Ælis/Writing

This page covers the Ælis alphabet and writing system.

Phonemes
The table below contains all the phonemes that the Ælis language features (IPA). Bold-faced phonemes represent the preferred pronunciation, phonemes in brackets are allowed variations that will not cause ambiguity.

Alphabet
The alphabet has 21 letters, of which 6 vowels and 15 consonants. Technically, [aɛ] is a diphthong, but it is regarded as a common vowel. All written letters should always be pronounced and vice-versa. The table below follows the Ælis alphabetical order. Letters in bold are those where the Romanisation differs from the actual IPA phonemic symbols.

Syllabic writing
The Ælis writing can be considered to be syllabic. Unlike some Asian languages, where syllables consist of multiple characters merged into a little box, Ælis uses two cases of letters to visually distinguish syllables from one another: the so called primary and secondary case. The writing style follows this pattern: the first phoneme of every root word is written in the primary case, every other letter is written in the secondary case. Compare the following clusters:


 * aM = [am] eN = [en]  iR = [ir]
 * mA = [ma] nE = [ne]  rI = [ri]

In Ælis, every root is at the same time a morpheme and a syllable. Any regular root word has either two or three phonemes/letters, for which only certain phonemic clusters are admissible:

Two letter root words:

Three letter root words:
 * 1) CV: tW [tæ] (colour)
 * 2) VC:  aR [ar] (reason, causality)
 * 3) VV:  uA [ua] (centre, half)
 * 1) CVC:  lIS [lis] (concept, notion)
 * 2) CVV:  gOE [goe] (water)

Toponyms, given names and borrowed words fall outside these syllabic restrictions, as they're not part of the Ælis root word thesaurus. Still, the same writing rule (where the first letter is written in the primary case and any following letters in the secondary case) applies. E.g.:
 * khIMALAIAK (Himalaya)
 * keSPERANTOK (Esperanto)
 * kqLINONK (Klingon)

Punctuation and the name tag
Ælis has a full stop ( . ) and a comma, but these are used only very sparsely. There is not even an obligation to use these punctuation marks at all. There is, however, a set of two fairly important punctuation symbols which are used as a name tag: the rea. These two (mirrored) symbols enclose any type of proper name or borrowed word in order to mark it as such. The rea may be literally pronounced. E.g.:


 * eG1lIS [egælis] = peaceful language;
 * eG k 1lIS K [eg rea 'ælis] = the language (that is named) Peace. (=Ælis)

By itself, [rea] ( rEA ) is a root word which means "name":


 * iA1mAhA rEA kfREDERIQK


 * ==> My name is Frederic.

Writing Ælis on the computer
If you're interested in writing Ælis in your own text editor, you can download the ttf font. The keyboard keys have been assigned as follows:
 * Lowercase letters correspond to the primary case;
 * Uppercase letters correspond to the secondary case;
 * Number concept symbols have been assigned to the numbers from 0 to 9;
 * The letter [æ] has been assigned to the w-key. Lowercase 'w' for the primary case w and uppercase 'W' for the secondary case W ;
 * The rea symbols have been assigned to the k-key. Lowercase 'k' for the opening rea k and uppercase 'K' for the closing rea K.