Ælis/Writing

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

Alphabet
The Ælis alphabet considers itself to have 15 letters, of which 6 vowels and 9 consonants. One of the vowels is technically a diphthong, but it is treated as a common vowel. Additionally, some letters can be marked with a diacritic, making up for a total of 21 phonemes in the language. The tables below show the entire Ælis alphabet. The middle column shows the Romanisation, which will be used throughout these pages as a guideline for pronunciation. The difference between the primary case and secondary case (i.e. the two leftmost columns) will be dicussed below. Please note that the characters used for Romanisation do not always coincide with the IPA standard. The rightmost column shows alternative pronunciations of the respective letter, which can be used either due to allomorphy, or when a speaker from a certain native background has difficulties pronouncing the preferred phoneme. Tip: click the letters to hear how they are pronounced!

<p style="clear:left;margin-top:100px">The last 6 consonants of this table are voiceless. By adding a circle-shaped diacritic, these consonants become voiced:

Although these voiced consonants aren't considered parts of the alphabet, they do play an independent role. E.g.: rA [ra] and hA [ha] are completely independent root words with unrelated meanings.

There are two digraphs, but these don't appear in natural Ælis words. They exist for the sole purpose of being able to transcribe foreign names better:

<p style="text-align: center;padding:1em;font-size:1.1em;background-color:hsl(200,100%,25%);color:white;border-radius:10px;max-width:30em;margin:auto;">Throughout this page, Romanisations will be enclosed in curly brackets <span style="white-space:nowrap;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black;">{ } , IPA transcriptions will be enclosed in angular brackets <span style="white-space:nowrap;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black;">[ ].

Syllabic writing
Ælis has a root word based approach, and the Ælis script was designed to reflect this: through the syllabic writing style, individual root words are recognisable as such, so a reader can extract them and understand the individual meanings of the root words. The script mechanic can be summarized in one, easy rule: <p style="text-align: center;">the first phoneme of every root word is written in the primary case, every other letter of the root word is written in the secondary case. For example, if the first sound of a root word is "m", then the first letter of the word will be the primary case "m", which is m. The other sounds in the syllable will be written in the secondary case:

<div style="display:flex;justify-content:space-around;flex-flow:row wrap;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;align-items:center;">

m + a &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mA

{ma}

m + w &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mW

{mæ}

m + e &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mE

{me}

m + i &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mI

{mi}

m + o &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mO

{mo}

m + u &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">mU

{mu} The root word may also start with a vowel, but the rule remains unchanged, for instance with root words starting with the letter "a", which is a :

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a + m &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aM

{am}

a + n &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aN

{an}

a + l &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aL

{al}

a + q &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aQ

{aq}

a + t &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aT

{at}

a + r &rarr; <span style="font-family:aelis;font-size:3em;color:white;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black, 1px -1px 1px black, -1px 1px 1px black, -1px -1px 1px black;">aR

{ar} Here are a few more, contrasting examples:

<div style="display:flex;justify-content:space-around;flex-flow:row wrap;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;align-items:center;"> <div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> aF fA {af} {fa}

<div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> wT tW {æt} {tæ}

<div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> eN nE {en} {ne}

<div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> iR rI {ir} {ri}

<div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> oQ qO {oq} {qo}

<div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;border:groove 3px white;line-height:2em;"> uB bU {ub} {bu} The root word approach is an important fundament of Ælis. Every one root is at the same time a morpheme and a syllable; which is why exceptionally for Ælis, the words root word, syllable, and morpheme are all synonyms. A "regular" root word has either two or three phonemes/letters. Only certain vowel-consonant combinations are admissible:

Toponyms, given names and borrowed words are not considered regular root words. Therefore, they can have more than three letters. Nonetheless, the same writing rule applies: the first letter uses the primary case, the other letters take the secondary case. Some examples:

<div style="display:flex;justify-content:space-around;flex-flow:row wrap;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;align-items:center;"> <div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;line-height:2em;"> khIMALAIAK (Himalaya) <div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;line-height:2em;"> keSPERANTOK (Esperanto) <div style="padding:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;margin:2px;text-align:center;line-height:2em;"> kqLINNONK (Klingon)

Punctuation and the name tag
Although Ælis has a full stop ( . ) and a comma, these are used much less than in languages such as English. In Ælis, a comma could be used to separate different sentences, or in poetry to indicate pauses. A full stop can be used at the end of a paragraph. There is, however, no grammatical obligation to use the comma or full stop at all. An example is the Lord's Prayer text, which only has one full stop at the end.

There is, however, a set of two fairly important punctuation symbols named re. In certain ways comparable to the use of italics or quotation marks in English, the two (mirrored) re 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 {eg'ælis} = peaceful language;
 * eG k 1lIS K {eg re 'ælis} = the language (that is named) Peace. (=Ælis)

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


 * iA1mAhA rE kfREDERIQK


 * ==> My name is Frederic.

The re is necessary to distinguish given names from coincidental meaningful Ælis words (especially in spoken discourse). Compare:

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.

<ol> <li>The diphthong {æ} always has its emphasis on the [a], never on the [ɛ].</li> <li>Number concepts always carry the emphasis over the following and the preceding root word.
 * E.g.: lA1tE {la'æte} [la'aɛtɛ].</li>

<li>All written letters should always be audible. This is important to keep this in mind especially in cases where two identical consonants appear adjacently. There are a few possibilities to ensure the audibility of both letters. Example given: iRrW2rA {irræ'ira} (meaning similarly):
 * Through prolongation/gemination. This can only work for non-plosives: [ir:ɑɛiɾa]
 * By inserting a glottal stop, schwa or another muted vowel-like sound: [iɾʔɾɑɛiɾɑ] - [iɾəɾɑɛiɾɑ] - [iɾɞɾɑɛiɾɑ]</li>

<li>There are 7 vowel pairs that have a predetermined and obligatory emphasis:

{| border="0" cellpadding="10px" cellspacing="10px" style="width: auto; margin-left:3em;" |- | 1) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uA | {ua} | [uɑ̯] | oo-hah |- | 2) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uW | {uæ} | [uɑ̯ɛ̯] | oo-why |- | 3) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uE | {ue} | [uɛ̯] | oo-hey |- | 4) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uI | {ui} | [ui̯] | oo-hee |- | 5) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uO | {uo} | [uɒ̯] | oo-hoh |- | 6) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |uU | {uu} | [u̯u] | style="color:red" |woo |- | 7) | style="font-family:aelis;font-size:2em;" |iI | {ii} | [i̯i] | style="color:red" |yee |}</li></ol>

Apart from these rules, the emphasis and intonation in Ælis are completely free . For instance, the cluster iA [ia] can be pronounced either [ja] or ['ia]; the cluster aSdA [asda] can be pronounced either [' a sda] or [as'd a ]; 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 "re" symbols have been assigned to the k-key. Lowercase 'k' for the opening re  k  and uppercase 'K' for the closing re  K.
 * If both rows in the table below show Latin characters in your browser, click here.