Classical Taot language

Classical Taot (Classical Taot: lawa [ˈlawa]) was the language originally spoken by the Classical Taot people in the central valleys, cols and mountainsides of the Koolpallal. It is the direct ancestor of all modern Neo-Taot languages.

Phonology
* [m], [n̪] and [ŋ] are all allophones of /n/ before the respective stops.

Any given word can only contain one single long vowel, every other vowel will always be short.

Phonotactics

 * Syllables in Classical Taot have the maximal structure of (C)V(C).
 * Any consonant may start a syllable, but only /t/, /k/, /s/, /t͡s/, /n/, /l/, /ɾ/, /j/ and /w/ can end it.
 * /t͡s/ can only appear before /p/, /k/, /n/, /l/ /j/ and /w/.

Stress
A long vowel or a diphthong is always stressed; if there is none, the penultimate syllable will carry the stress. If there are both a long vowel and a diphthong, the long vowel is stressed. If there are two or more diphthongs, the last one is stressed.

Grammar
Classical Taot has a mostly isolating grammar, lacking any kind of inflection. Compound words are rather uncommon.

Syntax
The word order is strictly SVO, no variations are ever allowed.
 * Nouns and pronouns are followed by adjectives, then determiners, then numerals and then postpositions.
 * Adverbs precede verbs or stand between two of them in periphrases.
 * Relative pronouns are placed after relative clauses if they are nominal or adjectival, but before if they are adverbial.

Nouns
Nouns do not decline for case or number and lack any kind of grammatical gender. Case is instead expressed by means of various postpositions, the most commons being noa ('to': allative, dative, benefactive), ool ('(because) of/from': genitive, causative, ablative) and sak ('in': locative, inessive). Number is generally not indicated at all, though the plural may occasionally be expressed with the particle za ('many, much, very, more').

Adjectives
Adjectives always follow nouns and are all invariable. There are three comparison degrees: comparative, superlative and excessive. The comparative is expressed with the particle za, the superlative, by reduplicating the adjective, and the excessive, by reduplicating it and adding the particle za, for example:


 * han 'big'
 * han za 'bigger'
 * han han '(the) biggest'
 * han han za 'too big'