Ălyis

Ălyis /ˈaʎis/ is the language of the ĭdharash, former inhabitants of the Mĕzelis Valley, located in the southwest of the continent of Năshelas, and dwellers of the Ĭdharos island. The word ălyis itself means simply “speak” and, when referred to as a proper name, it means “the speak”.

Phonology, pronunciation, and orthography

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial

Labiodental

Dental

Alveolar

Postalveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Nasals

m

n

ɲ

Plosives

p

b

t

d

k

ɡ

Fricatives

f

v

θ

ð

s

z

ʃ

ʒ

x

ɣ

h¹

ɦ

Flaps & Taps

ɾ

Lateral Approximants

l

ʎ

¹ The sound /h/ is considered a “foreign” sound and usually appears only in loanwords and foreign names, although it can appear as an allophone of /ɦ/.

Vowels	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Near-open		ɐ
Open	a

Pronunciation

Stress

Disyllabic words are, in general, paroxitones, and the stressed vowel — indicated with a macron (ǣ, Ǣ) or with a breve (ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ, Ă, Ĕ, Ĭ, Ŏ, Ŭ) — usually doesn't change with the addition of prefixes and/or suffixes — for example, ănis (life) → shinănis (their (f) life); ăle (to love) → shăle (they (f) love) → shălete (they (f) love you (s)) → shiălete (they (f) loved you (s)) → oshiălete (they (f) would love you (s)). Exceptions to this rule are the preposition + demonstrative pronoun combinations — ǣkis (this) → ĭdækis (of this); words with three or more syllables are, in general, proparoxytones.

When a prefix is linked to a monosyllable, the stress falls on the prefix, as, for example, is the case of iv- (with) + -te (you) = ĭvite (with you).

Pronunciation of consonants and vowels

The position in a word doesn't change a consonant sound. The consonant L, however, can become labialized as /lʷ/ before other consonants or in word-final positions.

Vowels, on the other hand, usually don't become nasalized before /m/, /n/, and /ɲ/, but the vowel e is pronounced as /e/ in such positions even when stressed.

• A: /a/ when stressed, /ɐ/ otherwise.
• Æ: /e/ when stressed, /ɐe/ otherwise.
• E: /e/ when followed by /m/, /n/, or /ɲ/, otherwise /ɛ/ when stressed, /e/ elsewhere.
• I: /i/ in all positions
• O: /ɔ/ when stressed and followed by /i/, /l/, or /ʎ/, /o/ elsewehere.
• U: /u/ in all positions

Orthography

The above phonemes are rendered in writing as follows:

B b	P p	D d	T t	Z z	S s	G g	K k	L l	R r	M m	N n
/b/	/p/	/d/	/t/	/z/	/s/	/ɡ/	/k/	/l/	/ɾ/	/m/	/n/
V v	F f	DH dh, Ð ð	TH th, Þ þ	ZH zh, J j	SH sh, Ʃ ʃ	GH gh, Ɣ ɣ	KH kh, C c	LY ly, Ł ł	H	Ħ	NY ny, Ŋ ŋ
/v/	/f/	/ð/	/θ/	/ʒ/	/ʃ/	/ɣ/	/x/	/ʎ/	/ɦ/	/h/	/ɲ/

The variants in italics are used when one desires to be as faithful as possible to the native orthography when transliterating.

A a	Æ æ	E e	I i	O o	U u
/a/, /ɐ/	/e/	/ɛ/, /e/	/i/	/ɔ/, /o/	/u/

Grammar

Pronouns

Masculine and feminine pronouns are only used when applied to humans.

Personal pronouns (subject)

d-	I	dh-	we
t-	you	th-	you (pl)
s-	she	sh-	they (f)
z-	he	zh-	they (m)
l-	it	n-	they (n)

Personal pronouns (object)

-de	me	-dhe	us
-te	you (obj)	-the	you (pl, obj)
-se	her	-she	them (f)
-ze	him	-zhe	them (m)
-le	it (obj)	-ne	them (n)

Demonstrative and indefinite pronouns

The prefixes are linked to consonant-starting words with the vowel -i-, except when its absence would cause a double consonant; in this case, the consonants merge into a single one. These prefixes receive the stress when linked to monosyllables.

• Ǣgris = this sand
• Ǣkesh = these rocks

æg-	this noun (close to the speaker)	æk-	this noun (close to the person spoken to)	ærk-	that noun
ægis	this (close to the speaker)	ækis	this (close to the person spoken to)	ærkis	that
æl-	many noun [pl]	æv-	all, every noun	æf-	no noun
ælis	multitude	ævis	everything	æfis	nothing

Nouns

To be expanded

Adjectives

Possessive adjectives

din-	my	dhin-	our
tin-	your	thin-	your (pl)
sin-	her	shin-	their (f)
zin-	his	zhin-	their (m)
lin-	its	nin-	their (n)

Verbs

To be expanded

Sample texts

To be expanded

Lexicon

To be expanded