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
| 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.
| 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:
gender
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, 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
- muhitush - in the ocean
- toshida - in the city
- betush - in, at, on the house
- placement in time
- gesheda - at night
- puyush - in the winter
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
- sarha - quickly (with quickness)
degree
pronouns
| 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.
case
demonstrative
prepositions
adjectives
comparison
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 |
ordinal
questions
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.
