Tharell

Overview

Tharell is the language native to the Kingdom of Atharellia. Tharell is also the official language of Ayrwll, dating from the time when it was colonized by Atharellia.

Origins

Tharell has partly evolved from the Râl, but those roots are nearly unrecognizable now. More apparent are its links to Quenya, as in its word for leaf, "alas" (Quenya: lasse) or star, "ela" (Quenya: el), and Sindarin, by the way it forms its plurals as "radan -> redain", "laron -> leryn" (Sindarin: mallorn -> mellyrn).

Vocabulary

A full Tharell-English dictionary has yet to be compiled, but a few words are listed below.

Tharell-English

alas : leaf
angr : iron
ar : and
ara : yes
ash : sky/heaven
assyl : fall
avis : return, arrival
aviste : to arrive, return
avote : burn
avoth : fire
ber : green
car : alive
carae : the Living (plural)
chanal : channel (literal anglicism: "Water channel", "News channel", "Transmission channel" etc.)
ela : star
elae : stars
ezra : no
ezron : not
garte : shine
kel : knowledge
keleste : to know
kelia : information (unitary, ie "piece of information", pl: keliae)
laron : dream (noun)
laronte : to dream
laur : golden
leryn : dreams
lyr : bright (adjective)
lyra : light
marte : to have
melon : growth
melonte : to grow
menter : silver
menth : moon
menthae : moons
mon : being/existance
mor : dark (lifted straight from Quenya)
mok : stone
monte : to be/to do (existence is defined as motion)
mos : water
nae : "may" (imperative), "may it be that" (also straight from Quenya)
naka: flame
nera : time period of two hours
nerae : many time periods of two hours
nur : cold
nurte : freeze
ny : this
nyr : new (likely derived from "this" for "now", "immediate", "present")
nyra : today
ra : day
radan : week ('six-day', archaic, but now means "seven days")
raden : week (originally 'ten-day'. Used for "seven days" now. Common.)
rae : days
ran : sun ('daybringer')
redain : weeks
redyn : several ten-days (quarter month, us
rul : red
ryste : to divide
ryster : central (place) (lit. "dividing")
voi : dead
voinae : the Dead (plural)
voite : to die
zil : ice
zul : night

English-Tharell

and : ar
arrival : avis
arrive, to : aviste
be, to : monte
bright : lyr
burn : avothe
central : ryster
centre : rysta
cold : nur
dark : mor
darken, to : morte
darkness : mora
day : ra (pl. rae)
dead : voi
die, to : voite
divide, to : ryste
dream, to : laronte
dream : laron (pl. leryn)
fall, to : assylte
fire : avoth
flame : naka
freeze : nurte
grow, to : melonte
have, to : marte
heaven : ash
hour : nera (two hours, twelfth part of the day)
ice : zil
iron : angr
know, to : keleste
light : lyra
moon : menth (pl. menthae)
new : nyr
news : nyrkelia (pl: nyrkeliae)
night : zul
rain : mosash (sky-water)
red : rul
return : avis
shadow : mora
shine, to : garte, lyrte (illuminate)
silver : menter
sky : ash
star : ela (pl. elae)
stone : mok (pl. mokae)
sun : ran (pl. ranae, though when does anyone speak of several suns?)
this : ny
today : nyra
water : mos
week : raden, radan (archaic), (pl. redyn, redain)

Pronounciation

Tharell is pronounced and intoned similar to Latin (or even German, but that's outmoded). Thus, vowels take these sounds:

• i : 'ill'
• e : 'yellow'
• a : 'allah'
• u : 'goon'
• o : 'loth'
• y : 'ü' (German Umlaut) or as in French: "lune", alternatively 'ill', never 'white'.

'R's are pronounced rolling, but not guttural. (Ie. Italian). C is pronounced K. S is almost always unvoiced (sane, not zombie). Z was originally pronounced 'ts', but is now rendered a voiced s through English influence.

CH is usually pronounced gutturally, as "loch" or German "Rauch". On occasion, it is pronounced like German "ich". It is never pronounced "tsh".

TH is rendered "t", the "h" serving only to amplify the explosive sound. When in the middle of a word, some speakers pronounce the "h" with the next syllable, thus "menthae" becomes "ment-hae".

AE is pronounced, varyingly, "AIR" or "WHY", the latter being the originally correct form and the former a colloquialism.

Grammar

Note: Below, the word "thou" is used to denote a second person singular in English, since the modern forms for plural and singular ("you") are identical.

Cases

• Nominative : -a
• Genitive : -on
• Objective : -en
• Instrumental : -is

• Plural : -ae

The instrumental case indicates the use of a noun in a process described by a verb. This use commonly has no direct effect on the tool. It replaces standard prepositions like "with", "with the help of", "through", which are not necessary when describing such a relation.

The plural is attached after the case form, thus "onae", "enae". The instrumental case makes an exception in inserting another t, thus "istae".

Example:

- Elistae lyrtera caitenae - With stars shall I illuminate your path (Quoted from a Thanaic religious text)

Pronouns

• I : a
• Thou : o (singular)
• He : el
• She : ala
• It : omitted (meaning derived from context)

• We : ai
• You : oi
• They (all/predominantly male) : eli
• They (all/predominantly female) : alai
• They (indeterminate) : ilai

Plural gender distinctions depend on individual judgement and good sense rather than any numbers. One would almost always refer to a group of mixed gender by the indeterminate, unless one of the two were a tiny minority. In the name of political correctness, some groups have advocated the abolishment of all but the indeterminate form ('ilai'), in favor of non-discrimination.

• Genitive suffix : -r
• Objective suffix : -n
• Instrumental suffix: -s

Example:

's mart'rel elyrmokenae - "Through it, he shall have his stones" (nonsense phrase)

Verb Conjugation

Depending on dialect, the pronoun for first and second person is occasionally attached as a suffix. This does not apply to third person; the pronoun is always separate. When a pronoun is used, the standard male/female/plural verb roots are not used, as they are redundant.

Infinitive:

• To be - monte

With pronoun:

• I am - mont a, monta
• Thou art - mont o, monto
• He is - mont el
• She is - mont ala
• It is - mont

• We - mont ai, montai
• You - mont oi, montoi
• They (male) - mont eli
• They (female) - mont alai
• They (mixed) - mont ilai

Without pronouns, there are only three verb roots:

• masculine singular - mont
• feminine singular - montja (not to be confused with 'monta')
• plural - monti

Any acting subject goes directly after the verb. Any descriptive adverb is appended to the verb as a prefix, and a descriptive adjective is appended to the acting subject in the same way.

Imperative:

• Be! - montron!

Tense

A letter is attached after the verb to indicate non-present tense. If a first or second pronoun is attached to the verb, it goes after the pronoun. If a pronoun is NOT attached to the verb, the tense letter goes before the pronoun.

Future:

• I will be - montar, mont'r a
• Thou wilt be - monto'r, mont'r o
• He will be - mont'r el
• She will be - mont'r ala, etc. for the other forms.

Past:

• I was - montas, mont's a
• Thou wert - montos, mont's o
• He was - mont's el, etc.

Some, especially scholars or orators speaking a "high" language intended to be flowing, insert an 'e' as a filler in order to make the consonant more pronouncable. Thus:

• I will be - montera (attached in this instance)
• He will be - monter el, etc.

and

• I was - montesa
• He was - montes el

Perfect Tense:

Built nearly the same way as in English - "am done". The participle is treated as an adverb. Thus "I have been" is "I am beingly".

• been : montrishin

• I have been - "monta montishrin"
• Obertin has been - "mont montrishin Obertin"

Adverbs

Any adjective can describe an action or a subject without modification, only depending on word order. There is no change as in English "he walks slow"/"he walks slowly".

Word Order

(Adverb)-Acting Verb (Pronoun) (Adjective)-Acting Subject - - (Any objects of the action, place, time, etc.)

Exceptions can be made to this in order to stress particular parts of a sentence by placing them in the front or the back.

Example

It is cold.

Nurmont cal.

"Cal" is a word to describe the general surroundings. When a sentence does nothing but ascribe a static property to a noun, the property is considered an adverb of "is".

The dark night arrived and it was cold.

Avistes morzul, ar nurmontes cal. (Arrived darknight, and coldwas all)

The silver stars will shine brightly.

Lyrgarter menterelae. (Brightlyshinewill silverstars)

With stars shall I illuminate your path.

Elistae lyrtera oircaitenae. (Starswith illuminatewillI yourpath) - note anomalous word order