LotM - Apr 18: Taara
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Happy April, and congratulations to aralxed777's language <lang>IGD</lang>! A Bavkiri language of Sahar, Taara has many fascinating features and a lovely script. Read on to learn all about it!
This public article was written by [Deactivated User] on 3 Apr 2018, 15:24.
[comments] igdlotm apr 18lotm
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Happy April, and congratulations to aralxed777's language 
Taara! A Bavkiri language of Sahar, Taara has many fascinating features and a lovely script. Read on to learn all about it!Taara has loads of consonants, with a special emphasis on fricatives. There are voiced and voiceless fricatives at five places of articulation: labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, and velar. Additionally, there are two voiceless fricatives /χ/ and /h/ without voiced counterparts, and the voiceless pharyngeal fricative shows up as an allophone of /h/. The postalveolar fricatives each have affricate counterparts, which come in plain and labialized varieties. The stop inventory is a normal /p b t d k g/, but the velar and alveolar stops have preaspirated variants. Preaspirated variants also show up for many of the approximants, including /l ɾ w/, and for the fricative /v/. Rounding out the inventory are two other approximants, /ɹ̥ j/, and three nasals /m n ɲ/.
Taara has five basic vowels, /a ɛ i o u/, which can appear both long and short, with an additional vowel /ɪ/ having only a short form. The diphthong /äi/ can also appear both long and short, and has a separate letter, transcribed <ȧ>, in the orthography.
Taara has a beautiful alphabetic script, remniscent of Syraic and Sinhala. The core phonemes all have distinct letters in the script, with long vowels denoted by doubling. Many of the fricatives are formed by digraphs, e.g. /ð θ ʃ/ could be literally transcribed <dh th sh>. Some of the allophones, such as pharyngeal h or the preaspirated consonants found in compounds, do not have separate letters.
Taara nouns show three different numbers, singular, dual, and plural. Although they do not inflect for case, they do show possessive forms. In addition to the dual, plural, and possessive suffixes, there is a definite prefix ta-, and special derivational suffixes for artificial, tangible, or hypothetical forms, e.g. tatelahðǡġ "the brother [that I never had]".
Taara verbs mark two different moods, emotive and conditional, with an unmarked indicative. Past and future each are marked by suffixes, with present also unmarked. The perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive are also marked by suffixes, with the perfect progressive suffix a fusion of the perfect and progressive suffixes. Finally, there is a single suffix marking the infinitive. Although neither subject nor object are marked on the verb, there is a special reflexive form.
Overall, Taara syntax is head initial, with prepositions and SVO word order. Since Taara verbs do not mark subject or object, this SVO ordering is how arguments are marked in the clause.
That wraps up our tour of Taara! If you want more, check out its articles, LexiBuild sets, phrasebook, or translations. Make sure to listen to the recorded translations as well!
Got suggestions for how the next LotM should be written? See something in Taara that wasn't covered and you wish it had been? Feel free to shoot us (phi2dao, argyle, protondonor, or Avlönskt) a PM with your questions, comments, and/or concerns. Also feel free to drop by the LotM clan if you have other feedback, want to join in the voting process, or nominate a language! ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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