Ilya
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Introduction and Morphology
- Ilya is an agglutinative language.
- Suffixes predominate Ilya morphology, though there is a small number of prefixes. Verbs can express tense and aspect, and they agree with the subject in person and number. There is no grammatical gender in Ilya, nor are pronouns marked for natural gender.
- See also: Ilya dictionary
Phonology
consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ||||||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | h | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||
vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i~ɪ | u~ʊ | |
| Mid | e~ɛ | o~ɔ | |
| Open | a~ə |
- ai - /aɪ/
Orthography & Allophony
Ilya uses 23 of the 26 letters in the English alphabet; q, w, and x are unused.
- c - /ʃ/; /t͡ʃ/ when followed by a front vowel; /t͡s/ when word final
- g - always /g/
- h - can be /ɦ/ when followed by a front vowel
- j - /ʒ/ in all cases; can be /dʒ/ in proper names
- u - /u/ but /w/ when followed by another vowel
- y - always /j/
Syntax
Nouns
Nouns are commonly preceded by determiners. Plural nouns are formed by appending -m to nouns ending in vowels or -im to nouns ending in consonants. This does not alter the stress:
- doma > domam — house > houses
- ajen > ajenim — woman > women
Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as usu (water), - (sand), and heta (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types:
- usu — the water (e.g. in the cup)
- hetam — woods (e.g. various kinds)
Gender is typically not indicated. If necessary, nouns may be followed by ...:
- A few terms for family members and traditional roles do show distinctions of gender. For example:
- ...
Apposition — the use of one noun to modify another — is mostly limited to names and titles:
Case
| Case | Ending | Examples | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| karya "village" | saca "tree" | |||
| Nominative | Ø (none) | zz | zz | (the) village/tree |
| Genitive | -ín | karyín | sacín | the village's/tree's of the village/tree |
| Dative | -é | karyé | sacé | to the village/tree |
| Accusative | -í/-yí | zz | zz | the village/tree |
| Ablative | -(e)cí | zz | zz | from the village/tree |
| Locative | -(e)dá | karyadá | sacadá | in the village/on the tree |
Determiners
Pronouns
- Ilya is a null-subject, or pro-drop, language, so personal pronouns (e.g. I, he, she) are optional. Pronouns generally are the same for all cases.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | na | nuk |
| 2nd | te | tum |
| 3rd | il | hum |
