Thessama
| Thessama | |
|---|---|
| Language family | Çana |
| Early form(s) | Proto-Çana (Unattested) |
| Era | 2,500 - 1,500 years ago |
| Official status | |
| Spoken in | Ancient Thanna States |
| Speaker | |
| Endonym | Θamissama [tʰã.is.sã.a] |
| Technical information | |
| Usage | Liturgical language, classical language |
Thessama (Natively: Θamissama [tʰã.is.sã.a]) is an ancient language, spoken natively several thousand years before the present time, studied and spoken by religious tradition in Araçana to this day.
History
Phonology
Presented is the phonemic inventory of Classical Thessama, as it was likely pronounced late into the language’s lifespan.
Consonants
Note that the columns here are sorted in the manner with which they have been sorted traditionally, which deviates in some ways from modern phonological standards.
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal / Lateral | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unvoiced | voiced | unvoiced | voiced | non-lateral | lateral | |
| Nasal | m (Ṽ.V)[1] | n (Ṽr̝V)[2] | ||||
| Unaspirated Obstruent | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ͜ʟ (V.ɰV)[3] |
| Aspirated Obstruent | pʰ | bʱ | tʰ | dʱ | kʰ | ɬ |
| Trill | pr̥ | br | r̥ | r | kr̥ | |
| Sibilant | s s̪[4] | (Vr̝V)[2] | ||||
Vowels
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ui̯ (u̯i)[5] | ||
| High | i | u | i̯u[6] | ||
| Low | a | ai̯ | |||
Writing
Thessama was written in several different alphabetic systems throughout its history. The most attested is the Xoudθama script, which was a child of Ancient Greek writing. Below is detailed those letters and digraphs in their traditional order, as well as their phonemic value and Latin* transliteration.
| Letter/Digraph Name | Phoneme | Transliteration | Letter/Digraph Name | Phoneme | Transliteration | Letter/Digraph Name | Phoneme | Transliteration | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amφa | /a/, sometimes also used for unstressed /ai̯/ | A a | mi | /m/ | M m | xi | /kʰ/ | X x | ||
| bita | /b/ | B b | ni | /n/ | N n | limada xi | /ɬ/ | Lx lx | ||
| dinta | /d/ | D d | ξi | /kr̥/ | Ξ ξ | ψi | /pr̥/ | Ψ ψ | ||
| assita | /s/ | S s | pi | /p/ | P p | bita ψi[7] | /br/ | Bψ bψ | ||
| aζζalin | /s̪ː/ | ζζ | ru | /r/ | R r | umiξun ilita[8] | /ui̯/ | Oi oi | ||
| θita | /tʰ/ | Θ θ | ꞧinkama | /r̥/ | Ꞧ ꞧ | amφa ilita | /ai̯/ | Ai ai | ||
| dinta θita | /dʱ/ | Dθ dθ | talu | /t/ | T t | |||||
| ilita | /i/, sometimes /i̯u/ word-initially | I i | umiξun ussilun[9] | /u/ | Ou ou | |||||
| kappa | /k/ | K k | φi | /pʰ/ | Φ φ | |||||
| limada | /ɡ͜ʟ/ | L l | bita φi | /bʱ/ | Bφ bφ |
- ↑ In between two vowels, an /m/ will surface as a hiatus of a nasal and non-nasal vowel.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 In betwen two vowels, /n/ and /s/ surface identically as a trilled fricative. The difference can be heard as nasalization of the previous vowel when the underlying phoneme is /n/, and lack of nasalization for /s/.
- ↑ In between two vowels, a /g͜ʟ/ will surface as a weakened approximant [ɰ].
- ↑ The sound /s̪/ only occurs geminatedly.
- ↑ Word-initially, the nucleus of the /ui̯/ diphthong is shifted.
- ↑ /i̯u/ is only found word-initially.
- ↑ Later supplanted by bita ru.
- ↑ Later referred to simply as "umiξun".
- ↑ Later referred to simply as "ussilun".