Ilya

• See also: Ilya dictionary
• See also: Ilya phrases

introduction

Ilya is an artlang designed for aesthetic reasons. It borrows heavily (if not exclusively) from Arabic, Basque, Japanese, Quechua, Spanish, and Turkish.

sounds

consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
Plosives	p   b	t   d		k   g		ʔ (q)
Nasals	m	n
Fricatives		s	ʃ (sh)
Approximants		l	j (y)		w	h
Trill		r

Note: The glottal stop /ʔ/ q, is used as a "buffer" to keep vowels apart when adding suffixes.

vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~ɪ		u~ʊ
Mid	e~ɛ
Open		a~ə

nouns

number

Nouns are commonly preceded by determiners. Plural nouns are formed by appending -im. Dual nouns are formed by appending -ik.

	singular [sg]	dual [du]	plural [pl]
"house"	beta	betim	betik
"dog"	kupu	kupim	kupik
"lie"	ulya	ulyim	ulyik
"ten"	da	daqim	daqik

gender

Gender is typically not indicated. If necessary, nouns may be prefixed with mu(l)- (male) or she(n)- (female):

• mukawal / shekawal — a stallion / a mare

A few terms for family members and traditional roles do show distinctions of gender. For example:

• ena / aba — mother / father
• sema / neska — son / daughter

case

	nominative	accusative	genitive	dative	locative	ablative	comitative
"house"	beta	betwa	betai	beten	betush	betiga	betak
"water"	ura	uri	urya	urne	urda	uraga	urha

nominative: The basic form of each noun, and the one cited in dictionaries, is the nominative singular. All the other forms can be derived from it.

accusative:

• -i / -wa

beto - the house, to the house, etc.

The genitive for possessors, composition, and partiality.

• -ai / -ya

tibin kawalya - the horse's hay

gohan tibinai - a meal of hay

kawal tibinai yemeshu - the horse ate some hay

locative: The locative case is used for:

• -(u)sh / -da

location

- - in the ocean

tushda - in the city

betush - in, at, on the house

placement in time

geshada - at night

puyush - in the winter

instrumental: The instrumental/comitative expresses what an action is performed with. An important use of the instrumental is as an adverbial, since Ilya lacks a morphological adverb.

• -ak / -ha

betak - using; with the house

sarha - quickly (with quickness)

pronouns

	singular	plural
1	-an	-uk
2	-ti / -e	-ut
3	-u / -a / il	-um

case

	nominative	accusative	genitive
1s	-an	eyan	nai
2s	-ti / -e	eti / eye	tiya
3s	-u / -a	eya	ai
1p	-uk	eyuk	kai
2p	-ut	eyut	tai
3p	-um	eyum	mai

direct object incorporation

Direct object pronouns are incorporated to the verb inflection. So, instead of eya rayeshan (I saw her), rayeshana is grammatical. The DO pronouns are not used when the object is specified. So, instead of kawal rayeshanu (I saw (it) the horse), kawal rayeshan is grammatical.

verb	tense / aspect / mood	subject	object
ray	-esh	-an	-a
see	simple past	1sg	3sg.FEM
I saw her.

determiners

Determiners in Ilya precede the noun they modify.

• bumul, shushen, semirha / this man, that woman, every boy

Other words function similarly:

• tuma - all
• bu- - this, these
• shu- - that, those
• irha - every, each
• marha - whatever, whichever
• kesh - some, several, a few
• ne - no, zero
• shuk - many, much
• bira - few, little
• daha - more
• kita - less, fewer
• diga - other
• iyin - same
• gura - such

numbers

Ilya	number	English	Ilya	number	English	Ilya	number	English
nul	0	zero	sha	6	six	kishada	500	five hundred
wa	1	one	seb	7	seven	hesha	103	(one) thousand
ni	2	two	oka	8	eight	dahesh	104	ten thousand
ush	3	three	nen	9	nine	sadahesh	105	(one) hundred thousand
ha	4	four	da	10	ten
kish	5	five	sada	100	(one) hundred

verbs

Verbs are the workhorses of Ilya. They can mark for both agent and patient as well as tense. Many simple sentences are composed of only a verb. Generally, verb roots start and end with a consonant.

tense

Non-past is not marked. Past tense is marked with -esh, and remote with -ur.

• mashan - walk-1SG - I walk. / I am walking.

• masheshuk - walk-PST-1PL - We walked.

• mashuru - walk-REM-3SG - She (has already) walked.