| This is a page about Tazhi | S'bedu konsa Tazhi. |
| Tazhi is a language that is spoken by no one, and understood by even fewer. | Tazhi linuse banyemani ipaleno, a lesere iprendeno. |
| Tazhi is spoken in the world of modern earth, in a parallel universe where the continent of Atlantis (thought to be mythological in our world) never sank beneath the sea. | Tahzi yira tuomblu teru kurne, yira omblu ondenze aza kalentu Atlantu namiche (ki denko yira kiomblu tasie beo) abra oshinu nyekrony oshmono. |
| In our universe, Tazhi seems to be an eclectic blend of Latin, Russian, German, English, Sanskrit, and a shorthand system known as Speedwords, to mention just a few. This is merely an illusion, of course. | Yira kiomblu, Tazhi acreiche mishribu Latinu, Russiu, Deutschu, Englu, Sanskru, a rapeskrielogu namiche Speedwordi piaro, solelese ilio. Tu yemly tasiu, vu guno. |
| Tazhi evolved out of ancient Atlantean, with strong Latin influences, which resulted from the global extent of the Roman empire at its peak some fifteen hundred years ago. | Tazhi aba Atlantipalu uchalte tribavo, pwa swaji hakate aba Latinu, senu |
| Words in Tazhi are built up from roots and stems, suffixes and prefixes, and follow a very strict set of rules regarding their structure. | Tunati Tazhi aba tomi a fraji, vestenati a vortenati struko, a uchirije logibustati konsa ti strukachu hero. |
| For example, Tazhi verbs, no matter what their tense, always end with the letter "o", while singular nouns always end in "u". | Isplesu beo, tukshunati Tazhi, |
There is no "standard" pronunciation of Tazhi. Since the fall
of the Global Roman Empire, regional dialects have appeared which, though
quite different, are all readily understood by other speaker of Tazhi.
Certain purists may insist that there is only one "correct" pronunciation
for each Tazhi word, yet in reality any pronunciation which is mutually
understandable is acceptable.
Nor is any pronunciation be considered "superior" to any other.
It is only required that, for the sake of mutual comprehension, the sounds
uttered be "reasonable" interpretations of the words as written.
Feel free, therefore, to pronounce Tazhi in whatever manner sounds reasonable
and pleasing to you.
The only absolute rule of Tazhi pronunciation is that all vowel sounds
should be pronounced. A word like "tale" for example, would be
pronounced as two syllables: "ta - le", and not with a silent
"e" as in English. Vowels pairs are never dipthongs, but
always two seperate vowel sounds. "Piaro" would be "pee-ARE-oh",
for example (or "pay-ARE-oh" in some dialects). Most dialects
tend to pronounce the "R" with a slight "flap" of the
toungue against the roof of the mouth, but this is not universal.
The initial dictionary is under construction, and a few introductory lessons in Tazhi are being prepared. Here is an introduction to the Tazhi system of counting. The Babel text (under construction) may be found here. The Grammar of Tazhi is here, and this is a list of computer generated Tazhi words that haven't been assigned meanings yet.
Read how Tazhi became a creole with Ok
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This Tazhi page was started on 3/20/99 by Gary
J. Shannon. Last updated on 3/27/99. Nothing on these pages is copyright,
and there are no restrictions whatsoever on copying or distributing anything
on these pages. The Tazhi language including its grammar and vocabulary
are similarly free of copyright and no restrictions are placed them. Individual
literary works written in Tazhi, if that ever happens, may be subject to
copyright by the authors of any such documents.