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

Interrogative pronouns

dĭle	why	tĭle	for what
vĭnye	who	vĭme	where
dĭnye	whose	dĭme	whence
sĭnye	which	tĭme	to where
mĭnye	how much, how many	ĭhæ	what

It is possible to omit the copula from a sentence and link the interrogative pronoun directly to the personal suffixes and demonstrative pronouns:

• Vĭnyete? = Vĭnye tĕne? = “Who are you?”
• Dĭnyele? = Dĭnye lĕne [ǣgis/ǣkis]? = “Whose is it/this?”
• Ĭhæle? = Ĭhæ lĕne [ǣgis/ǣkis]? = “What is it/this?”

---

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.

---

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”

---

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”

---

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”

---

Adverbs

Most adverbs end in -ar and they usually come before the word they modify, especially when it is a verb, the exceptions being:

	Linked to an adjective	Linked to a noun
om-	Comparative of superiority	Augmentative
um-	Comparative of inferiority	Diminutive

vi	yes
va	no
va-	not

The adverb prefixes om- and um- can be linked to other adverbs (with the vowel -a- if they begin with a consonant) to change their meanings.

---

Prepositions

The prepositions in Ălyis are all prefixes (though they can receive endings to become independent words if such is needed) and as such they allow for a case system of sorts. The full list follows.

et-	to (destination)	id-	of	el-	for (sth)
ip-	before (time)	ed-	since	ep-	before (sb or sth)
ot-	until	in-	in	av-	without
ap-	after	im-	between, among	ib-	under
iv-	with	it-	to	eb-	on, on top of
al-	against	il-	for (sb)	ob-	behind

One can omit the verbs ĕne and ĕme (the two generic copulae) and link the preposition to its corresponding word with the vowel clusters -i-, -e-, -ei-, -a-, -oi-, and -o- to convey time information, meaning Perfect Past, Finished Past, Progressive Past, Simple Present, Future in the Past and Simple Future, respectively. The resulting word can then be used as the subject of a sentence.

If the verb cannot be ommited (for reasons of clearness ― see the fourth example), the preposition is linked with the vowel -i-.

Examples:

• Ægitadinăus. = Ǣgis itadinăus. = Ǣgis lĕne itidinăus. = “This is for my dog.”
• Ægiteidinăus. = Ǣgis iteidinăus. = Ǣgis liĕni itidinăus. = “This was for my dog.”
• Ægiteidinăus ŏmar lălnye. = “This, which was for my dog, is very good.”
• Ægăleite, ha ăinar zĕne ĭlite. = “This [man] was against you, but now he is for you.”

---

Conjunctions

All conjunctions are independent words.

hi	and	ho	so
hæ	that	ha	but
ve	if	ĭlæ	because

---

Numerals

• Simple numbers: -l
• Tens: -lal
• Hundreds: -lel
• Thousands: -lyal
• Millions: -lyel

Numbers are writen and read from left to right; round numerals can have two numeral suffixes:

• 10,001: elălyal hi el
• 11,002: ĕlal-ĕlyal hi kal
• 111,222: ĕlel-ĕlal-ĕlyal hi kălel-kălal-kal = “cento e onze mil e duzentos e vinte e dois”
• 9,456,123: mŏlyel hi tŏlel-rălel-gŏlyal hi ĕlel-kălal-fol
• 9,000,000: mŏlyel hi ŭlel hi ul, to emphasize the number's “roundness”, or simply mŏlyel

The numerals ul, ŭlal, ŭlel, ŭlyal, and ŭlyel can also indicate the idea of emptiness at different degrees.

Trivia: the expression hi ŭlel hi ul is a common expression among the ĭdharash and means “absolutely nothing”.

Number	Numeral	×10	×100	×1,000	×1,000,000
0	ul	ŭlal	ŭlel	ŭlyal	ŭlyel
1	el	ĕlal	ĕlel	ĕlyal	ĕlyel
2	kal	kălal	kălel	kălyal	kălyel
3	fol	fŏlal	fŏlel	fŏlyal	fŏlyel
4	tol	tŏlal	tŏlel	tŏlyal	tŏlyel
5	ral	rălal	rălel	rălyal	rălyel
6	gol	gŏlal	gŏlel	gŏlyal	gŏlyel
7	zhol	zhŏlal	zhŏlel	zhŏlyal	zhŏlyel
8	val	vălal	vălel	vălyal	vălyel
9	mol	mŏlal	mŏlel	mŏlyal	mŏlyel

Sample texts

To be expanded

Lexicon

To be expanded