| Created: | 27 November 2007 | </tr>
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Tauro-Piscean is an a posteriori constructed language, whose vocabulary is adapted primarily from Old English and German. There is also a growing influx of words from French and Old Taurusian where adapted words are not felt to be appropriate: for example, Avion (‘aeroplane’, from French avion) is used in place of German Flugzeug. Coinages, which often translate entire English phrases, are formed from various Romance languages. Because Old Taurusian orthography was based on phonetic English and, to a lesser extent, French spelling, it was changed to Taurusian before being consumed into Piscean, which uses a Piscean orthography, e.g. Old Taurusian Rougeonstul > Taurusian (Tauro-Piscean) Ruǧonstull.
The Tauro-Piscean language belongs to S.C. Anderson and L.J. Partridge, residents of the territories claimed by the New Pisces and Taurus micronation. Throughout its history, Piscean has belonged to several branches of the Indo-European language family, including Italic and West Germanic. Due to the awkward classification, a new pseudo-branch of Indo-European languages has been created by Anderson: 'Multi-Western', after the languages spoken in western Europe that have inspired Piscean. Tauro-Piscean is essentially the modern Piscean dialect, reformed and with some revived features from its history, and the newly developing - now ingested - language Taurusian. Since an agreement on 27 November 2007, Anderson (Piscean) and Partridge (Taurusian) have agreed to work on a joint language and now both moderate the Piscean Lexicon.
Writing system
to be replaced ...
Vocabulary of Tauro-Piscean
Words from Piscean
Due to Piscean's history of borrowing from different Germanic and Romance languages, modern Piscean has 'recessive' vocabulary, i.e. it has words that mean the same as one another in their source languages, but now have different meanings in Tauro-Piscean. For example, there are four words that originally translated as 'day':
- Dominant: 'Deej' (Germanic) - 'day'
- Recessive 1: 'Tag' (Germanic) - 'typical day'
- Recessive 2: 'Scharne (Romance) - 'personal holiday'
- Recessive 3: 'Pee' (Germanic) - 'bank holiday'
The last form was imported into early Old Piscean from modern English ('pé', a corruption of 'day'); the third, into middle Old Piscean from French/Italian ('jarna', compare 'jour' and 'giorno'); the second, into late Old Piscean from German ('Tag'); the first, into modern Piscean from Old English (reformed spelling: 'daeg'). Therefore, Tauro-Piscean could now be compared to English, albeit the language of Anderson and Partridge arguably has a much more consistent method of assigning vocabulary. See also: Piscean language
Reform 07/12/07
The Reform of December has meant that in Tauro-Piscean, the letter G in words of Old English origin will be replaced by the letter J. Previously, in Piscean, some were replaced, but the substitution is now made complete. Observe:
- Godendeej (modern Piscean) > Jodendeej (Tauro-Piscean)
- frignan (modern Piscean) > frijnan (Tauro-Piscean)
- geond (modern Piscean) > jeond (Tauro-Piscean)
Also in words of Old English origin, the letters HW are replaced by W in Tauro Piscean and the letters WR are replaced by R.
- hwit (modern Piscean) > wit (Tauro-Piscean)
- hweet (modern Piscean) > weet (Tauro-Piscean)
- writan (modern Piscean) > ritan (Tauro-Piscean)
Words from Taurusian
Tauro-Piscean, in addition to Romance and Germanic influences, is influced by Taurusian. Taurusian vocabulary is invented spontaneously by Partridge and, as a result of which, can cater for unique words among the Piscean language that often help to make communication quicker and less ambiguous. Observe (Piscean elements of infinitives are enclosed in square brackets):
- pars [bean] - to have mixed emotions
- Hijfíĵs - someone that opposes one's ideas or mannerisms
- Dijnumm - AstroTurf, flat 'artificial turf' used for sports
- Hupíjcort - cross-country running
- Runndajvu - motocross
- Ruscgonstull - registration at regular intervals to affirm attendance
- Handjular - personal computer (PC)
- Cornipáznaj - compact disc (CD)
- Hijvidrool - digital versatile disc (DVD)
- Bude - box set
- lijtáccan - to be taken lightly
- ruffär - shaky/sketchy
- Waterdogg - subwoofer
- fuzdulaársan - to rub it in someone's face
- Tornade - jet lag
- Blubruze - highlighter pen
- Tijard - greetings card
Tenses of Tauro-Piscean
| Tense
|
Piscean 'faran'
|
English 'to go'
|
| Present simple
|
Icc far
|
I go
|
| Present continuous
|
Icc farong
|
I am going
|
| Present perfect
|
Icc neef fart
|
I have gone
|
| Preterite
|
Icc farede
|
I went
|
| Imperfect
|
Icc farot
|
I used to go
|
| Past continuous
|
Icc wojz fart
|
I was going
|
| Pluperfect
|
Icc gefarut
|
I had gone
|
| Future
|
Icc will faran
|
I will go
|
| Future perfect
|
Icc ajzfarin
|
I will have gone
|
Note that modern Piscean used few of the above tenses, but due to their useful functions, those that were not used have been revived from Old Piscean usage and adapted for Tauro-Piscean. Verb inflection instructions follow (note that 'infinitive stem' refers to the removal of '-an', '-ian' or '-s' and addition of '-'. '-e' or '-' respectively):
Present simple
Refer to indicative non-past
Present continuous
To form the present continuous in singular, add '-ong' to an infinitive stem that ends in a consonant or '-ng' to one that ends in a vowel.
To form the present continuous in plural, do as above, but use '-ongen' and '-ngen' respectively.
Present perfect
To form the present perfect in singular, use the word 'neef' before an infinitive stem that has '-t' attached to it.
To form the present perfect in plural, do as above, but use '-ten'.
Preterite
Refer to indicative past
Imperfect
To form the imperfect in singular, add '-ot' to an infinitive stem that ends in a consonant or '-jot' to one that ends in a vowel.
To form the imperfect in plural, do as above, bue use '-oten' and '-joten' respectively.
Past continuous
To form the past continuous in singular and plural, follow the same instructions as for present perfect, but substitute the word 'wojz' for 'neef'.
Pluperfect
To form the pluperfect in singular, prefix 'ge-' and suffix '-ut' to an infinitive stem that ends in a consonant. If it starts with a consonant, use 'gej-' instead of 'ge-'. For one that ends in a vowel, suffix '-jut' instead of '-ut'.
To form the pluperfect in plural, do as above, but use '-uten' and '-juten' in place of '-ut' and '-jut' respectively.
Future
Refer to indicative non-past
Future perfect
To form the future perfect in singular, prefix 'ajz-' and suffix '-in' to an infinitive stem that ends in a consonant. For one that ends in a vowel, replace '-in' with '-jin'.
To form the pluperfect in plural, do as above, but use '-inen' and '-jinen' in place of '-in' and '-jin' respectively.
Grammatical moods
The document Piscean language also shows how to inflect all verb stems to reflect grammatical mood.
