Ælis/Morphology

    

    



The oligosynthetic identity of the language means that its vocabulary is constructed from a relatively small set of root words. These roots are strung together into big clusters to create more complex words. The approach basically urges speakers to 'create' their own vocabulary while speaking. To achieve consistency, there are very strict rules for morphology. This page will give you an overview of important morphological elements of the language, and how they fit together.

PART 1: BUILDING BLOCKS

Basic word structure
The morphological approach is strictly head-initial: the first root of a compound word is nominal, which means it behaves like a noun. The roots attached behind the first behave like adjectives. By joining roots and turning them into compound words, more complex words can be created from basic concepts.

The word order can also be played with to change the relationship of the roots. After all, since the first root is described by the ones that follow, different combinations can be made with the same roots. These will then have different meanings. An example:  tE {te} means 'human/person'. uB3rA {ubira} means 'strength' or 'strong'.
 * tEuB3rA {te> ubira } means 'a strong person'
 * uB3rAtE {ubira> te } means 'human strength'.

Another example. If eG {eg} means 'language/communucation', and 1lIS {ælis} means 'harmony', then:
 * eG1lIS {eg> ælis } means 'harmonious language'
 * 1lISeG {ælis> eg } means 'linguistic harmony', or simply " poetry ".

Number concepts
Along with the 21 common letters of the alphabet, Ælis uses a set of ten additional symbols called number concepts, from now on referred to as "Lisqa". Lisqa are proper root words which all have a numeric value:

Lisqa are a noteworthy aspect of the languages' morphology, mainly because the underlying idea doesn't share any common ground with concepts found in the English grammar (or probably most human languages' grammar, for that matter). A first important remark is that these number concepts are not the same as cardinal numbers. Instead, they are present in words where the corresponding numeric value is somehow conceptually present. The most illustrative lisqa example can be found in the very name of the language: 1lIS [Ælis] consists of 1 [æ] (1) and lIS [lis] (concept, idea), the concept of one meaning as much as 'peace' or 'harmony', or of course ' uni ty'.

Counting
Ælis does not have individual words for numbers, nor has it any separate symbols for ciphers. But as you might have guessed, the number concepts are used to express numbers: all numbers end with the fixed root word qA [qa], which can mean 'number', 'amount', 'countable' or 'unit'; with number concepts preceding it. The first five numbers use the lisqa of the low range:

The numbers from 5 to 9 use the high range lisqa. Try to see it similarly to the fact we have two hands with 5 fingers each.



10+: Simple numbers
For all positive numbers 10 and up, in the simple system, multiple number concepts are combined as if they were digits. E.g.:



10+: Complex numbers
In the complex system, repitions of the same number may be joined in with a multiplication-like system, comparable to English: 007 (zero-zero-seven) &#8660; 007 (double-o-seven). In Ælis, this is achieved by enclosing the amount of times that the following digit has to be repeated in the letter {d}, primary case to open, secondary case to close: 007 007qA {a'a'u̯eqa} &#8660; 007 <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">d2D0 <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">7qA {<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">deda '<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">u̯eqa } (<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">two times zero, <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">then seven ).

The complex system becomes increasingly interesting for high numbers that contain identical adjacent digits. Compare:

<p style="margin-bottom:3em;">

Personal pronouns
<p style="margin:2em 0em;">The number concepts also play a role in the construction of personal pronouns. If you look at them as 'the first/second/third person', the idea becomes more tangible. Personal pronouns exist in five grammatical persons, and three genders. The genders are purely semantical, so they don't govern the declension of nouns or the like. Note that the category of undefined pronouns is not the same as the neuter grammatical gender; they are used only if a speaker is either unaware of the gender, doesn't wish to specify, or for referring to a group where both sexes are present. Furthermore, the personal pronouns are only used for arguments that can be interpreted as having a character: people, or sometimes animals, anthropomorphized objects (in literature), ect. They are never used for referring to objects (as opposed to the English use of it).

Singular
<p style="margin:2em 0em;">The singular pronouns are formed as follows:

<p style="margin:2em 0em;">Ælis' "4th person" refers to someone other than me, you, or him/her. It may refer to either someone beyond eyesight, or to someone unknown: me, you, him/her, and 'the other':

<p style="margin:2em 0em;">The "0th person" refers to the generalizing 'one', as in 'one does not simply...'. The person that French refers to as on, in German man, etc.:

<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">

Plural: simple
<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">There are two methods to form plural personal pronouns in Ælis: the simple and complex pronouns. The latter are more natural to Ælis itself, but the former may be more intuitive to speakers from other languages. The simple plural pronouns take the same approach as the singular ones, only do they employ the first three lisqa of the high range rather than the low range.

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Plural: complex
<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">In the complex approach, the idea is not to use the high range lisqa instead of the low range ones, but instead, to use more than one lisqa. In essence, this is a way to compress two simple, singular pronouns into one. For example:

If two or more people are not all the same gender, the undefined pronoun must be used:

The complex system allows you to get very creative:

<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">Note that the lisqa ought to be placed strictly in ascending order:

Use
<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">Because Ælis attaches great value to the correct use of genders in personal pronouns, addressing someone face to face with 2tE {ete} (you, undefined) could be taken as an offense.

<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">Addressing someone is often also done by merging a personal pronoun with a noun. Compare:

<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">It is even common and polite to prefix a personal pronoun (with the correct gender) to a given name:

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Qualifiers
Qualifiers are a set of five words that can be attached to other words, which will then express a certain amount, degree, extent or quality of of that word. The qualifiers are formed by prefixing Lisqa from 0 to 4 to the fixed root word {-ra}. Therefore, there are five qualifiers 'levels': <div style="display:flex;flex-flow: row wrap; justify-content: space-around; align-items:center;margin:1em;"> 0rA [ara] (nothing) 1rA [æra] (little) 2rA [era] (moderate/middle/half) 3rA [ira] (much) 4rA [ora] (all/total) Let's have a look at a few examples. Pay attention to which effect the qualifiers have to the base word:

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<p style="text-align:center;">With nA {na}: "quality":

<p style="text-align:center;">With uB {ub}: "power":

<p style="text-align:center;">With zU {zu}: "temperature":

<p style="text-align:center;">With dI {di}: "volition":

<p style="text-align:center;">With vE {ve}: "value":

<p style="text-align:center;">With dW {dæ}: "brightness":

The examples above only show few of numerous possibilities; the qualifiers can attach to many root words, by which a fivefold of words is created. Getting a grasp on the qualifiers means getting a grip on what the Ælis language is all about.

Axes of time and space
Ælis' axes of time and space lay out the fundaments of what will later be the equivalent of many prepositions and also time tenses. The system exploits the mechanics of both the lisqa and the qualifiers, so that the entire system can be built around one root word. This is the root word dA {da}, which means axis, also axle or (straight) line. Let's start with space first. The Ælis paradigm can be compared to an <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">X -<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">Y -<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">Z  graph that you may remember from math class: each of the axes of Ælis corresponds to one of the dimensions in such a graph. The words are formed as follows: <ul style="margin-bottom:1em;"> <li>Each word will start with the root word aN {an}, which means space, place or also location;</li> <li>then, one of the lisqa is connected to the root word {da}, which identifies the dimension;</li> <li>finally, one of five qualifiers is added to identify one of five points on that axis.</li> </ul> As such, the axes of space are:

<p style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold;margin-right:1em;">1) <p style="display:inline-block;"> aN<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 dA {an'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ da}, the <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">horizontal axis, which ranges from left to right :

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aN1dA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {an'æda'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">leftmost

aN1dA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {an'æda'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">left

aN1dA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {an'æda'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">center

aN1dA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {an'æda'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">right

aN1dA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {an'æda'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">rightmost

<p style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold;margin-right:1em;">2) <p style="display:inline-block;"> aN<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 dA {an'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e da}, the <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">vertical axis, which ranges from bottom to top :

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aN2dA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {an'eda'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">bottom lowest

aN2dA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {an'eda'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">down below

aN2dA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {an'eda'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">center

aN2dA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {an'eda'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">up above

aN2dA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {an'eda'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">top topmost

<p style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold;margin-right:1em;">3) <p style="display:inline-block;"> aN<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 dA {an'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i da}, the axis of <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">depth, which ranges from back to front :

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aN3dA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {an'ida'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">far back

aN3dA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {an'ida'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">back behind

aN3dA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {an'ida'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">center

aN3dA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {an'ida'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">front ahead

aN3dA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {an'ida'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">frontmost far ahead

<p style="margin-top:2em;">Although the space we live in is threedimensional, Ælis also has a 4th axis, which is used to describe an inward-outward position:

<p style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold;margin-right:1em;">4) <p style="display:inline-block;"> aN<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 dA {an'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o da}, the <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">in-out axis, which ranges from inside to outside :

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aN4dA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {an'oda'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">deep inside

aN4dA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {an'oda'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">inside 1

aN4dA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {an'oda'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">center 2

aN4dA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {an'oda'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">outside 3

aN4dA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {an'oda'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">far out

<ol style="font-size:0.8em;line-height:0.8em;"> <li>used to describe, for example, something against a wall on the inside of a house.</li> <li>used to describe, for example, something on a doorstep, an open window, ...</li> <li>used to describe, for example, something against a wall on the outside of a house.</li> </ol>

<p style="margin-top:2em;">There is also an axis with the lisqa for 0. This axis is the 'absolute' or 'cardinal' axis, and is used to describe the cardinal points.

<p style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold;margin-right:1em;">5) <p style="display:inline-block;"> aN<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 dA {an'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a da}, the <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">absolute axis:

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aN0dA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {an'ada'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">North

aN0dA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {an'ada'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">East

aN0dA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {an'ada'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">center 1

aN0dA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {an'ada'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">South

aN0dA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {an'ada'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">West

<ol style="font-size:0.8em;line-height:0.8em;"> <li>used to describe the absolute center in terms of geographical location.</li> </ol>

<p style="margin-top:2em;">With the axes of space covered, we can now speak about time. This axis is slightly easier, because there is only one axis. Therefore, the first lisqa is dropped, as there is no need to determine a dimension. The temporal axis uses the root word for 'time' instead of the one for 'space': aSdA {asda}, which ranges from past to future :

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aSdA<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0 rA {asda'<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">a ra} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">far past history

aSdA<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1 rA {asda'<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æ ra} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">(recent) past

aSdA<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2 rA {asda'<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">e ra} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">present

aSdA<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3 rA {asda'<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">i ra} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">(near) future

aSdA<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4 rA {asda'<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">o ra} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">far future eternity

Singular vs. Plural
Nearly every root word of Ælis is principally ambigous as long as there is no context provided. This applies to the notion of noun vs. adjective, but it also applies of the notion of singular vs. plural. Essentially, you should understand every root word as meaning "a certain amount of" X. Without context, tE {te} can mean both 'person' and 'people', qOrEmI {qoremi} can mean both 'cat' and 'cats', aN {an} can mean both 'place' and 'places', etc.

In its core, Ælis does not speak about 'singular' vs. 'plural' at all. Instead, the only notion that exists is an optional specification of which amount of the instance we're talking about.

In practice, you'll notice that such a specification is often redundant. Mostly, the amount implied can be derived from context. However, it cannot always be avoided, and sometimes, a specification is necessary. If so, Ælis has two ways to do so.

Method number one exists of none simpler than simply adding a cardinal number before the other word.

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<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0qA tE {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">aqa 'te} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">zero people

<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1qA tE {<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æqa 'te} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">one person

<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2qA tE {<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">eqa 'te} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">two people

<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3qA tE {<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">iqa 'te} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">three people

<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4qA tE {<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">oqa 'te} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">four people

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<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">0qA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">aqa 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">zero cats

<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">1qA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">æqa 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">one cat

<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">2qA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">eqa 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">two cats

<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">3qA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">iqa 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">three cats

<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">4qA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">oqa 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">four cats

If it proves undesirable or even impossible to use this method (e.g.: with uncountables), method two consists of adding a qualifier to the root word qA {qa}, and prefix that to another word:

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<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">qA0rA tE {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">qa'ara 'te} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">no people no one

<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">qA1rA tE {<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">qa'æra 'te} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">some people

<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">qA2rA tE {<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">qa'era 'te} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">several people

<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">qA3rA tE {<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">qa'ira 'te} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">many people

<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">qA4rA tE {<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">qa'ora 'te} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">all people everyone

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<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">qA0rA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">qa'ara 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,50%);">no cats

<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">qA1rA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">qa'æra 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(25,100%,50%);">some cats

<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">qA2rA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">qa'era 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(50,100%,45%);">several cats

<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">qA3rA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">qa'ira 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(100,100%,25%);">many cats

<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">qA4rA qOrEmI {<span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">qa'ora 'qoremi} <span style="color:hsl(200,100%,40%);">all cats every cat

<h1 style="margin:1em auto;width:auto;text-align:center;padding:0.5em 1em;font-size:1.5em;background: linear-gradient(to right,rgba(0,51,51,1), rgba(0,128,128,0.5), rgba(255,255,255,0));color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgb(0,51,51), 1px -1px 1px rgb(0,51,51), -1px 1px 1px rgb(0,51,51), -1px -1px 1px rgb(0,51,51);border-radius: 0px 50px 0px 50px;">PART 2: CHAINING

With the info of part 1 in the back of your mind, the idea is to now weave these particles into even bigger clusters. In the following paragraphs, we'll zoom in on how it's done.

The characteristic particle
The characteristic particle, eM {em}, is a particle that can be used to create adjectives. Even though the relationship of noun-adjective is already present in two randomly joined root words, the characteristic particle allows one group of root words (i.e.: a word) to become an adjective of another group of root words. An example:

Another example:

The referent particle
The referent particle, vW {væ}, is a particle that can be used to create a framework. This framework is limiting in nature, meaning that the rest of the utterance is only valid with regard to the referent, not to anything else. The referent particle {væ} could therefore be understood as meaning "when compared to". The particle can make itself useful in various ways.

<p style="margin: 2em 0em;">

Prepositions of time and place
The referent can connect to words that express a location or a point in time (cf. Axes of time and space) in order to make them relative. This way, they turn into prepositions:

Another example:

Or:

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Fractions
The referent particle can also be used to express fractions. Its meaning then becomes "X out of Y" :

By extension, the particle can also be used to highlight parts of a group in general:

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Order and ordinal numbers
To be completed.

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Comparative and superlative
To be completed. <p style="margin-bottom:5em;">

<p style="text-align:center;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:1em;">Further reading Main page Reading and writing Morphology Function marking Root word list and vocabulary