Ălyis

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

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

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).

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 h	Ħ ħ	NY ny, Ŋ ŋ
/v/	/f/	/ð/	/θ/	/ʒ/	/ʃ/	/ɣ/	/x/	/ʎ/	/ɦ/	/h/	/ɲ/

The consonant 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.

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

Examples:

• Ægrĭs = this sand
• Ækĕsh = these rocks
• Æfăus = no dogs
• Ælăush = many dogs
• Ævăush = all [the] dogs

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Article

The only article is the definite, li, and it is only used when the context alone is not enough to precisely identify the object being referred to.

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Nouns

All nouns end in -s, and the plural is made by changing -s to -sh. Nouns derived from verbs usually end in -is.

• Augmentative: om- + noun
• Diminutive: um- + noun

If the noun starts in a consonant other than m-, p-, or b-, om- and um- change to on- and un-, respectively. Double consonants created this way merge into one.

Examples:

• ĕnish “people”
• omĕnish “big people”
• pash “hands”
• umpăsh “small hands”
• fais “tree”
• onfăis “large tree”
• nuis “hole”
• unŭis “small hole”

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Adjectives

All adjectives end in -n, and the ones derived from other words usually end in -æn or -in; many adjectives are derived from verbs.

• Comparative of superiority: om- + adjective
• Comparative of inferiority: um- + adjective

Example:

• ălnyin “good”, “useful” → omălnyin “better”, “more useful”

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)

If the word being linked to begins with a bilabial consonant, the -n- changes to -m-. Double consonants formed when linking merge into one.

Examples:

• nĭzais “father” → dinĭzais “my father” → zindinĭzais “my father's”

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Verbs

The general structure of a verbal word is [second temporal prefix] + [personal prefix] + [first temporal prefix] + [verb root] + [mode suffix] + [object suffix]. Not all combinations are possible for all verbs.

The three mode suffixes are -e, -i, and -a, and they are used as follows:

• Infinitive: root + -e
• Participle: root + -a
• Gerund: root + -i

For the following list, the -e ending can be changed to -i to give the idea of progression or continuous action. In some cases, it is possible to use the participle mode suffix to express a past, present or future state without using a copula.

• Indicative:
  • Simple Present: person + root + -e (action in course or true at the moment of speaking)
  • Finished Past: person + -i- + root + -e (action completed in the past)
  • Perfect Past: i- + person + -i- + root + -e (action completed before a past event)
  • Simple Future: person + -o- + root + -e (action to be executed in the future)
  • Past Future: o- + person + -i- + root + -e (a future action relating to a past event)
• Subjunctive:
  • Ve + corresponding indicative
• Imperative:
  • Hæ + Simple Present

Examples:

• ve diĕni = “if I were”
• hæ tăhe ǣgis = “do this”
• săla = “she is loved”
• liărka = “it was weakened”
• doărka = “I will be strengthened”

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Sample texts

To be expanded

Lexicon

To be expanded