Diachronic Linguistics

There are three broad periods of Taran language history: Early Taran (NS 1-421), Middle Taran (NS 421-704), and Modern Taran (NS 704-1063). The Taran language's developments can also be analyzed across broad historical periods: the Nomadic Period (NS 1-233), Early Sovereignty (NS 233-421), Fractured Sovereignty (NS 421-476), Early Middle Sovereignty (NS 476-704), Late Middle Sovereignty (NS 704-869), and Modern Sovereignty (NS 869-1063).

The Taran language was greatly influenced by the Faraham invasion in NS 421 during the start of the Fractured Sovereignty Period, leading to a high number of lexical borrowings from Shenwarii languages, as well as the alteration of some aspects of the phonetic-phonological system. This spurred the change from Early to Middle Taran.

The start of the Late Middle Sovereignty, when the Western Peaks rose to a vast empire, spurred the development of the language into Modern Taran. Contact with a variety of languages from the 700s to present day, include Khantou and Shenvaan, have led to further changes and the emergence of new regional dialects.

## Phonetics and phonology

### Partial Disappearance of /h/

The phoneme /h/ is becoming realized in increasingly fewer instances. In some dialects, it is only present word-initially or as the second consonant in a consonant cluster.

NS 1-550         h
present and realized in any VhV situation

NS 500-750     VhV à
V: where V1 and V2 are the same vowel

NS 700-1063   elsewhere
VhV à
VxhV where V1 and V2 are different

## Nouns

### Nominal endings

Nouns in Early Taran always contained a final vowel or a case ending if they were the subject or object of the sentence. The final vowel depended upon the previous vowel according to Taran vowel harmony rules. During the first hundred years of Middle Taran, during the Fracture Sovereignty Period, vowel harmony was reduced and lost. Many nouns' final vowel became reduced to schwa, and by 600 NS, some had lost the final vowel completely. New nouns which entered the language, such as Faraham loan words or verbal backformations, lacked a vowel ending.

NS 1-500         -V
(i/u/a)

NS 480-600     -a
reduction to many endings

NS 600-1063   nouns often lack final vowel and others have reduced; verbal nominalizations lack vowel ending

## Verbs

### Verb conjugation and the grammaticalization of the additive valence marker

The verb conjugation system changed for all tenses. The chart below depicts the changes that occurred within the present tense, but near-parallel charts can be made for the past and future tenses. The difference is that the distinct transitive markers for the past and future tenses, -Vgh and -Vxh respectively, were lost completely around 400-450 NS.

### Grammaticalization of -sa-

The infix -sa- originally came from the verb *saem*, meaning "to cause". The frequency of *same* in verbal constructions allowed it to be predictable, consequently reducing it until it became reinterpreted as its own separate phoneme. In some verbs like *sahaaq*, it has been reinterpreted to be part of the root itself. Over time, the pattern can be generalized as *saem* -> *sem* -> *səm* -> *sə.*

NS 1-200         saem
verbal construction

NS 200-420     sem

NS 400-500     sam

NS 500-1063   sa

### Nominal verbalization

#### General rule

Nouns are very frequently converted to verbs in Taran. The paradigm for nominal verbalizations, however, has changed, co-occurring with noun ending changes and suffixal verb conjugation changes. The changes for nominal verbalization can be described below:

NS 1-421         - full noun (with V ending) + h for transition into verb (-VtV)

NS 421-704     - full noun with merged vowel to the verb, so verbal deletion

NS 704-800     - verb form of nominalized verb always short and never have vowel

NS 800-1063   - backformations may occur without nominal end

#### Example

In order to demonstrate the changes that occur with nominal verbalization, suffixal endings, valency, pronoun movement, and word order changes, two sentences have been translated by Taran as it would have been spoken for every fifty years. The two sentences are, in order, "I eat food," and "Xhadouk killed Faraset."

**Early Taran**

NS 1                Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka
saemhukugh Farasetav.

NS 50              Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka
saemhukugh Farasetav.

NS 100            Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka
saemhukugh Farasetav.

NS 150            Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka
saemhukugh Farasetav.

NS 200            Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka semhukugh
Farasetav.

NS 250            Hla
foqohox faahov.               Xhadouka semhukugh
Farasetav.

NS 300            Hla
foqohax faahov.               Xhadouka
semhukagh Farasetav.

NS 350            Hlafoqohax
faahov.                Xhadouka semhukagh
Farasetav.

**Middle Taran**

NS 400            Hlafoqohot
faahov.                 Xhadouka
samhukaxagh Farasetav.

NS 450            Hlafoqot
faahov.                     Xhadouka
samhukaxat Farasetav.

NS 500            Hlafoqat
faahov.                     Xhadouk sahukaxat
Farasetav.

NS 550            Hlafoqat
faahov.                     Xhadouk sahakaxat
Farasetav.

NS 600            Hlafoqata
fah.                         Xhadouk sahakaxta
Faraset.

NS 650            Hlafoqata
fah.                         Xhadouk sahakaxta
Faraset.

**Modern Taran**

NS 700            Hlafoqata
fah.                         Sakaxta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 750            Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 800            Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 850            Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 900            Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 950            Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 1000          Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

NS 1050          Hlafoqta
fah.                           Sahaaqta
Xhadouk Faraset.

## Syntax

### Word order change

The Taran language changed from a SVO basic word order to a verb initial VSO word order.

It is to note that in Early Taran, the presence of the case system on subjects and objects allowed for more flexibility. Therefore, verb initial sentences were present, but the majority of declartive sentences were nevertheless SVO. The presence of subject pronouns preceding verbs resulted in pronomial cliticization to the following verb; object pronouns were then brought forward and placed as a second, outer clitic at the front of the verb. At this point, the case system was lost because of predictive word ordering, and sentences shifted to verb initial patterns. The VSO word order is said to be a trait of Modern Taran.

NS 1-350         SVO
with nouns containing case suffixes, where -av is the subject marker and -ov object marker. Full
nouns or pronouns are present in the sentence, but not both

NS 350-500     Subject
pronoun becomes cliticized to verb; nominal subject and pronoun co-occur

NS 500-550     Loss of
case on subject

NS 550-600     Object
moved into the verb at the front

NS 600-700 Object case lost and SVO order weakens.

NS 700-1063   Verb moves to VSO order.

## Example translations

Example translations are taken from NS 200, NS 500, and NS 1050, respectively.

"I eat food."

* **Early Taran:** Hla foqohox faahov.

* **Middle Taran:** Hlafoqat faahov.
* **Modern Taran:** Hlafoqta fah.

"Xhadouk killed Faraset."

* **Early Taran:** Xhadouka semhukugh Farasetav.
* **Middle Taran:** Xhadouk sahukaxat Farasetav.

* **Modern Taran:** Sahaaqta Xhadouk Faraset.