Teonaht

Teonaht /ˈteɪ.oʊnɑːθ/, winner of the 2007 Smiley Award,^[1] is a constructed language that has been developed since 1962 by science fiction writer and University of Rochester English professor Sarah Higley, under the pseudonym of Sally Caves.^{[citation needed]} It is spoken in the fantasy setting of the Teonim, a race of polydactyl humans who have a cultural history of worshiping catlike deities.^{[citation needed]}

Teonaht uses the object–subject–verb (OSV) word order, which is rare in natural languages.^{[citation needed]} An interesting feature of Teonaht is that the end of the sentence is the place of greatest emphasis, as what is mentioned last is uppermost in the mind.^{[citation needed]} The language has a "Law of Detachment" whereby suffixes can be moved to the beginnings of words for emphasis and even attach onto other words such as pronouns.^{[citation needed]}

Teonaht is often cited as an example of the genre in articles on the world of Internet-hosted amateur conlanging.^[2][3][4][5]

Notes

1. ^ The 2007 Smiley Award Winner: Teonaht
2. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20060626235245/http://www.rochester.edu/College/ENG/newsletter/conlang.html
3. ^ Sprechen sie ELVISH?: 3/ 6/ 2004
4. ^ Babel's modern architects - Los Angeles Times
5. ^ Conley, Tim and Stephen Cain (2006). Encyclopedia of fictional and fantastic languages, pg. xxv

References

• NPR interview with Sally Caves

External links

• Sally Caves's Teonaht page