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Ta Ti

Grammar

Ta Ti grammar is not exactly like English, Spanish, or even Toki Pona, so you'll need to study this.

Syntax

• Ta Ti is a Subject-Verb-Object language and partially analytic.
  • jo
    • jo separates subject from predicate.
    • jo is omitted after a lone mi, yu, or hi.
    • jo may be followed by a noun or adjective. If so, it acts as the verb "to be".
      • Otherwise, jo is followed by a verb.
    • jo may be used later in the sentence to indicate that the subject does something else, in which case jo is never omitted.
    • jo still appears even if the subject is omitted, to indicate that the subject exists, but is not stated.
  • ji
    • ji introduces the direct object.
    • ji may be repeated for each direct object in place of plu ("and").
    • Prepositions are used to introduce indirect objects after the direct object.
    • ji may appear without anything following in order to indicate that the verb is transitive, and thus that a direct object exists, but is not stated.
• Infinitives and modifiers (as adverbs) may follow the verb and proceed ji.
• Modifiers
  • Also, a noun can be followed by modifiers (as adjectives).
  • A possessive adjective is a (pro)noun used as a modifier.
  • Each successive modifier modifies the entire preceding noun/verb phrase as a whole.
  • hu
    • hu is used in order to let a modifier modify another modifier before it modifies the whole phrase.
    • hu is placed immediately before the modified modifier.
    • ha may be used two or more words after hu to indicate that successive modifiers go back to modifying the whole phrase.
    • A preposition or separator automatically terminates all previous hu clauses.
• A person may be addressed directly by stating his/her name, then hei, and then the sentence.
• The imperative is formed by using hei in place of jo, in which case, the subject is omitted if it is yu.
  • If the hei of the address and the hei of the imperative occur side by side, then one of them is omitted.
• Conjunctions connect two of the same part of speech, or start a sentence, but plu may not be used in place of repeating ji or jo.
• Using ti to reference clauses
  • In addition to being the demonstrative pronoun, ti can reference a displaced infinitive clause or object.
    • For this purpose, ti is always used as a noun, altho' ti may follow hu.
  • For infinitive clauses, ti is placed in the sentence where the infinitive clause would be, and the clause follows as the next sentence.
  • For translating relative clauses, ti may replace an object in which case, the following sentence uses hi to refer back to ti.
• Interjections stand on their own.
• Borrowed words and names act as they do in the language of origin.

Pronouns

• The first person singular pronoun in all cases is mi.
• The second person singular pronoun in all cases is yu.
• The third person singular pronoun in all cases and for all genders (if any) is hi.
• Note that these are the core pronouns.
• By adding nu ("multiple"), exclusive plural pronouns (such as nu yu for "y'all") may be formed.
• By connecting pronouns with plu ("and"), inclusive plural pronouns (such as mi plu yu "us") may be formed.

Punctuation

• The sentence's first word, all proper nouns, and all loanwards are capitalized.
• A period, not a comma, proceeds a conjunction between sentences.
• A comma appears after ju, sentence-joining conjunctions, and hei when used solely to address someone.
• A colon is used in place of a period when the word ti refers to the next sentence or the word hi therein.
• Spaces may be omitted entirely, partially, or not at all. Since each word is a single syllable, any seemingly polysyllabic word is immediately recognized as several words concatenated, unless it is a borrowed word or proper noun, in which case it is distinguished by capitialization.
  • Borrowed words and proper nouns may not be concatenated with other words.

Negation and Questions

• no negates the preceding verb or noun.
• Simple questions are formed form declaritive sentences by repeating the verb and inserting no between the pair.
  • no is a negative response.
  • The verb itself is an affirmative response.
• wi means "what?" or "which?" it used in place of the word or phrase that is sought.

  • English	Ta Ti
    how …	… wei wi
    how (adjective) …	… hu (modifier) wi
    how much/many …	… hu nu wi
    what/which one(s) …	(je) wi
    what kind of (noun)	(noun) wi
    when …	tai wi ju …
    whence …	… ri (lo) wi
    where …	… lo wi
    which …	… wi
    which direction …	… mu (lo) wi
    who …	ni na wi …
    whose …	… hu ni na wi
    why …	… ri (ri) wi

Numbers

• Cardinals
  • wa = one
  • tu = two
  • ma = five
  • Bigger number are formed by stringing these together:
    • tu wa = "three"
    • tu tu = "four"
    • ma wa = "six"
    • ma tu = "seven"
    • ma tu wa = "eight"
    • ma tu tu = "nine"
    • ma ma = "ten"
    • ma ma wa = "eleven"
    • ma ma tu = "twelve"
    • ma ma tu wa = "thirteen"
    • ma ma tu tu = "fourteen"
    • ma ma ma = "fifteen"
    • ma ma ma wa = "sixteen"
    • ma ma ma tu = "seventeen"
    • ma ma ma tu wa = "eighteen"
    • ma ma ma tu tu = "nineteen"
  • hu may be used to mean times to make numbers greater than 19, e.g. hu ma ma hu ma means 50.
  • plu can be used after this, e.g. hu ma ma hu ma plu tu wa means 53.
    • Note that when used in this manner, plu terminates one hu.
  • Numbers are always given in decending magnitudes in order to decrease ambiguity arising from other possible interpretations of the same words.
• Ordinals
  • Ordinals are formed from cardinals by preceding the cardinal with hu nu, in which case the initial hu of a number which is expressed via hu is dropped.
  • However, hu nu has other uses, e.g. hu nu kra means many, hu nu kra no means few, hu nu wi means how many?.
• Fractions
  • Fractions are formed from cardinals by division; tu wei means "divided by".

ju

• ju can make "if … then …" statements: discard the "if" and put ju in the place of "then".
• ju follows an adverb of context, but proceeds the rest of the sentence (except the direct address: "name hei,").
• ju can be used to give time, tense, and temporal aspect.
  • tai lai, literally "time light", means "day".
  • tai bla, literally "time black", means "night".
  • tai ti, literally "time this", means "now".
  • tai lai ti, literally "time light this", means "today".
  • tai bla ti, literally "time black this", means "tonight".
  • tai ko, literally "time coming", means "future".
  • tai ti ko, literally "time this coming", means "soon".
  • tai fi, literally "time finished", means "past".
  • tai lai fi, literally "time light finished", means "yesterday".
  • tai bla fi, literally "time black finished", means "last night".
  • tai lai ko, literally "time light coming", means "tomorrow".
  • tai hu nu kra, literally "time of number big", means "often".
  • tai kra, literally "time big", means "slowly".
  • tai hu kra no, literally "time of greatness not", means "quickly".

su

• su is derived from the word "smurf", a reference to an old cartoon show.
• su is an all-purpose word, used when an idea just cannot be rendered into Ta Ti in any other way.
• Do not use this word when a combination of other Ta Ti words is adequate.

Date and Time

• In addition to the general times in the ju section, Ta Ti can be used to give time on a standard scale; these still precede ju most of the time.
• The full formal date is given as "the nth day of the nth month of the nth year of the time of the Lord" (or "of smurf time" if your not Christian; I'm not).
  • tai lai hu nu wa ha hu tai hu rau lai hu tai bla ha ha hu nu tu ha ha hu tai hu rau hu la rau kra to ha hu nu ma ma hu ma ma hu ma ma hu tu plu ma ha ha hu tai hu ni na he kra = "February 1st, 2005 A.D."
  • tai lai hu nu wa ha hu tai hu rau lai hu tai bla ha ha hu nu tu ha ha hu tai hu rau hu la rau kra to ha hu nu ma ma hu ma ma hu ma ma hu tu plu ma ha ha hu tai su = "February 1st, 2005 C.E."
  • Since this takes so insanely long to say, one may omit "A.D." or "C.E." or the year completely if refering to a time sufficiently close to the present to be understood with out it.
  • Unfortunately the month may not be omitted, but in order to shorten the time it takes to say the date, one may say "this past", "this", or "this coming" instead of the giving the ordinal for the month, e.g. tai lai hu nu wa ha hu tai hu rau lai hu tai bla ha ha ti ko means "the 1st of next month".
  • Days of the week may be substituted for the date. They are also numbered by ordinals, starting with Sunday, e.g. tai lai hu nu tu tu ha hu rau hu tai lai ma tu means "Wednesday".
• Time is given by cardinals of the clock, which may be 12-hour or 24-hour: "n units (hours) and n units-of-units (minutes) and n units-of-units-of-units (seconds) of the clock (o'clock)"
  • wa ma tu tu plu wa wa hu ma ma hu tu wa plu ma wa ha plu wa wa wa ma ma ma wa hu me tai = "09:36:16" on the 24 hour clock.
  • wa ma tu tu plu wa wa hu ma ma hu tu wa plu ma wa ha plu wa wa wa ma ma ma wa hu me tai ha hu tai bla = "9:36:16 pm"
  • Since, as with dates, this can be insanely long, one may omit the seconds and minutes to shorten it.
  • Since wa means both "units" and "one", confusion is avoided by omitting the "one" of "one o'clock" or "one minute", or by replacing the "one" with "sole" (so), e.g. wa hu me tai or wa so hu me tai means "one o'clock".
  • Time may be given relative to the present:
    • wa wa tu hu me tai ri tai ti = "two minutes from now"
    • wa so hu me tai ha fi = "one hour ago"

Last Updated: 2009-05-02

The author, Marq Thompson, wished the content of this website to be uncopyrighted after his death.