Taðýric

Taðýric is my ongoing effort - one that's been scrapped and reworked a good number of times - to create the most beautiful language possible to my sensibilities. I have developed a keyboard layout for typing the characters used in the written language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Plosive	p ‹p›			t̪ ‹t›1			k ‹c›2
Nasal	m ‹m›			n ‹n›
Fricative		f ‹f›	θ ‹ð›	s̪ ‹s›	ɕ ‹š›
Lateral				l̪‹l›
Approximant		ʋ ‹w›				j ‹j›		ʁ ‹r›3

1. /t/ is realized as [ts] before high vowels.
2. /k/ is lenited to a fricative [x] in coda position.
3. /r/ has many possible realizations, including a trill (in a complex onset), rhoticization of the previous vowel (in coda position), or a uvular approximant (in onset position).

Vowels

	Front		Back
	Unround	Round
High	i	y	u
Mid	e	ø	ɔ
Low	a

• All vowels can be lax and tense (RTR and non-RTR) apart from /ɔ/ (written ‹o›). Long vowels are realized as the vowel with a schwa offglide (ie /iː/ > [iə]). Short vowels are lax versions of long vowels (RTR).
• Length and tenseness is represented by an acute accent over the vowel.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are frequently formed in agglutination. The language has a large and relatively unrestricted vowel inventory for a highly agglutinating language, and diphthong formation is complex:

	Second Vowel
First Vowel	i	y	u	e	ø	o	a
i	í	í	ju	je	jø	jo	ja
y	ý	ý	ju	je	jø	jo	ja
u	wi	wy	ú	we	wø	wo	wa
e	é	é	eu*	é	é	eo*	ea*
ø	ǿ	ǿ	ǿ	ǿ	ǿ	ǿ	ǿ
o	oi	ó	ó	ǿ	ǿ	ó	oa*
a	ai	ai	au	á	á	au	á

• Marked combinations are disyllabic and not true diphthongs.

Phonotactics

Possible syllable structures (where C is a consonant, V is a vowel, A is an approximant, F is a fricative, and N is a nasal) include:

• V
• CV
• CVF
• CVN
• CVr
• CAV
• CAVF
• CAVN
• CAVr

(Where /r/ is realized as a rhoticization of the previous vowel.)

• ð or š before l are written and realized as [s].
• Nasals in contact regressively assimilate.

Morphology

Nouns

Possessor

STEM

Plural Possessor

Case/Number

Nouns are declined according to two numbers (singular and plural), two genders (animate and inanimate), six or seven cases (a total of eight), and four possessive persons (as well as singular and plural for each possessor).

Many adjectives may also be attached to nouns in a clitic form, as a prefix closest to the root.

Animate Paradigm

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	e	eð
Accusative	i	is
Dative	tar	tolar
Associative	jer	jafer
Comparative	pi	paji
Vocative*	rý	rý

• The vocative is a postposed particle.

Inanimate Paradigm

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	a	að
Accusative	u	us
Dative	ðar	ðolar
Instrumental	myr	majyr
Locative	šu	šul
Ablative	si	saji
Comparative	ci	caji

Person

Singular possessive markers are prefixes. Plural markers are suffixes paired with the appropriate singular marker.

	Singular	Plural
1	tsi	i
2	ci	i
21	a	i
3.an	ðis	u
3>3.an	ðin	u