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. Examples:
- Ægrĭs = this sand
- Ækĕsh = these rocks
- Æfăus = no dogs
- Ælăush = many dogs
- Ævăush = all [the] dogs
| 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
