Sifara

Sifara was the native language of the Tachrani. It was notable in that it had no voiced consonants and sounded like a loud whisper when spoken.

Its consonant sounds roughly correspond to the following:
 * F
 * G (the Sifara G sounds similar to a K, but the sound comes from the back of the mouth instead of the middle)
 * H
 * K
 * L (Sounds like a cross between H and L, produced by heavy airflow over the back of the tongue and the tip of the tongue touching one's top row of teeth)
 * N (simply heavy airflow through the nose, much like a harsh nasal H)
 * P
 * R (very soft R-like sound)
 * S
 * T
 * Z (the Z is not a voiced S; it is pronounced like S, but with more force and a larger gap between one's lips)
 * SH

Although sounds like D, V, and other voiced versions of unvoiced consonants could be approximated by the Tachrani, very few could actually voice any sound. Their language developed without these consonants, and approximations only occurred among those who spoke foreign languages on other planets.

Sifara was a simple language, with most words corresponding to a single concept, and most concepts were described by a single word. This made it an easy language to learn, and its applications were functional - rarely artistic. There were no words to describe specific colors, although concepts such as "light" and "dark" did have words; all colors outside the white-black continuum were described as "liHiso" and this word could refer to any hue.

Nouns were not gendered, and the most challenging aspect of Sifara for foreigners to learn was its complicated plural system. Instead of the more usual singular and plural forms of nouns and verbs, Sifara has eight forms: singular, collective singular, unknown plurality, two-plural, three-plural, four-plural, five-plural, and six-plural. Numbers larger than six used the six-plural pattern, except in certain Southern dialects, which went all the way to eight-plural for a total of ten forms.

All adjectives, verbs, and adverbs must also agree with the plural form. This is achieved by simply attaching the corresponding prefix to the base word:


 * Singular - ti
 * Collective singular - to
 * Unknown plurality - na
 * Two-plural - ki
 * Three-plural - kai
 * Four-plural - kao
 * Five-plural - kat
 * Six-plural - kati
 * Seven-plural - kato
 * Eight-plural - kata

Sifara has no known "loan words" from other languages and it is unknown whether any of its words have been exported, and thought to be unlikely.