Eqtalissa

Eqtalissa ("my language") is a conlang with phonology and ortography inspired by Semitic languages. 50 per cent of its vocabulary derive from a number of European languages (mostly Greek, Portuguese, Polish and English), 30 per cent - from Semitic languages (Maltese, Arabic and Hebrew) and 20 per cent is of unknown origin. It is a a hybrid language, with a mix of Indoeuropean, Semitic and Turkish language families features. Eqtalissa is supposed to be an easy-to-use yet exciting conlang, with mostly exceptionless and straightforward grammar and fairly accessible phonology and spelling rules.

Consonants
The voiceless velar plosive /k/ may be realized as uvular plosive /q/. This realization may occur in any position, but predominantly in stressed words. There is no phonemic distinction between these two consonants.

The voiceless uvular fricative /ꭓ/ is usually realized as glottal fricative /h/ at the beginning and at the end of the word. There is no phonemic distinction between these two sounds.

The lateral alveloar approximant /l/ is often velarized to /ɫ/. This change occurs predominantly in intervocalic and final position.

Please note that Eqtalissa lacks voiceless bilabial stop /p/. Words of foreign origin with this sound usually feature voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ in place of /p/.

Another prominent feature of Eqtalissa consonant system is the lack of affricates, like /t͡s/ or /t͡ʂ/.

Vowels
The vowels /a/, /ɑ/ and /ɐ/ are allophones.Open vowels /a/ and /ɑ/ occur in stressed syllables, while central vowel /ɐ/ occurs predominantly in unstressed syllables.

Stress
1) In words ending with a consonant and also with the vowel -i stress falls by default on the last syllable (aqfar, senhid, arji)

2) In words ending with the vowels -a and -u stress falls by default on the last but one syllable (sjinna, meggaru).

* There are a lot of exceptions from rule 2. Lots of words ending with -a and -u are stressed on the last syllable. In all these cases, the stressed vowel is marked with a macron (raqmā, eqnū).

Writing System
Eqtalissa has seven digraphs, which represent single phonomes. They are considered individual letters and have their own place in the alphabet.

The letter r is realized as a flap /ɾ/ with the exception of plural noun endings -ara, where it is realized as a trill /r/.

The approximant /j/ occurs only in word endings - ia /jɐ/, -eia /jɐ/ and -ea /ijɐ/.

Letter ş substitutes x at the end of the word. They are both realized as /ʃ/.

The glottal stop /ʔ/ occurs only in intervocalic position (leïad /le´ʔad/). It is not represented in writing if one of the adjacent vowels is i (taiżhur /tɐʔi´ʒʊɾ/).

Please note there are no letters c, k, p and y in Eqtalissa. Their use is not allowed even in words of foreign origin. Letter j occurs only as a digraph ji.

Nouns
Nouns are the only part of speech in Eqtalissa that has genders. The gender assigment is determined by humanness. Nouns denoting people are of human gender. All other nouns are of non-human gender. The only grammatical feature that reflects the division of nouns into two genders is the formation of plurals. Human nouns form plurals by adding -u to the stem (awaf - awafu). Non-human nouns form plural by adding - ara or -eia to the stem (nihta - nihtara, xanad - xanadeia).

The only vowel that singular nouns are allowed to end with is -a (nihta, qahvā, leforia). They are also allowed to end with any consonant (axol, davatjir, urrun).

Articles
There are no articles in Eqtalissa.

Personal pronouns (subject)
Pronouns are genderless in Eqtalissa, therefore mahji stands for both he or she.

Please note that formal pronouns arji and arnū are used with the 2nd person of the verb. Examples:
 * Eq mehdiq taïad. - I'm a doctor.


 * Min mahnū elad? - Who are they?

Possessives
Possessives have the same forms as both determiners and pronouns. They are inflected for person, number and case. Possessive determiners are subject to agreement (for number and case) with the noun they modify (eqtā djim - my house, eqtū djimeia - my houses). Examples:
 * Afti djim naxā leïad. - This house is ours.


 * Owun intā aman leïad? - Where is your husband?