Tandí

Introduction

'obala yábalí wantandí is the native language of the ŋation of 'o'aben yálekki wanyókóz on order of lappi Miya on the 3rd of May, 2026, at 12:06 P.M. CST

Phonology

Vowels

closure	front		central		back
	lax	tense	lax	tense	lax	tense
close	ɪ ⟨i⟩	i ⟨í⟩		ɨ ⟨ú⟩		u ⟨ó⟩
mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	e ⟨é⟩	ə ⟨u⟩		o ⟨o⟩
open	æ ⟨á⟩	a ⟨a⟩

Vowels may be nasalized or elongated

Consonants

Placement → ↓ Manner	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Laryngeal
Nasal	m		n
Plosive	p / b		t / d			k / g	ʔ ⟨'⟩
Sibilant affricate				t͡ʃ ⟨ts⟩ / d͡ʒ ⟨dj⟩
Sibilant fricative			s ⟨c⟩ / z	ʃ ⟨s⟩ / ʒ ⟨j⟩
Non-sibilant fricative	f / v	ð			ʝ ⟨y⟩		h
Approximant			ɹ ⟨r⟩			w
Lateral Approximant			l

Consonant cluster reduction rules

Consonants can be 'absorbed' or 'deleted', where absorbed consonants become their absorber (dk > dd) and deleted consonants disappear (dn > n)

• n absorbs neighboring m
• m deletes preceding p and b
• n deletes preceding t and d
• g absorbs all other neighboring plosives, k absorbs all but g, d all but k and g, etc. (' is considered weak)
• dj absorbs neighboring ts
• dj and ts delete preceding j and s
• j absorbs all other neighboring sibilant fricatives, s absorbs all but j, etc.
• y absorbs all other neighboring non-sibilant fricatives, ð absorbs all but y, etc. (h is considered weak)
• w absorbs all other neighboring approximants, and r absorbs l (regular and lateral approximants are blended)

Examples:

• lad-gíla-món-'an → laggílamónan​ (d-g → gg, n-' → n)
• lad-púkan-món → laddúkannón​ (d-p → dd, n-m → nn)
• yá-damack-dé'an → yádamacké'an​ (ck-d → ck)
• bí-daad-ní → bídaaní (d-n → n)

Phonotactics

C(S)V(C)(C) or (C)CV(S)(C) ,where C is any consonant, S is any oral sonorant, and V is any vowel

V can be lengthened, which is represented as 2 vowels in the romanization but counts as 1

C can be geminated, which is represented as 2(3) consonants in the romanization but counts as one for phonotactics

There is no set tense patterning, and tense is instead considered a part of intonation

Allophones

• <f> /f/ → /fʰ/ | _N
• <g> /g/ → /ɣ/ | L(G)_V
• <k> /k/ → /kʰ/ | _N
• <k> /k/ → /x/ | L(G)_V
• <k> /x/ → /xʰ/ | _N
• <l> /l/ → /l̃/ | N_
• <p> /p/ → /pʰ/ | _N
• <r> /ɹ/ → /ɾ/ | C!n_
• <r> /ɹ/ → /ɹ̃/ | N_
• <r> /ɹ/ → /ʢ̞/ | #_
• <t> /t/ → /tʰ/ | _N
• <y> /ʝ/ → /ʝ̃/ | N_
• <w> /w/ → /w̃/ | N_

where C is any consonant, V is any vowel, L is any lax vowel, N is any nasal vowel, G is any oral sonorant, and #_ means word-initial

Rhyme scheme

In poetic meter, geminated vowels are twice as long, and geminated consonants and stretched rhymes are one and a half times as long.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

bín - 1.AN

mam - 1.INAN

poka - 2.AN

tóó - 2.INAN

dããd - 3.AN

ken - 3.INAN

Deictic pronouns

mitta - this

lotta - that

'this' is used for anything within two steps and arm's reach. 'that' is anything outside of that range.

Interrogative pronouns

koko - what

conna - when

mosí - who

(other interrogatives are phrasal, e.g. 'lewa koko' [in_order_to what] meaning 'why')

Indefinite pronouns

Case→	Negative	Universal	Assertive existential	Dubitative existential
Type↓
Person	habunko	habunbaa	habunlin	habunẽn
Thing	lenko	lenbaa	lenlin	lenẽn
Place	ranko	ranbaa	ranlin	ranẽn
Time	cónko	cónbaa	cónlin	cónẽn

Nouns

Role assignment

subject (Nominative case): 'al-

direct object/subject complement (Accusative case): bí-

indirect object (Dative case): tú-

noun complement (Genitive case): wan-

other (Oblique case): 'o-

Number

singular default, plus dual, paucal, and plural marked by suffix on a stem which goes before tense and aspect

dual: -dí

paucal: -ve

plural: -na

Gender

There is no grammatical gender in Tandí

Possession

POSD na POSR: 'obaan na 'obákúún - the room of the house (DEF-OBL-room POSS DEF-OBL-house)

Determiners

Demonstratives

_ wannitta - this _

_ wanlotta - that _

Articles

Tandí does not use articles

Possessive Determiners

_ na _: doro na bín - my ball (ball POSS 1.AN); doro na poka - your ball (ball POSS 2.AN); etc.

_ na koko bac - whose _ (POSS what AN)

Quantifiers

Quantifiers go before the nouns they quantify (see Sentence Order)

Conjunctions

Conjunctions go in between semantic elements they connect, which can include things like nouns, noun phrases, relative clauses, verb argument lists, etc.

Numerals

Cardinals

cardinal "'amend" noun - ní 'amend doro - two CARD ball - ball number two (of a collection)

Ordinals

ordinal tokan noun - ordinal ORD noun, e.g. ní tokan doro - two ORD ball - second ball

Nominals

root-cardinal - doroní - ball-two - two balls

nũm - zero

'ókcí - one

ní - two

ta'í - three

sín - four

kílan - five

jaal - six

kitten - seven

bón - eight

nítta - nine

lan - ten

cen - hundred

tõn - thousand

Adjectives

Placement

directly after the noun

Adjectives may or may not match the number of the noun, as there is a semantic difference

Comparison

yá-adjective-degree-PRS subject: subject is degree adjective than object

Finite Verbs

Tense

attaches to verb

• -da: PRS
• -'ãn: PST
• -lí: FUT

Aspect

goes after tense:

• -bó: PROG.CONT
• -len: PERF
• -món: GNO
• -dada: HAB

goes before verb:

• kon-: INF

Verb Postpositions

Mood

• 'akaa-: MIR
• 'anõõl-: CONC/HYP
• 'ila-: OPT/BEND
• 'íyye-: HORT/JUSS
• luke-: DUB/COND
• me-: ABIL
• tene-: PERM/PRESCR

Evidentiality

• -ce'í: RPT
• -mánna: INFR
• -nobã: NEV
• -tócí: SENS

Negation

• 'eeya: NEG

Agreement

The 'present' tense is the present by default, and otherwise the tense of the last verb.

Voice

• mẽna- : CAUS
• lad- : PASS
• 'õm- : REV

Auxiliary Verbs

'ayí (AFF) conveys confirmation of an action, and is verbalized to 'ayída (AFF-PRS) to convey confirmation of a state or truth, or of an object's existence, across the past, present, or future, with tense agreement

'cirette laan ma/im' conveys that the subject has knowingly or unknowingly caused the direct object to be unintentionally involved in the indirect object (a state or event), where if the direct object and subject are the same the direct object may be omitted, or included for emphasis

Copula

There is no copula in Tandí

Adpositions

Agreement

No agreement between adposition and complement is necessary

Syntax

Sentence Order

VSO word order

Particles go before the words they attach to, and prepositions after

Adjectives may attach to any words except conjunctions and postpositions. They go directly after the word they attach to (except verbs, where they go after the postposition)

Adjectives can also be placed at the head of a verb phrase to convey 'SBJ is ADJ', just as nouns may do the same to convey 'SBJ is N'

Verb complements may be placed before the verb phrase's prepositional phrases and connected clauses, but still after the postposition and adjectives, if they are only one word long

Words modify nouns according to the following hierarchy:

• PREP(QUANT(((HNR(N))ADJ)GEN))

Auxiliary Verb Constructions

Nouns cannot be advanded forward within auxiliary verb phrases

'ayí can be either a verb or a particle, as mentioned in Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs follow a regular form:

• V PREP Oi S (Od)

where V PREP is the auxiliary verb (a finite verb with a preposition), S is the subject and is NOT part of a prepositional phrase, Od is the direct object, and Oi is the noun phrase completing the prepositional phrase of the auxiliary verb

Adverb Placement

Adverbs are a derivative of adjectives, and follow adjective rules

Coordination and subordination

Conjunctions go between anything but postpositions and cannot be omitted. Coordinate and subordinate clauses are separated by conjunctions. There is no distinction made between coordination and subordination on a grammatical level

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses follow a regular form:

• HEAD REL VP

where HEAD is 3.INAN if the relative clause is free and the bound matrix clause if the relative clause is bound, REL is a grammatical particle (kaka /kaxa/), and VP is a verb phrase, and the head is the verb phrase's implied direct object

Questions

Polar Questions

• hal ('eeya) _: is _ (un)true?

WH-Questions

There are three interrogative pronouns, which can form more specific interrogatives through genitives, prepositions, and conjunctions:

• koko - what
• conna - when
• mosí - who
• koko wacón - when (what time), pronoun (emphatic)
• koko wanhabun - who (what person), pronoun (emphatic)
• koko waran - where (what place), pronoun (generic)
• lewa koko - why (to what end), prepositional phrase
• konto koko - why (because of what reasoning), subordinate clause
• lak koko - how (by doing what), prepositional phrase
• no koko - about what, prepositional phrase
• 'im koko - where (near what), prepositional phrase
• 'im conna - when (near when), prepositional phrase
• 'imaan conna - for what time frame (inside when), prepositional phrase
• do koko - from what, prepositional phrase
• laan koko - to what, prepositional phrase
• etc...

questions are asked in the same intonation and word order as statements are declared

Existential Clause

uses the auxiliary verb construction of 'ayí

Miscellaneous

The subject, and sometimes the object, direct or indirect, of a verb phrase can be move up in the sentence in a select set of cases:

1. A quote is being given. Since the quote is a prepositional phrase, it would normally occur before the arguments of the verb. However, because this could result in poorer understanding of the quote itself, the arguments go before SPECIFICALLY the quote, and after any other prepositions or particles, and the quote prepositional phrase always goes last.
2. The subject or object is only one word long. In order to promote faster delivery of important information, the word may be placed before all prepositions and particles, at the 'front' of the verb phrase (behind the verb, postposition, and adverbs)