Ælis

Preliminary Remarks
While this article page is being updated, feel free to read the full PDF document on the principles of the language by downloading it here.

General information
Hanænarasaiaete!

Ælis is a language with the aim to rule out as many grammatical aspects as possible. Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs do not exist in a grammatical sense, neither do verb conjugations, tenses, moods or voices. The stress in words and sentences is virtually irrelevant, there are no tones, and word order is free. There is hardly any punctuation, nor are there spaces to divide words or sentences from one another. Nonetheless, Ælis has a solid, very consistent grammar which mainly draws from semantical functions such as agent, patient, action, state, and a few other functions inherent to the language.

The word "Ælis", in Ælis, means 'peace'. "egælis" means 'harmonic' or 'peaceful language'. It is an aesthetical language with the aim to perhaps someday serve as an IAL, but also a language with a refreshing approach on language and grammar, which can be used by aficionados of theoretical linguistics to explore the boundaries of human grammar.

Alphabet
The alphabet has 21 letters, of which 5 vowels, 15 consonants and 1 diphthong which is regarded as a vowel. It is written with proper symbols and has a proper, syllabic writing style (Eqælis). To see what it looks like, please visit the download link posted under the header "Preliminary Remarks" or scroll down to the paragraph "Example Text". On this web page, the Romanisation will be used.

Phonotactics
The language is built with root words, for which only certain patterns are admissible:

Two letter root words: Three letter root words:
 * CV: ni (woman, female)
 * VC: am (manner, way)
 * VV: ii (target, goal, destination)
 * CVC: lis (concept, idea)
 * CVV: rea (name)

Structure of words
Words are constructed with one simple but fundamental guideline: the head of the root word cluster has a nominal value; the tail of the root word cluster is dependent, adjectival or adverbial. An example: "te" means 'human/person'. "uble" means 'strong'. Words that are conceptually related will mostly be lexically similar too. An example: the word "tenale", which means 'friend', consists of three root words: "te" (person); "na" (a certain amount of quality); and "le" (a lot). Switching the first root to "ma" (man/male) we get "manale", a male friend; or with "ni", "ninale", a female friend. Replacing the root word "le" (a lot) with "io" (not much), we get "tenaio" (an enemy); "manaio" (a male enemy); or "ninaio" (a female enemy).
 * Teuble means 'a strong person'
 * Ublete means 'human strength'

Nearto all words are clusters of root words. For example, we could prefix the root word "ii" (goal/target) to the previous example to form "iitenale", 'to become friends with'.

Personal pronouns
All personal pronouns exist in three genders: male, female, and undefined (not neutral!). The undefined pronouns are used when a speaker is unaware of the gender, or when they don't wish to specify. Personal pronouns are only used for objects that are interpreted as having a personality: people, sporadically animals or anthropomorphized objects, ...

Syntax
The grammar strongly focuses on syntactic functions. There are 4 basic functions, which each have a proper root word that will be prefixed to the lexical roots: An example phrase:
 * The topic is usually a description of an action or a state. It is essive, which means that it expresses a form of 'to be', 'to exist'. The corresponding morpheme is  ha.
 * The agent is from whom or what the topic originates. The corresponding morpheme is la . Usually, this is the initiator of an action or a sender of a message.
 * The patient is at whom or what the topic is targeted. The corresponding morpheme is  ia . Usually, this is the (passive) object of an action or the receiver of a message, but also the subject of a state.
 * The modifier is an additional piece of information to the utterance. The corresponding morpheme is  ir . Ususally, modifiers translate to adverbial constituents of space, time, manner, reason, etc. The equivalent of time tenses is harboured in this category, as verbs cannot convey this aspect.

Ha eleanale  la æma  ia eni  ir asdaio

Analytically, the sentence can be understood as follows:


 * the love (=topic)


 * by me (=agent)


 * for you (=patient)

which means "I loved you".
 * in the past (=modifier of time).

Because all words are marked with functions, word order is completely free and no spacing is necessary. Note: spaces are still used for clarity purposes, especially in Romanisations.

Ælis formally doesn't have word classes, but can implicitly convey them through syntactical functions. E.g.: according to context, the word word doe can mean 'fire', 'a bonfire', 'a flame', 'to burn' (both transitive and intransitive), 'ignite', 'to set fire', 'scorch', 'roast', etc. Therefore, translations to other languages greatly depend on the presence or absence of certain functions in a sentence. The following words will be used in an example: Now, look at the associations of these words with the syntactical functions, and look at how the translation changes as words are gradually added to the sentence:
 * doe = fire
 * anoæsi = residence
 * apra = completion
 * asdale = future
 * æma = me
 * hadoe = action/state:fire ==> 'there is fire'
 * hadoe iaanoæsi = action/state:fire + patient:residence ==> there is fire, done to the house --> the house is on fire'
 * hadoe iaanoæsi irapra = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion ==> there is fire, done to the house, with completion --> 'the house is burning down'
 * hadoeiaanoæsi irapra irasdale = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion + modifier:future ==> there is fire, done to the house, with completion, in the future --> 'the house will burn down'
 * hadoe iaanoæsi irapra irasdale laæma = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion + modifier:future + agent:me ==> there is fire, done to the house, with completion, in the future, by me --> 'I will burn down the house'

Example text


The Lord's Prayer