Tēsu-Jar Language

Tēsu-Jar (/teːsu dʒaɹ/) is a Tesian language of the Durimic, or Northern Navari, branch, representing the continuation of older liturgical and vernacular Tesian varieties. It has a predominantly (C)V(C) syllable structure and regular penultimate stress, with productive epenthesis, usually [ə], in the repair of illicit clusters and the smoothing of phonotactic transitions. Its consonant system includes a stable retroflex series /ʈ ɖ ʂ ʐ ɳ/ and a comparatively rich fricative inventory including /x ɣ/, while the vowel system of the traditional standard is commonly analysed as /i y e ɛ a ɨ o u/. The lexicon is generally described as nontonal, although limited high-low pitch alternation is reported in formal recitation. Morphosyntactically, Tēsu-Jar is moderately agglutinative and predominantly suffixing, with basic SOV constituent order, ergative-absolutive alignment in nominals, absolutive-indexing verbal agreement, six productive cases, and strongly head-final clause structure.