The T Language (Ti tac) is a minimalist auxiliary language. Its aim is to have the least amount of words, complexity and phonemes for a person to learn. It's key feature is the ability to use a word as any part of the speech. Wether it is used as a verb, a noun or a adjective. For instance, the word "Eter" can either mean "To eat", "food" or even "fit" depending on its placement inside a sentence or certain morphemes attached to it. All word stem are based off English, Romance languages or other Indo-European languages.
T bases its core idea on Toki Pona (a language created by Sonja Lang in 2001, having a lexicon of only 120 words). The T language takes that idea further by making this a complete auxiliary language, of course removing the philosophic aspect of the original language.
The T language has a very restrictive phonetic inventory. It contains only 8 phonemes:
These phonemes are recommendations, as the T language phonetic inventory is very small many allophones are allowed.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | |
| Mid | e̞ | o̞ |
| Open | a |
| Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | t | k | |
| Fricative | s | ||
| Tap | ɾ |
| Int. Phonetic Alphabet | Romanisation |
|---|---|
| ɾ | r |
| t | t |
| k | c |
| s | s |
| e̞ | e |
| i | i |
| o̞ | o |
T has a really simple stress system; stress is indicated through volume (i.e. stressed syllables are louder). The stress is always placed on the penultimate syllable. In the example (1), the syllables that receive the primary stress are highlighted in bold
a. Cero
b. Ra
c. Se’stera
The T language only has three regular pronouns. Plural pronouns can be expressed by adding the plural particle before the regular pronouns.
| English | Ti tac |
|---|---|
| I | Et |
| You | Te |
| He/She/It | I |
The T Language's syntax is usually SVO (Subject + Verb + Object), verbs are always marked with the "s'" morpheme in front of them. If a verb begins with an "S", the "se'" morpheme will be inserted before it. A particularity of T is the complete abscence of the verb "To be", in order to express it you would mark the object with the "i'" morpheme in front of it. The "i'" morpheme introduces objects and indirect objects, it is not mandatory in a sentence with a verb and is used to disambiguate.
a. I'm fine
Et i'tec
b. I'm eating food
Et s'eter (i')eter
T doesn't have any gender or articles, adjectives or demonstratives can still be used if anything needs to be disambiguated in the context. Their usage is minimal, and it is generally advised to exclude them.
a. An apple / The apple
Ater / (Sa) ater
(LIT.) Apple / (This) apple
b. She did that
Cer i ci s'cater sa
(LIT.) "Female pronoun" did that
Tenses in T can be expressed by placing the verb "Ci" (to have) before the concerned verb for the past tense and the adverb "Ra" (later) after the concerned verb, for the future tense.
a. You go
Te s'co
b. You went
Te ci s'co
c. You will go
Te s'co ra
The T Language only has an active voice, in order to translate passive voice you would simply reverse the subject and the object. For instance in order to say the sentence "The lamb is eaten by the wolf" you would say "The wolf eats the lamb". For objectless sentences, you would add the neutral third person pronoun as the subject of the sentence, for example "I am seen" would be "Someone sees me".
a. The lamb is eaten by the wolf.
Crit s'eter erit
(LIT.) Wild animal eat domestic animal
b. I am seen
I se'ser et
(LIT.) Someone see I
Causative in T can be expressed by adding the verb "Cos" (To cause) before the main object.
a. I make him eat.
Et s'cos i se'ser
(LIT.) I cause him see
The T language does not have a direct distinction for aspect within its verb system. However, aspectual meanings such as continuous, habitual, or completed actions can be expressed through external words or particles. These particles are used in combination with verbs to indicate the aspect of an action, rather than relying on changes to the verb itself. For example, a particle or phrase might be added to show whether an action is ongoing or has been completed, offering a clear sense of the action's temporal nature.
a. I'm working
Et s'trece ara
(LIT.) I work now
b. I work
Et s'trece
c. I have worked
Et ci s'eti trece
(LIT.) I stopped to work
Genitive in T can either express possession or origin. Genitive is marked by the "'e" suffix which is attached to the focused noun or the noun phrase.
a. The man's cat.
Erit'e tari
b. The city of the South
Er tes'e terto
The T language expresses different moods using specific markers or structural changes. The indicative mood is the default and is marked with the "s'" prefix before the verb. The imperative is formed by omitting pronouns and placing stress on the last syllable of the verb. The infinitive is unmarked and simply follows an indicative verb in a sentence. The conditional mood is marked by the condition particle "a" placed before the verb.
a. I eat
Et s'eter
b. Eat!
S'eter!
c. I would eat
Et a s'eter
d. I want to eat
Et se'sara eter
e. I could do it, if I were you
Et a s'cai cater sa, a et i'te
Adverbs can be formed in T by adding the word "Sei" (manner) next to the adjective that it modifies
a. Slow
Cete
b. Slowly
Cete sei
Predicative adjectives will be marked by the "i'" suffix after the noun while attributive adjectives will be placed before.
Multiple adjectives can be combined together to modify a certain noun. Generally, there are no more than three and they are not affected by any order. Adjectives are placed before the noun they modify.
a. He is handsome
I i'tec
b. The handsome man
Tec tari
c. The handsome man is young
Tec tari i'stat
Plural is marked by adding the Determiner “Er” (Many) before the concerned noun. For instance “Apples” would be translated as “Er ater” (literally many apple).
a. I'm eating an apple
Et s'eter ater
b. I'm eating apples
Et s'eter er ater
Negation is expressed by the negation particle "Ta" (No/Not/Zero) before the concerned verb. The "Ta" particle can also convey the opposite meaning of a verb or noun.
a. I'm not eating
Et ta s'eter
b. Ta tera
Not same/Different
b. Ta ces
Not wear/Take off
Questions are indicated by the presence of the interrogative word "So" (What) at the start of the sentence without changing the word order. Interrogative sentences will also often rise the pitch at the end of them. Other interrogatives can be formed by combining the "So" interrogative with nouns e.g. "So ei?" (What person?) would mean Who?
a. What is going on?
So s'co?
b. Where is your money?
So sro te rari?
b. Do you have a cat?
So et s'ra erit?
T uses a base-ten system for counting. Numerals act as any adjectives and can be either ordinals or cardinals. Hundreds of units are created by placing the unit before the hundreds same applies for tens. Tens and hundreds are affected by plural. Thousands are expressed as ten hundreds. In order to differentiate ordinals of cardinals, the use of the plural particle is needed. For instance, "Toi tei' is "The second day" while "Toi er tei" is "Two days". Following that logic there is no difference between "One day" and "The first day" ("Or tei").
| Numerals | |
|---|---|
| Zero/None | Ta |
| One | Or |
| Two | Toi |
| Three | Tri |
| Four | Ceter |
| Five | Teco |
| Numerals | |
|---|---|
| Six | Sec |
| Seven | Sete |
| Eight | Eto |
| Nine | Eroi |
| Ten | Teis |
| Hundred | Er |
a. 60 (six tens)
Sec er teis
b. 254 (two hundreds four)
Toi er er ceter
c. 2,000 (two ten hundreds)
Toi teis er er
a. The sun is bright today.
Tei i'stera sa tei
b. I woke up early, and I went to the park to see the sunrise
Et ci s'teo sor sei, e et ci s'co cro sro ace i'tei teo
c. She bought some fresh fruit from the market, and then she went home to make a delicious salad for her family.
I ci s'rari oar stat tret rari sro'e, e ra i ci s'co tes cater sorit eter cro toe tes it'e i