͡sʰʲ ~ t͡ʃʰʲ
	Voiced			d͡z ~ d͡ʒ	d͡zʲ ~ d͡ʒʲ
Fricatives	Sibilant			s ~ ʃ	sʲ ~ ʃʲ	x	(xʲ)
	Approximant			j		w	(wʲ)
	Lateral			l	lʲ
	Rhotic			r	(rʲ)

/ŋ/ and /ŋʲ/ are not found natively in Asso-Thrystian, but occur in loanwords mostly from neighbouring Noxorean languages.
/ɣ/ is an allophone of /x/ and always occurs intervocalically in unstressed syllables.
/rʲ/ while phonemic, only occurs in a few obsolete or archaic words and moribund dialects. It is no longer productive in modern day speech and rarely taught in formal education.
Asso-Thrystian forms a dialect continuum from north to south, with northern speakers pronouncing affricates as alveolars and southern ones as dentals.
/wʲ/ is not phonemic, but occurs orthographically in older writings and loanwords.

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	Short	Long	Central	Short	Long
Close	i	iː		u	uː
Mid	e	eː	(ə)	o	oː
Open	a	aː

/ə/ typically occurs in short unstressed syllables without tone, falling or trembling tone.
/e/ is sometimes pronounced [ɛ] by some speakers, and /o/ as [ɔ]. In northern dialects, /u/ is fronted to [ɯ] after palatalised consonants or /j/.

Diphthongs

Diphthong	IPA
/ai/	/ai/
/ua/	/ua/
/oi/	/oi/

Tones

Tone	Tone	IPA
1	High	˥
2	Low	˩
3	Rising	˩˥
4	Falling	˥˩
5	Rising-falling/Creaky	˩˥˩ or ◌̰
6	Neutral	None

Morphology

Asso-Thrystian is a predominantly head-marking, polysynthetic language with a high degree of polypersonal agreement, clusivity, evidentiality, animacy, split ergativity and grammatical case. Asso-Thrystian has generally flexible word order, though subject-object-verb is the most common. Honorifics and class is encoded in most lexical classes, primarily in nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs. Syntactically, Asso-Thrystian does not exhibit sex-based grammatical gender, but depending on the region, male and female may be classified as one of several different levels on the animacy hierarchy.

Asso-Thrystian is a split ergative language, in which the subject of a transitive sentence is marked in the ergative case if the object's animacy is lower that the object or patient.

Nouns

Most nouns in Modern Asso-Thrystian consist of a noun root of which it may take on additional affixes to convey case, number and animacy. Noun roots can be compounded together with other nouns or suffixes to create derivational words or noun phrases. Likewise, verbs can be turned into nouns by various nominalisation suffixes, or converbs marked in the applicative voice.

Classical Asso-Thrystian once had a separate suffix for the dual number, but this has since been replaced by the plural marker.

Cases

Asso-Thrystian features 10 or 11 cases. These are the nominative, absolutive, accusative, ergative, genitive, dative, instrumental, comitative, associative, locative/agentive and vocative. The first five core cases (nominative, accusative, ergative, genitive and dative) describe the syntactic relationship between the nouns, while the remaining five cases (the instrumental, comitative, associative, locative/agentive and vocative) describe nouns and noun phrases as adjuncts.

Cases show fairly consistent declension patterns, though there are a few irregular words. Declensions often result in frequent alternation in syllable codas. For example, pyat (river) in the accusative plural is affixed with ⟨-lan⟩ creating pyaalan instead of pyatlan. Generally, nouns are fixed to their noun class and do not change; any promotion or demotion of a noun along the animacy hierarchy must be affixed with inverse markers to indicate this change.


Noun class	Exalted/High class		Low class		Inanimate class
Noun class	pyat (river)		xinãẽt (illness)		ŏrthya (stone)
Declension	Singular	Dual/Plural	Singular	Dual/Plural	Singular	Dual/Plural
Nominative	pyat	pyato	xinãẽt	xinãẽtu	ŏrthya	ŏrthyau
Absolutive	wepyat	wepyato	xinãẽt	xinãẽtu	ŏrthya	ŏrthyau
Accusative	pyaamé	pyaalan	ginãẽt	ginãẽtu	gŏrthya	gŏrthyau
Ergative	xiyaamé	xiyaalan	xinãẽtù	xinãẽtwu	ŏrthyajù	ŏrthyakyu
Genitive	pyacee	pyadee	xinãẽddŏy	xinãẽtwey	ŏrthyadŏy	ŏrthyawey
Dative	pyacêê	pyatwa	xinãẽddyì	xinãẽddyusy	ŏrthyadŏy	ŏrthyawey
Instrumental	pyatkõrá	pyatcé	xinãẽtkõrò	xinãẽtõru	ŏrthyagyè	ŏrthyagyo
Comitative	pyatkõrá	pyatcé	xinãẽndichya	xinãẽndichyo	ŏrthyajiya	ŏrthyajiyo
Associative	pyatbej	pyatboj	xinãẽcij	xinãẽciji	ŏrthyasij	ŏrthyasiji
Locative/Agentive	pyandíõ		xinãẽdun	xinãẽdunyí	ŏrthyanà	ŏrthyanàò
Vocative	pyatááxu	pyatááxo	xinãẽtííl	xinãẽtííwo

Morphosyntactic alignment

Sentences in Asso-Thrystian are in the nominative-accusative alignment if the subject of an transitive verb is equal to or higher in the animacy hierarchy to the object. In the example below, the subject, Gyekyóón (Gyacon) is in class II (high class) and takes the unmarked nominative, while the object nóyẽ (fish) is in class III and takes the accusative marker.

Gyekyóón

Gyacon.II.NOM

syîîl-o

fish-ABS.PL.IV

tyìlu-lõâ

enjoy-CVB(IPFV)

nóyẽ-îyèy-Ø.

eat-IPFV.HAB-3SG.II-NDEF

"Gyacon always enjoys eating fish."

If the subject of the transitive sentence is a lower class than the object, the ergative-absolutive alignment is used.

We-⟨x⟩yekyóón-s

INV.ERG-Gyacon-GEN.II

syilôky-nyu

dream-LOC.II

Taria-Ø

Taria-ABS

dĭĭmire-Ø.

see-ACT.PFV.INFR-3SG.II-NDEF

"Gyacon saw Taria in his dream."

The antipassive is used when a normally inanimate subject acts upon an animate subject.

Bitya-Ø

roof-ABS.IV

ĩlwaas-ní

survive-CVB(CNTR).II

segùl

3.SG.DAT

dagũxùm-lĕbè-dy-sya.

collapse-PFV.PST.AUD.3.SG-ANTIP-DEF

"The roof collapsed on top of him, but was told he survived."

Locative/Agentive case

The locative and agentive case are a point of contention amongst modern Asso-Thrystian grammarians as to whether they constitute two distinct cases, or a unified one. In Classical Azollynean, the locative formally encoded a large variety of postpositional affixes, and the agentive was typically used as a topic marker. By the time Classical Azollynean evolved into Central Plains Asso-Thrystian, the agentive replaced the inanimate locative suffix, while sounds changes caused the animate locative case to be reanalysed as an agentive. By the modern age, the suffixes -niõ, -nu, -nuyí, nà and nàò, function as locative and agentive cases depending on the semantic quality of the noun that is being declined.

As a locative case

A noun that semantically describes a place, location or a spatial relation is understood to be in the locative case when suffixed with the locative/agentive.

Bódy-níõ

hill-LOC

rìlày-Ø

house-ABS

sa.

DEF.

"The house on the hill."

As an agentive case

The noun rôkhyŏnydyabárurk (environmental damage) is marked with the agentive case which promotes the noun to the subject.

Wããkanyarâw-cê tùùkha-dŏy rôkhyŏnydya=bárurk-nà rey-nyí ja-nà cályky-iwadónyõ.

coral_reef-DAT story-DAT.IV environment=damage-AGT(IV).SG cross-CVB(CONT) time-LOC tell-ACT.IPFV.CONT.PRES.EXP.3.SG

"The coral reefs tell a story of environmental damage overtime."

Verbs

Verbs in Asso-Thrystian are agglutinative, allowing for highly complex, polysynthetic constructions. Verbs conjugate for voice, tense, aspect, voice, evidentiality, number, class and definiteness. Verbs can also take on adjective and nominal markers to turn the verb in verbal nouns which are declinable.

The phonotactic coda of a given verb stem triggers consonant mutation as verbs are conjugated within the verb paradigm. The differences between each category is small, but modern dialects have seen significant phonological change which have diversified and evolved into new verb categories, resulting in 12 verbal conjugations in modern Standard Asso-Thrystian.

Class 1a (plain stop endings)
Class 1b (palatalised endings)
Class 3a (-r)
Class 3b (-ry)
Class 4a (neutral vowels)
Class 4b (low, and falling tone vowels)
Class 4c (high, and rising tone vowels)
Class 5a (-s, -x)
Class 5b (-sy)
Class 6a (liquids)
Class 6b (palatalised liquids)
Irregular (irregular verbs)

Archaic:

Class 2 (uvulars, now obsolete)

Class 1a (plain stop endings)

Verbs with unpalatalised coda consonants are grouped into class 1a verbs. These include words such as id (flip, rotate), phêêlk (starve) and õób (accelerate).

Perfective 1st person singular active conjugation
Tense	Mood	Class	id (flip, rotate)	phyêêlk (starve)	õób (accelerate)
Present	Experiential	Exalted	idelálo	phyêêlkelálo	õóbelálo
		High	ide	phyêêlke	õóbe
		Low	idŭŭye	phyêêlkŭŭye	õóbŭŭye
	Visual		idnẽy	phyêêlknẽy	õóbnẽy
	Hearsay		idnẽy	phyêêlknẽy	õóbnẽy
	Inferential	Exalted, High	id	phyêêlk	õób
	Inferential	Low, Inanimate	id	phyêêlk	õób
	Optative	Exalted, High	idlă	phyêêlklă	õóblă
	Optative	Low, Inanimate	idbíŭ	phyêêlgbíŭ	õóbbíŭ
	Potential	Exalted, High	idálgwi	phyêêlkálgwi	õóbálgwi
	Potential	Low, Inanimate	idálgwi	phyêêlkálgwi	õóbálgwi
	Imperative	Exalted, High	—	—	—
	Cohortative	All Class	idi	phyêêlki	õóbi

Class 1b (palatalised stop endings)

Verbs that end with palatalised stop consonants are placed in class 1b. It is conjugated very similarly to class 1a verbs, differentiated in pronunciation by certain dialects.

Perfective 2nd person singular active conjugation
Tense	Mood	Class	uy (sing, call)	anóskey (present)	xiécy (cry, mourn)
Present	Experiential	Exalted	uyeláwŭrèè	anóskeyeláwŭrèè	xiécyeláwŭrèè
		High	uyoád	anóskeyoád	xiécyoád
		Low	uyŭŭnaly	anóskeyŭŭnaly	xiécyŭŭnaly
	Visual		uynáŭsô	anóskeynáŭsô	xiécynáŭsô
	Hearsay		uylĕbèc	anóskeylĕbèc	xiécylĕbèc
	Inferential	Exalted, High	uya	anóskeya	xiécya
	Inferential	Low, Inanimate	uyèy	anóskeyèy	xiécyèy
	Optative	Exalted, High	uylăd	anóskeylăd	xiécylăd
	Optative	Low, Inanimate	uybíŭd	anóskeybíŭd	xiécybíŭd
	Potential	Exalted, High	uyálgod	anóskeyálgod	xiécyálgod
	Potential	Low, Inanimate	uyálgôs	anóskeyálgôs	xiécyálgôs
	Imperative	Exalted, High	uyawodá	anóskeyawodá	xiécyawodá
	Cohortative	All Class	uyiôsè	anóskeyiôsè	xiécyiôsè

Class 3a

Verbs that end in -r are placed in class 3a. The -r suffix is also a verbaliser marker, turning nouns into verbs, thus is colloquially referred as the "verbaliser class" (gyapilas ikùrn), though this is inaccurate.

Imperfective habitual 3rd person dual active conjugation
Tense	Mood	Class	lar (go)	syunkyur (present)	ijír (send)
Present	Experiential	Exalted	larekhwŭrèèye	syunkyuturekhwŭrèèye	ijírekhwŭrèèye
		High	larînyády	syunkyuturînyády	ijírînyády
		Low	larŭnynaly	syunkyuturŭnynaly	ijírŭnynaly
	Visual		laròkhgôsy	syunkyuturòkhgôsy	ijíròkhgôsy
	Hearsay		larlyŭncoray	syunkyuturlyŭncoray	ijírlyŭncoray
	Inferential	Exalted, High	larîád	syunkyuturîád	ijírîád
	Inferential	Low, Inanimate	larînay	syunkyuturînay	ijírînay
	Optative	Exalted, High	larlikysád	syunkyuturlikysád	ijírlikysád
	Optative	Low, Inanimate	larbòkhasády	syunkyuturbòkhasády	ijírbòkhasády
	Potential	Exalted, High	larkhènsádey	syunkyuturkhènsádey	ijírkhènsádey
	Potential	Low, Inanimate	larkhyánalyáy	syunkyuturkhyánalyáy	ijírkhyánalyáy
	Imperative	Exalted, High	laryadeyá	syunkyuturyadeyá	ijíryadeyá
	Cohortative	All Class	lariwanalyè	syunkyuturiwanalyè	ijíriwanalyè

Class 3b

Class 3b verbs are verbs that end in -ry. Class 3b verbs have become increasingly rare as it merges with class 3a verbs in both informal writing and speech. It is still used in formal writing.

Tense	Mood	Class	õthũũry (fall, sink)
Tense	Mood	Class	1st person	2nd person incl.	2nd person excl.	3rd person incl.	3rd person excl.
Past	Experiential	Exalted	õthũũryeláíkãã	õthũũryeláátásŭ	õthũũryelárikuy	õthũũryeláátásŭt	õthũũryelárikìì
		High	õthũũryoke	õthũũryogũn	õthũũryiluy	õthũũryogũna	õthũũryoiwoy
		Low	õthũũryŭŭkõl		õthũũryiluy		õthũũryoiwoy
	Visual		õthũũrynáŭwin		õthũũrynáŭwingye		õthũũrynáŭwinkiya
	Hearsay		õthũũrylĕwin		õthũũrylĕwingye		õthũũrylĕwinkiya
	Inferential	Exalted, High	õthũũrye	õthũũryigũn	õthũũryilûy	õthũũryoigũna	õthũũryiwoy
	Inferential	Low, Inanimate	õthũũrye	õthũũryigũn	õthũũryilûy	õthũũryoigũna	õthũũryiwoy
	Optative	Exalted, High	õthũũrylă	õthũũrylăigũn	õthũũrylăxiluy	õthũũrylăigũna	õthũũrylăiwoy
	Optative	Low, Inanimate	õthũũrybíŭ	õthũũrylăigũn	õthũũrylăxiluy	õthũũrylăigũna	õthũũrylăiwoy
	Potential	Exalted, High	õthũũryálgwin	õthũũryálgigũn	õthũũryálgxiluy	õthũũryálgigũna	õthũũryálgiwoy
	Potential	Low, Inanimate	õthũũryálgwin	õthũũryálgigũn	õthũũryálgxiluy	õthũũryálgigũna	õthũũryálgiwoy
	Cohortative	All Class	õthũũryisy	õthũũryigũn	õthũũryiiluyèsy	õthũũryayigũnèsy	õthũũryaiwoyèsy

Class 4a, 4b, 4c

Voice

Asso-Thrystian verbs are by default in the active voice. Various valency changing suffixes include the antipassive, applicative and causative. Due to naming taboos, these valency changing suffixes differ between noun classes during the evolution of Asso-Thrystian. Double marking

Class	byẽòse (I shout)
Class	Antipassive	Active	Applicative	Causative
Exalted	byẽòsèdy	byẽòse	byẽòsegen	byẽòsenyeb
High	byẽòsèdy		byẽòseun	byẽòsenyeb
Low	byẽòsèô		byẽòsebi	byẽòsetòl
Inanimate	byẽòsèô		byẽòsebi	byẽòsejé

Definiteness

Definite and indefinite particles may be suffixed to verbs to indicate a noun's definiteness (or lack thereof). Note the exalted class do not take on definite articles, but may use demonstratives to describe the definiteness of an exalted noun.

	Exalted	High	Low	Inanimate
Definite	-Ø	-sa
Indefinite	-Ø	-Ø	-bén	-ùy