* the desinence -asta is only assimilated with radicals ending with -a; otherwise, it takes a y glide: ete + asta > eteyasta. 

3 Palatalisation

Prefixes ending in -a or the same letter as the initial letter of the radical, and suffixes beginning in a- or the same letter as the final letter of the radical of only one syllable resist assimilation, and so palatalisation occurs (a y glide is inserted if necessary): tra + yen > trayen (not *trien); aga + ab > agayabat (not *agabat); li + i > liyi (not lí or lii). 

4 Mutation

Prefixes ending in a diphthongal i or u and radicals ending in a diphthongal i or u change to the consonantal values l and v: ai + aiban > alaibanat; au + ibi > avibit; nai + yeva > nalievat. However, monosyllabic radicals and their derivatives beginning with y resist further palatalisation and mutation: nai + yen > naiyenat (not *nalienat); pou + yeb > pouyebat (not *poviebat); nai + yeu > naiyevat (not *nalievat). 

5 Liaison

The consonantal modifications mentioned above are an assimilation of sounds. The question of liaison arises when these sounds are encountered in vocabular apposition: e.g., yomas celindi ayoi qayenqa. In affixation, s + c is not a permissible combination; it becomes cy. As mas is an unbound causative prefix, is it to be expected that in spoken Taneraic, at least, that yomas celindi should be pronounced yomacyelindi? Wherever unassimilable consonantal clusters occur in syntactic units, liaison may occur as a matter of choice in speech, but must not be written as such in standard language. Liaison does not occur in purely vocabular apposition (e.g., piyot syarasa is pronounced piyot/syarasa, not *piyocyarasa; oma urqevo is pronounced oma/urqevo, not *omurqevo; etc.). Further examples: 

habituative: vas ziquda [vas/ziquda or va/ciquda] 

6 Stress Patterns

In English, tonic stress is often used to distinguish meaning, particularly nouns from verbs, as in pérmit (n) and permít (v). In Taneraic, morphemes convey grammatical meaning, whilst suprasegmental phonemes convey inflexion. There is virtually no tonic stress in Taneraic words -- all syllables are pronounced with approximately equal force and are given equal length. However, a mute i or u (a remnant of Proto-Taneraic pronunciation, treated now as an option) is pronounced with half the length of a single vowel; diphthongs are pronounced with double the length of a single vowel; and accented vowels are pronounced with the greatest stress. Final a should be given even stress, but may be pronounced with half the length of a single vowel. 

There is, as well, a certain amount of stress used for the sake of emphasis, and sentence intonation exists just as it does in English (ni sentences are usually spoken with a rising pitch, for instance). 

7 Syllabification

A conversant knowledge of syllabification is necessary for correct liaison and pronunciation: e.g., an e followed by a final consonant or certain consonant clusters is open; a closed e is always at the end of a syllable. It should be noted that sounds involved in palatalisation and vowel-glides (diphthongs) are treated as separate syllables in poetry alone. 

(1) a syllable may begin with any vowel, consonant or y (but not semivocalic u): as above 

(2) consonants b, h, n, q, r, s and t close syllables: yib, dar, zat 

(3) if the consonant is b or t, it may be followed by an r and then a vowel: bri 

(4) if the consonant is s, it may be followed by cy, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, v or x and then a vowel: sqa 

(5) a consonant or prescribed consonant cluster may be followed by a semivowel u or a palatalised i (while ii may be found in derivatives, the forms ii and uu are not found in any radicals): pua, sia

Another way to look at Taneraic morphology is to think of it as a complex syllabary. The above describes a "syllabary" only marginally more complex than the Japanese. For this reason, foreign words cannot be naturalised into Taneraic without a great loss of recognition. (This is also true of Japanese -- who would guess that kurafuto is English kraft?; in Taneraic, a naturalised form of kraft would be *qirasta.) Foreign words, therefore, are not assimilated at all, but are linked with an e ligative or living affixes: e.g., qaize e Francia, French (language); omavejerati Poa, transpadane. 

8 Capitalisation

Initial capitals are used in Taneraic to begin a sentence. The lower case is used in all other cases -- the days of the week, months, nationalities, names of languages, etc., are not capitalised in Taneraic, unless an unassimilable borrowed word has been used. Capitals are customarily used for the first word of a title. 

9 Italics

Italics must be used for all unassimilable borrowed words, which are treated in every case as proper nouns. Titles of books and works of art are usually written in plain and enclosed in guillemets (« »). Titles of short stories, poems and songs are written in italics. 
 

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