Introduction
The salthan language is also known as kadarad (literaly "knowledge talk") or Ihathenyelsany (words of the people), and has many dialects. The version of the language on this site is the most common dialect.
Pronouncing the Sounds
Written Salthan language is made up of 14 consonants and 6 vowels. Written Salthan is a flowing script where each letter attaches with a line to the next letter in a single word.
An alternate way of writing Salthan is using roman alphabet, called "romanized Salthan" which will be used throughout this guide. Salthan language does not possess upper and lower case character as in English, however uppercase may be used to start begining of sentences and for proper names.
Salthan is read from left to right, top to bottom.
Salthan alphabet with IPA pronunciations
Vowel symbols are attached to the previous letter, (usually a consonant, but sometimes because of affixing it is another vowel)
The vowels are pronounced as follows:
| Salthan | Romanized | IPA | Pronounced | Salthan | Romanized | IPA | Pronounced |
| a | ɑ |
'ah' as in ma |
|
o | o | oh as in mow | |
| e | ɛ | 'eh' as in pet. | u | u | 'oo' as in pool | ||
| i | i |
'ee' as in keep. |
|
ai / y | ɑI | like english word 'eye' |
The Consonants are:
gˈas g in gorilla
r r in rat
s s in sleep
t t in table
ʃ sh in sheep
ʧ ch in chair
θ th
h h in health
d d in dance
k k in
l l in laugh
n n in no
The Agglutinative language
Salthan is a highly agglutinative language, meaning the words are mostly made up of a base affixes to modify the word.
In most if not all cases an adjective is used like an affix, attached to the word it modifies. An affix always modifies the thing it is connected to at its right.
Word Order
Word order is marked in a way that no matter which way the words arranged it means the same, by use of marking affixes. However, generally the order of verb subject object is considered the "more correct" form.
The phrase "kololanys dauesila chisana", which means I (male) saw the man is the same as "kololanys chisana dauEsila", chisana kololanys dauesila" or "dauesila kololanys chisana" etc.
In cases when an object is handled between two people, the transitive form "fol-" is used. For example, "The man gave the stick to his dog" would be in Salthan "Kaletes Dasana chiukasan foluelkakat"
Nouns
Gender
Gender is shown through the ending affix of -a for male or -i for female. Objects do not have gender, and only nouns convey gender or quantity (thus you do not need to have to match agreement between verbs and nouns like in some languages).
Quantity
To specify there are more than one of an object add the -nai affix to the end of the nous,. a number can also be attached before this affix to specify the exact amount. [To do: Add a few examples of numbers here]. A note that in Salthan numbers are a base-5 system.
Pronouns
Pronouns are omitted unless necessary for clarity. The following chart shows how pronouns are constructed.
"Include listener" and "listener gender" is only used for 1st person plural (we)
Possessives
Possessive affixes come in two types, depending on the emphasis of the word in the sentence. The thing that is the emphasis will always be on the right side of the marker.
"-le-" is used when the word in the sentence is about the thing that is being possessed, which is on the right of the marker, so for example "sanaleseka" - "the man's food" would be used in a sentence like "sekas daesila chisanaleseka", "I ate the man's food" since the subject of the sentence is about the food. Conversely "-el-" is for when the thing possessing something is the emphasis, so the word in the previous example would be changed to "sekalesana", and alone would have the same meaning but inserted into the previous example sentence "sekas daesila chisekalesana" would mean instead "I ate the man who had food" a much different meaning!
esilaleteha - It is mine
kiel datos - Is it yours?
|akis dasan - It's not his.
Questions
Questions always start with the prefix "ki-". Some example questions:
kiteha What (thing)?
kalkis What did (you) do?
ikis What are (you) doing?
nekis What will (you) do?
kikaine When?
kigak Why?
kirathe Where?
kisana Who?
kidosa How much (money)?
kiny How many?
Adjectives
Adjetives are simply affixes added just before (to the left of) the noun they are modifying.
Shusygadache - The red ball
usergkesh - The small house.
Adverbs
Salthan adverbs work the same as adjectives. For example, Instead of saying "She sings beautifully" it would be rather rendered as
salchys daesani, literally good-sing her.
Emphisis
To increase or decrease an adjetive or adverb you use the u- or gi- prefix respectively. This prefix is stacked to decrease or increase it further
| The bowl is very small. | uulase |
| The bowl is small | ulase |
| The bowl is big | gilase |
| He is very loud | gigilasesana |
Telling Time
Quantity of units of time is done in the same way as quantity of nouns.
Minutes
ukaline - One minute
ukalinehasany - five Minutes
Hours
kaline - Hour, One Hour
kalineshiny - Two Hours
kalinethany - Three Hours
Days
shikalrya - Day before yesterday
kalrya - Yesterday
irya - Today
nerya - Tomarrow
seknerya - Day after tomarrow
Weeks
(Note: These are weeks in the Salthan calander, which are made up of 5 days.)
shikalhasrya - The week before last
kalhasrya - last week
ihasrya - this week
shinehasrya - next week
seknehasrya - The week after next
Months
Kalgihasrya - Last month
igihasrya - This month
negihasrya - Next month
Years
kaltya - Last year
itya - This year
netya - Next year
Verbs
Verbs always end with -s affix. Verbs are always active with the person doing the verb is the subject. For example, there are no verb for "to get" instead, this is 'expressed with the verb for to give/trade ("etes") and arranging who is shown as giving or receiving. the object and subject modifiers are also used with this verb to modify the transitive object, to show who is giving what. .
| I gave him the ball | Kaletes daesila chisana foldadachi | |
| He gave me the ball | Kaletes daesila chisana folchidachi | |
| I gave him the book for the ball | Kaletes daesila chisana foldahathnai foldchidachi | |
| He took the ball from me (by force) | Kalketes dasana chiesila folchidachi |
Time Tenses
Past (kal-), present (i-) and future (ne-) tenses are added as prefixes to modify the verb, though present tenses are rarely used and assumed the default if there are no tense markers. Present modifiers may be used though for emphasis.
kalsekas daes - I ate
(i)sekas daes - I'm eating.
nesekas daes - I will eat
u- and gi- emphisis modifiers can be used to denote how recent/soon an action was/will be.
ukalsekas daes - I just ate
gikalsekas daes - I ate long ago
unesekas daes - I will eat soon
ginesekas daes - I will eat in a long while
Negetives
The affix |a- is added to a verb, adjetive or adverb to modify it. Some adjetives modify to the opposite, for example shu is light, and !ashu for dark.
Yes and No
The basic words for yes and no are sseth and |a respectively.
| Kiladeseka? | Are you hungry? |
| Seth, ladesseka | Yes, I am hungry |
| |a, |aladesseka | No, I am not hungry |
When answering a negative, the words contrary to what is in English.
| Ki|aladeseka? | Are you not hungry? |
| Seth, ladesseka | No, I am hungry |
| |a, |aladesseka | Yes, I am not hungry |
If/But then statements
The word gak is used to link cause and effect statements., and the reversed form kag is used when the cause and effect are switched in the statement, basically equivalent to the English word "therefore".
| Kas kag is | I think, therefore I am |
| ichais gak gilseles | I'm singing because I'm happy |
Nesting Statements
The Fol marker is used to denote when a object is the next sentence.
| Olanais daes chifol olanais datos chisana | I*'m watching you watch him. |
Common Phrases
Portions inside parenthesis () on the salthan side are optional and may be omitted.
| Small Talk | |
| Hello Friend (to male) | Bika esha |
| Hello Friend (to female) | Bika eshi |
| Good Morning | salukalgirel |
| Good Afternoon | salkalkaline |
| How are you? | kisal tosa |
| I am good, thank you | salas (daesil) Tas datosa |
| And you? | yl tosa |
| not bad, thank you | ñaekta (daesil), Tas datosa |
| Long time no see | gikalolanys daesila chitosa |
| Goodbye | salakanas |
| Where are you from? | kikalrathe tos |
| I am from Braydon | Kalrathes (daesil) chidraydon |
| I am from Ten Terak | Kalrathes (daesil) chitenterak |
| My name is Mr. Smith | daesilelnesak chisnith |
| What time is it? | kiikaline |
| Please | netas |
| Sorry/Excuse Me | gitas |
| How much is this? |
kidokany |
| That is too expensive | dokagiany |
| Thank you very much | tasany tosa |
| Where is the toilet? | kirathe thede |
| Who is it? / Who are you? | Kisana / Kisana Tosa |
| What is that? | Kitaha |
| When was that? |
kikalkaline |
| When will that happen? |
kinekailine |
| Please, Come in (speaker is male, to a male person) |
nenaudes dadatosa tases(il)a |
| Weather | |
| It is Sunny | Irirelgiserel ("The sun is hot") or Rels dagiserel ("The sun is heating") |
| it is Rainning | Iushersshas |
| It is cloudy | Isudshas |
| Language Difficulties | |
| Do you speak HTL (human trade language) | kidaradas datos chihunanhatheny |
| Yes, I speak a little Kahathany (Salthan) | seth, darades daesil chiukahathany |
| No, I don't understand Kahatheny | ña, ñakas (daesil) chikahatheny |
| I don’t speak Salthan | nadarad (daesil) chikahatheny |
| Please speak slower | unenodarads datosa |
| Emergancy | |
| Fire! |
girel |
| Help! | tutas |
| Stop! | |anena |
| Police! | kakdare! |
| Look out! | olanyschu (Lit, basicly "Hey! look!") |
| Signs | |
| Men (toilets/changing rooms) | sanany |
| Woman (toilets/changing rooms) | saniny |
| Toilet / restroom | Thede / Thedekesh |
| Entrance | udesnenksy |
| Exit | gidesnensky |
| Open | ilita |
| Closed | ithata |
| Caution / Slow (Mostly traffic signs) | Unenos! (lit. "go slowly") |
| Danger! | Eknachos! (Lit. "You may die!") |
| Employees must wash hands before returning to work | kalsilas nekeshs dadashssanalehasanai (lit. "before wash, later work employees' hands") |
| Ear Protection required beyond this point | Kakels railanai kalnenas ihathe (lit. "protect ears before going past here") |
| Head protection required beyond this point | kakels Gildar kalenenas ihathe |
| Wear Eye protection | rokes chikakelolanaie |
| No parking | |adarking / |agikal|anenas |
| Do not enter | |aksy |
| Stop | |anenas |
| Yeild | Ulksai |
| Slow | uneneo |
| No thru road | |aunegides ksy |
| No left turn | |adela |
| No right turn | |akela |
| Will return | neinenasi |
| Holidays | |
| Merry Christmas | salkrisnas |
| Happy New Year | salukaltya |
| 'Useful Phrases' | |
| My hovercraft is full of eels | esilalegitedhofercraft shasdeknai |
| I'm a looser, so why don't you kill me? |
ne|aihases ki|aichos datos chies? |
| I think, therefore I am | Ies gak kas daes |
| The mediator between knowledge and action is the heart. | rigas chika chiis dasel |
| At the Restaurant | |
| Menu | dashinaie / dashinaisekanaie |
| Drink Menu | dashinaishasesenaie |
| Soft Drinks | rutshasesenai |
| Appetizers |
ukalsekanai |
| Entrees | Gisekanai |