Ælis/Writing

This page will cover the Ælis alphabet, its writing system and its pronunciation rules.

Phonemes
The table below contains all the phonemes that can be found in the Ælis language. The symbols in this table follow the IPA standard. Note: 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, /ɑɛ/ is a diphthong, but it is regarded as a common vowel. All written letters (even double consonants and vowels) 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.


 * Note: throughout this text, the pronunciation guidelines will be in square brackets [] if the romanisation is used, and slashes // if IPA symbols are used.

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. A comma may be used to separate different sentences, and a full stop can be used at the end of a paragraph, but there is no grammatical obligation to use these punctuation marks at all. An example is the Lord's Prayer text, which only has one full stop at the end.

But there is a set of two fairly important punctuation symbols named rea. Similar to the use of italics or quotation marks in English, the two (mirrored) rea symbols enclose any type of proper name or borrowed word in order to mark it as such. It 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.

Emphasis and pronunciation
As opposed to most languages in existence, emphasis is of minor importance in Ælis. The only reason for emphasis rules in Ælis is to avoid cases of possible ambiguity. It is recommended to revise the following pronunciation rules after having looked into the grammar, because some of them may seem abstract for now.

1) The diphthong [æ] always has its emphasis on the /ɑ/, never on the /ɛ/.

2) Number concepts always carry the emphasis over the following and the preceding root word.
 * E.g.: lA1tE [laæte] /lɑ'ɑɛtɛ/.

3) The cluster iI [ii] has the emphasis on the second vowel, so that it is pronounced /yi/. It may also become /ʒi/ or /dʒi/ due to allomorphy.
 * E.g.: eIiI [eiii] /ɛiʒi/ or /ɛidʒi/ (to solve).

4) All written letters should always be audible. Especially when a double letter appears as part of two different root words, then both letters have to be reflected in the pronunciation. There are a few possibilities to do so. Example given: iRrWuA [ir'ræua] (meaning irrelevantly):
 * Through prolongation. This can only work for non-plosives: /ir:ɑɛ'uɑ/
 * By insert a glottal stop, schwa or another muted vowel-like sound: /iɾʔɾɑɛ'uɑ/ - /iɾəɾɑɛ'uɑ/ - /iɾɞɾɑɛ'uɑ/ - ...

5) Vowel pairs that begin with [u] carry different emphases according to what they mean and how they are written:

Apart from these rules, the emphasis and intonation in Ælis are completely free . For instance, the cluster iA [ia] can be pronounced either /jɑ/ or /'iɑ/; the cluster nArA [nara] can be pronounced either /'n ɑ ɾɑ/ or /nɑ'ɾ ɑ /; etc.

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.


 * If both rows of this table show Latin characters in your browser, click here.