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		o
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. Trial nouns are formed by appending -ur. This does not alter the stress:

case

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.

oblique

• -o / -wa

beto - the house, to the house, etc.

genitive

The genitive for possessors (the horse's hay), composition (a meal of hay), and partiality (the horse ate some hay).

• -ai / -ya

munwa betai - the door of the house

locative

The locative case is used for:

location (muuhitush 'in the ocean'; toshida 'in the city')

placement in time (gesheda 'at night'; puyush 'in the winter')

• -(u)sh / -da

betush - in, at, on the house

instrumental

The instrumental 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

pronouns

	nominative	accusative	genitive
1s	-an	ayan	nai
2s	-ti / -e	eti / aye	tiya
3s	-u / -a	aya	ai
1p	-uk	ayuk	kai
2p	-ut	ayut	tai
3p	-um	ayum	mai

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.

syntax

• da / ush - Locative [LOC]
• ha / ak - Instrumental [INSTR]

• em - interrogative [Q]
• ey - accusative [ACC]
• ib - dative [DAT]
• im / m - plural [PL]
• ur - remote tense [REM]

• ya / ai - Genitive [GEN]

• eyem - food; sustenance
• iyib - heart
• sha - six; 6
• da - ten; 10
• ha - four; 4
• hesha - thousand; 1000
• kish - five; 5
• nen - nine; 9
• ni - two; 2
• nul - zero; 0
• oka - eight; 8
• ush - three; 3
• sada - hundred; 100
• seb - seven; 7

• uk - we; us
• um - they; them
• u / a / il - he; she; it
• ut - you [pl]
• ti / e - you

• da-ra - give; donate; transfer
• hab-ra - like; enjoy
• nap-ra - listen; hear

• pan-ek - stagger; stumble; totter
• ash-ek - want; desire
• em-ek - ask; request
• sob-ra - collect; gather
• suh-ek - hang; suspend
• yib-ra - pump

examples

• ray-an-ti

see-1s-2s

I see you

• ne shab-an

NEG know-1s

I don't know

• ma ed-e

what do-2s

What are you doing?

• ish-esh-em-il-u

drink-PST-Q-3s-3s

Did she drink it?

• bet-im-wa kai ker-um

houe-PL-OBL 1p.poss red-3p

Our houses are red