Tho Yor: Language of the Ancient sith (part 3)

Let's Talk Conlangs!

It's been awhile since the last update but it's that time again for a dive into the Tho Yor language.

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​Tho Yor operates on a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) order, the reasoning behind this was simply that I wanted the language to have a unique relationship to the verb. The ancient Sith had a strong innate connection to the force, so by having this VSO it represented to me a manifestation of that in the language. Below is an IPA transcription of a sentence in Tho Yor.

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​It is polysynthetic, and so arguments can be dropped. The reasoning behind the polysynthetic is actually my favorite part about this language. I went through a lot of research material, both fictitious and real, but had discovered a comic from the early 90’s that showed a single panel where an ancient Sith was speaking, but the text was written in ancient Sith. I knew immediately it was a polysynthetic and wanted to use that in the language.

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(2) budɤðl̃ðiʁ̃-x:ɲø̃:-kuɣ̃        x:ŋɐ̃:-bisɐn 
     FUT-kill-TRANS-1PL-ERG DEM-jedi
​     ‘We will kill the Jedi.’

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​Once I started piecing together the language, I realized that I needed to come up with some way of counting. The ancient Sith were not only innately connected to the force, but so were the animals on the planet. This caused all the Sith to have a deep respect for the animals on the planet, many were taken as pets, but most were left alone. One creature in particular they revered was called a Silooth, a beetle the size of an elephant with six spider-like claws. I used this as the inspiration for creating a base-6 counting system. It felt natural to have the name for the creature be the number and the noun, the distinction between them comes in the syntax.

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I am going to keep it a bit short in this one y'all because I am working on some pretty cool and exciting things. Lots more to come in the next few months. Check out my Instagram to stay up to date!