Introduction
The Thern have a system of encoding their language in music through a complex system of pitches and rhythms associated with the onsets and rhymes of syllables. This musical language system, called “語曲”, is typically used for poetry called 曲 and classical texts as a performative method of recitation. The following outlines this system and how it corresponds to the spoken language.
The 16 Fundamental Notes
The 16 fundamental notes (律二八) of Thernese music consist of 16 evenly spaced pitches seperated by Thernese semitones and are used to construct scales. Notably, the exact pitches of these notes are relative and are used to divide any arbitrary octive; however, ~520 Hz (Western C) is commonly used as the starting pitch. The names of the 16 fundamental notes are shown in the table below alongside their value in Hertz (starting from 440 Hz) and their approximate Western music counterparts.
| Name | Numeral | Frequency | Western Approximation |
| 中 | 𝌆 (0) | 440 Hz | A |
| 周 | 𝌡 (1) | 459.48 Hz | A♯/B♭ (-) |
| 閑 | 𝌏 (2) | 479.82 Hz | A♯/B♭ (+) ~ B (-) |
| 少 | 𝌪 (3) | 501.07 Hz | B (+) |
| 羨 | 𝌉 (4) | 523.25 Hz | C |
| 差 | 𝌤 (5) | 546.42 Hz | C♯/D♭ (-) |
| 增 | 𝌒 (6) | 570.61 Hz | C♯/D♭ (+) ~ D (-) |
| 銳 | 𝌭 (7) | 595.87 Hz | D(+) |
| 更 | 𝌇 (8) | 622.25 Hz | D♯/E♭ |
| 斷 | 𝌢 (9) | 649.80 Hz | E (-) |
| 裝 | 𝌐 (10) | 678.57 Hz | E (+) ~ F (-) |
| 眾 | 𝌫 (11) | 708.62 Hz | F (+) |
| 睟 | 𝌊 (12) | 739.99 Hz | F♯/G♭ |
| 盛 | 𝌥 (13) | 772.75 Hz | G (-) |
| 法 | 𝌓 (14) | 806.96 Hz | G (+) ~ G♯/A♭ (-) |
| 應 | 𝌮 (15) | 842.69 Hz | G♯/A♭ (+) |
The two most common scales used in Thernese music and for musical Thernese are both octatonic scales. The first scale is referred to as 階音步 or “the walking scale” and alternates between fundamental note intervals of 3 and 1.
| 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 15 |
| 𝌆 | 𝌪 | 𝌉 | 𝌭 | 𝌇 | 𝌫 | 𝌊 | 𝌮 |
| A | B | C | D | E♭ | F | F♯ | G♯ |
The second scale is refered to as 階音虧盈 or “the waining-waxing scale”, which goes up in decreasing intervals during the first half then swaps to increasing intervals in the second half.
| 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 15 |
| 𝌆 | 𝌪 | 𝌤 | 𝌒 | 𝌢 | 𝌐 | 𝌊 | 𝌮 |
| A | B | C♯ (-) | D (-) | E (-) | F (-) | F♯ | G♯ |
For demonstration purposes, a whole-half octatonic Western scale in C will be used to approximate the typical Thernese walking scale and explain the Thernese musical language system.
Syllable duration and rhythmic foundation
Onsets and Tonic Pitches
The onset determines the pitch of the rest of the syllable and can be categorized according to the number of tones it carries. The fundamental tone, which decides all other pitches in the syllable, is always the first tone. Monotonic onsets contain only the fundamental tone, (e.g., xa = CC), duotonic onsets contain two tones (e.g., xla = CBC), and tritonic onsets contain three tones (e.g., hla = CDBC). Within a non-monotonic onset, the tone can vary from the fundamental tone by one note on the Thernese scale, either moving up one note to indicate an onset from the secondary set of plain onsets (e.g., ha = CDC) or moving down one note to indicate labial onsets (e.g., xla = CBC). Following the onset tones are the vowel tones. The most basic vowel tone corresponds to the non-rhotic open vowel, which simply repeats the fundamental tone of the syllable. In addition to pitch, every tone within a syllable is accompanied by a rhythm, or rather, a certain distribution of duration, which is largely determined by the syllable’s rhyme. The table below lists all possible onset tones accompanied by a rhyme featuring the non-rhotic open vowel and no coda. The pitches and duration distributions of the tones for each syllable are listed to their right under “melody.”
| Monotonic | Duotonic | Tritonic | |||||
| Plain | Melody | Labial | Melody | Plain | Melody | Labial | Melody |
ɛဝɜ (xa) | CC (1:1) | ɛဝုɜ (xla) | CBC (1:1:2) | ɛဝs (ha) | CDC (1:1:2) | ɛဝုs (hla) | CDBC (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဝƨ (ga) | DD (1:1) | ɛဝုƨ (gla) | DCD (1:1:2) | ɛဝɛ (ka) | DE♭D (1:1:2) | ɛဝုɛ (kla) | DE♭CD (1:1:1:1) |
sဝɜ (nga) | E♭E♭ (1:1) | sဝုɜ (ngla) | E♭DE♭ (1:1:2) | sဝs (tha) | E♭FE♭ (1:1:2) | sဝုs (thla) | E♭FDE♭ (1:1:1:1) |
sဝƨ (za) | FF (1:1) | sဝုƨ (zla) | FE♭F (1:1:2) | sဝɛ (sa) | FF♯F (1:1:2) | sဝုɛ (sla) | FF♯E♭F (1:1:1:1) |
ƨဝɜ (la) | F♯F♯ (1:1) | – | – | ƨဝs (dha) | F♯G♯F♯ (1:1:2) | – | – |
ƨဝƨ (ta) | G♯G♯ (1:1) | – | – | ƨဝɛ (na) | G♯AG♯ (1:1:2) | – | – |
ɜဝɜ (va) | AA (1:1) | – | – | ɜဝs (ba) | ABA (1:1:2) | ɜဝုs (bla) | ABG♯A (1:1:1:1) |
ɜဝƨ (pa) | BB (1:1) | ɜဝုƨ (pla) | BAB (1:1:2) | ɜဝɛ (ma) | BCB (1:1:2) | ɜဝုɛ (mla) | BCAB (1:1:1:1) |
Rhymes and Rhythms
Monotonic Onset:
| Plain | Melody | Glottal | Melody | Breathy | Melody |
ɛဝɜ (xa) | CC (1:1) | ɛဝ့ɜ (xaq) | CCX (2:1:1) | ɛဝှɜ (xah) | CCB (2:1:1) |
ɛပɜ (ye) | CE♭ (1:1) | ɛပ့ɜ (yeq) | CE♭X (2:1:1) | ɛပှƨ (yeh) | CE♭D (2:1:1) |
ɛဒɜ (wo) | CA (1:1) | ɛဒ့ɜ (woq) | CAX (2:1:1) | ɛဒှɜ (woh) | CAG♯ (2:1:1) |
ɛဓɜ (xr) | CF (1:1) | ɛဓ့ɜ (xrq) | CFX (2:1:1) | ɛဓှɜ (xrh) | CFE♭ (2:1:1) |
ɛဗɜ (xar) | CCF (2:1:1) | ɛဗ့ɜ (xarq) | CCFX (1:1:1:1) | ɛဗှɜ (xarh) | CCFE♭ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛမɜ (yir) | CE♭F (2:1:1) | ɛမ့ɜ (yirq) | CE♭FX (1:1:1:1) | ɛမှɜ (yirh) | CE♭FE♭ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛခɜ (wur) | CAF (2:1:1) | ɛခ့ɜ (wurq) | CAFX (1:1:1:1) | ɛခှɜ (wurh) | CAFE♭ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛစɜ (xal) | CCG♯ (2:1:1) | ɛစ့ɜ (xalq) | CCG♯X (1:1:1:1) | ɛစှɜ (xalh) | CCG♯F♯ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဖɜ (yel) | CE♭G♯ (2:1:1) | ɛဖ့ɜ (yelq) | CE♭G♯X (1:1:1:1) | ɛဖှɜ (yelh) | CE♭G♯F♯ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛ၈ɜ (wol) | CAG♯ (2:1:1) | ɛ၈့ɜ (wolq) | CAG♯X (1:1:1:1) | ɛ၈ှɜ (wolh) | CAG♯F♯ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဝံɜ (xan) | CC (1:3) | ɛဝံ့ɜ (xanq) | CCX (1:2:1) | ɛဝှံɜ (xanh) | CCB (1:2:1) |
ɛပံɜ (yen) | CE♭ (1:3) | ɛပံ့ɜ (yenq) | CE♭X (1:2:1) | ɛပှံɜ (yenh) | CE♭D (1:2:1) |
ɛဒံɜ (won) | CA (1:3) | ɛဒံ့ɜ (wonq) | CAX (1:2:1) | ɛဒှံɜ (wonh) | CAG♯ (1:2:1) |
ɛဓံɜ (xrn) | CF (1:3) | ɛဓံ့ɜ (xrnq) | CFX (1:2:1) | ɛဓှံɜ (xrnh) | CFE♭ (1:2:1) |
ɛဗံɜ (xarn) | CCF (1:1:2) | ɛဗံ့ɜ (xarnq) | CCFX (2:1:3:2) | ɛဗှံɜ (xarnh) | CCFE♭ (2:1:3:2) |
ɛမံɜ (yirn) | CE♭F (1:1:2) | ɛမံ့ɜ (yirnq) | CE♭FX (2:1:3:2) | ɛမှံɜ (yirnh) | CE♭FE♭ (2:1:3:2) |
ɛခံɜ (wurn) | CAF (1:1:2) | ɛခံ့ɜ (wurnq) | CAFX (2:1:3:2) | ɛခှံɜ (wurnh) | CAFE♭ (2:1:3:2) |
Duotonic Onset:
| Plain | Melody | Glottal | Melody | Breathy | Melody |
ɛဝုɜ (xla) | CBC (1:1:2) | ɛဝု့ɜ (xlaq) | CBCX (1:1:1:1) | ɛဝှုɜ (xlah) | CBCB (1:1:1:1) |
ɛပုɜ (xlie) | CBE♭ (1:1:2) | ɛပု့ɜ (xlieq) | CBE♭X (1:1:1:1) | ɛပှုɜ (xlieh) | CBE♭D (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဒုɜ (xluo) | CBA (1:1:2) | ɛဒု့ɜ (xluoq) | CBAX (1:1:1:1) | ɛဒှုɜ (xluoh) | CBAG♯ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဓုɜ (xlr) | CBF (1:1:2) | ɛဓု့ɜ (xlrq) | CBFX (1:1:1:1) | ɛဓှုɜ (xlrh) | CBFE♭ (1:1:1:1) |
ɛဗုɜ (xlar) | CBCF (1:1:1:1) | ɛဗု့ɜ (xlarq) | CBCFX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဗှုɜ (xlarh) | CBCFE♭ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛမɜ (xlir) | CBE♭F (1:1:1:1) | ɛမု့ɜ (xlirq) | CBE♭FX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛမှုɜ (xlirh) | CBE♭FE♭ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛခုɜ (xlur) | CBAF (1:1:1:1) | ɛခု့ɜ (xlurq) | CBAFX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛခှုɜ (xlurh) | CBAFE♭ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛစုɜ (xlal) | CBCG♯ (1:1:1:1) | ɛစု့ɜ (xlalq) | CBCG♯X (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛစှုɜ (xlalh) | CBCG♯F♯ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛဖုɜ (xliel) | CBE♭G♯ (1:1:1:1) | ɛဖု့ɜ (xlielq) | CBE♭G♯X (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဖှုɜ (xlielh) | CBE♭G♯F♯ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛ၈ုɜ (xluol) | CBAG♯ (1:1:1:1) | ɛ၈ု့ɜ (xluolq) | CBAG♯X (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛ၈ှုɜ (xluolh) | CBAG♯F♯ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛဝုံɜ (xlan) | CBC (1:1:6) | ɛဝုံ့ɜ (xlanq) | CBCX (1:1:4:2) | ɛဝှုံɜ (xlanh) | CBCB (1:1:4:2) |
ɛပုံɜ (xlien) | CBE♭ (1:1:6) | ɛပုံ့ɜ (xlienq) | CBE♭X (1:1:4:2) | ɛပှုံɜ (xlienh) | CBE♭D (1:1:4:2) |
ɛဒုံɜ (xluon) | CBA (1:1:6) | ɛဒုံ့ɜ (xluonq) | CBAX (1:1:4:2) | ɛဒှုံɜ (xluonh) | CBAG♯ (1:1:4:2) |
ɛဓုံɜ (xlrn) | CBF (1:1:6) | ɛဓုံ့ɜ (xlrnq) | CBFX (1:1:4:2) | ɛဓှုံɜ (xlrnh) | CBFE♭ (1:1:4:2) |
ɛဗုံɜ (xlarn) | CBCF (1:1:2:4) | ɛဗုံ့ɜ (xlarnq) | CBCFX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛဗှုံɜ (xlarnh) | CBCFE♭ (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛမုံɜ (xlirn) | CBE♭F (1:1:2:4) | ɛမုံ့ɜ (xlirnq) | CBE♭FX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛမှုံɜ (xlirnh) | CBE♭FE♭ (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛခုံɜ (xlurn) | CBAF (1:1:2:4) | ɛခုံ့ɜ (xlurnq) | CBAFX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛခှုံɜ (xlurnh) | CBAFE♭ (1:1:1:3:2) |
Tritonic Onset:
| Plain | Melody | Glottal | Melody | Breathy | Melody |
ɛဝုs (hla) | CDBC (1:1:1:1) | ɛဝု့s (hlaq) | CDBCX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဝှုs (hlah) | CDBCB (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛပုs (hlie) | CDBE♭ (1:1:1:1) | ɛပု့s (hlieq) | CDBE♭X (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛပှုs (hlieh) | CDBE♭D (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛဒုs (hluo) | CDBA (1:1:1:1) | ɛဒု့s (hluoq) | CDBAX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဒှုs (hluoh) | CDBAG♯ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛဓုs (hlr) | CDBF (1:1:1:1) | ɛဓု့s (hlrq) | CDBFX (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဓှုs (hlrh) | CDBFE♭ (1:1:2:2:2) |
ɛဗုs (hlar) | CDBCF (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဗု့s (hlarq) | CDBCFX (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛဗှုs (hlarh) | CDBCFE♭ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛမုs (hlir) | CDBE♭F (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛမု့s (hlirq) | CDBE♭FX (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛမှုs (hlirh) | CDBE♭FE♭ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛခုs (hlur) | CDBAF (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛခု့s (hlurq) | CDBAFX (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛခှုs (hlurh) | CDBAFE♭ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛစုs (hlal) | CDBCG♯ (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛစု့s (hlalq) | CDBCG♯X (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛစှုs (hlalh) | CDBCG♯F♯ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛဖုs (hliel) | CDBE♭G♯ (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛဖု့s (hlielq) | CDBE♭G♯X (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛဖှုs (hlielh) | CDBE♭G♯F♯ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛ၈ုs (hluol) | CDBAG♯ (1:1:2:2:2) | ɛ၈ု့s (hluolq) | CDBAG♯X (1:1:1:2:1:2) | ɛ၈ှုs (hluolh) | CDBAG♯F♯ (1:1:1:2:1:2) |
ɛဝုံs (hlan) | CDBC (1:1:2:4) | ɛဝုံ့s (hlanq) | CDBCX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛဝှုံs (hlanh) | CDBCB (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛပုံs (hlien) | CDBE♭ (1:1:2:4) | ɛပုံ့s (hlienq) | CDBE♭X (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛပှုံs (hlienh) | CDBE♭D (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛဒုံs (hluon) | CDBA (1:1:2:4) | ɛဒုံ့s (hluonq) | CDBAX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛဒှုံs (hluonh) | CDBAG♯ (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛဓုံs (hlrn) | CDBF (1:1:2:4) | ɛဓုံ့s (hlrnq) | CDBFX (1:1:1:3:2) | ɛဓှုံs (hlrnh) | CDBFE♭ (1:1:1:3:2) |
ɛဗုံs (hlarn) | CDBCF (1:1:1:1:4) | ɛဗုံ့s (hlarnq) | CDBCFX (1:1:1:1:2:2) | ɛဗှုံs (hlarnh) | CDBCFE♭ (1:1:1:1:2:2) |
ɛမုံs (hlirn) | CDBE♭F (1:1:1:1:4) | ɛမုံ့s (hlirnq) | CDBE♭FX (1:1:1:1:2:2) | ɛမှုံs (hlirnh) | CDBE♭FE♭ (1:1:1:1:2:2) |
ɛခုံs (hlurn) | CDBAF (1:1:1:1:4) | ɛခုံ့s (hlurnq) | CDBAFX (1:1:1:1:2:2) | ɛခှုံs (hlurnh) | CDBAFE♭ (1:1:1:1:2:2) |