Lili/Traditional

Traditional Lili is an engineered language that aims to let the speaker decide how ambiguous or unambiguous to be. It offers many resources to ambiguate or disambiguate a word or a sentence.

Consonants
Traditional Lili has 50 consonants:

b: /b

b̂: /ʙ

c: /ʃ

c': /ʃʼ

ç: /ɹ̠̊˔

d: /d

d̄: /ð

ḑ: /ɖ

f: /f

f': /fʼ

f̊: /ɸ

f̂: /ʙ̪̊

g: /ɡ

ḡ: /ɟ

j: /ʒ

j̧: /ɹ̠˔

k: /k

k': /kʼ

k̄: /c

k̄': /cʼ

l: /l

m: /m

n: /n

ń: /ŋ

n̆: /ɱ

p: /p

p': /pʼ

p̂: /ʙ̥

q: /q

q': /qʼ

r̥: /r̥

r: /r

r̆: /ɹ

s: /s

s̄: /ɬ

s': /sʼ

t: /t

t': /tʼ

t̄: /θ

t̄': /θʼ

ţ: /ʈ

v: /v

v̊: /β

v̂: /ʙ̪

w: /ɢ

x: /x

y: /ɣ

z: /z

z̄: /ɮ

z̃: /z̃

Vowels
Traditional Lili has 10 vowels:

a: /a

ä: /ɶ

e: /ɛ

ë: /æ

i: /i

î: /ə

o: /ɔ

ö: /o

u: /u

ü: /y

Hyphenated words
Words like "z-ç" usually mean a thing or its opposite, depending on the vowel you put instead of the hyphen. "z-ç" means "sad-happy", and is inflected like this:

züç: saddest (<<)

zuç: very sad (-3)

zöç: sad (-2)

zoç: a bit sad (-1)

zîç: neutral (0)

zëç: a bit happy (+1)

zeç: happy (+2)

zäç: very happy (+3)

zaç: happiest (>>)

The vowels are the same for every hyphenated word, with very few exceptions, which are noted.

Syntax
Traditional Lili has a SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) word order for non-switch sentences. Ignoring "d" and "t", the elements that occupy the odd positions of a sentence are called "operands", while the elements that occupy the even positions of a sentence are called "operators". There must always be an odd number of elements (ignoring "d" and "t") in the sentence, so that a sentence always starts and ends with an operand, alternating between operands and operators. Every word is separated by an "i" or an "l", everything is lowercase and there is no punctuation. Spaces are completely arbitrary. See the following transitive sentence:

pif̊ët̄ib: I see you

p: I (operand)

f̊ët̄: to see (operator)

b: you (operand)

This is the most basic type of sentence. Be careful, though, "pif̊ët̄" is not a grammatically valid sentence, because it's an even number of elements. If you want to connect a subject to a verb without an object, you have to use the operator "f" between the subject and the verb. The sentence will become:

pifif̊ët̄: I see

Please note that "I see" is meant to be taken literally, not in the sense of "I understand".

Parentheses
Consider the following sentence:

pifbaldi pideljec: I feed my dog

p: I

fba: to feed

d: (open parenthesis)

p: I

de: possessive

jec: dog

The same sentence without the parenthesis would have meant "the dog of the fact I feed myself", which makes no sense. That's because "deljec" ('s dog) would have referred to the whole sentence instead of just "I". A parenthesis is closed with "t", but that cannot appear at the end of a speech.

Switch
Adding an e- before any operator will switch A and B. For example:

pif̊ët̄ib: I see you

bief̊ët̄ip: I see you

The meaning is exactly the same. Switch sentence have an OVS word order.

Verbal tenses
"z" is the operator that introduces time, while "p-f" is the operand that means "past-future". For example:

pifińak: I eat (no tense)

pifińaki zipof: I just ate (immediate past)

pifińaki zipîf: I'm eating (present)

pifińaki zipëf: I'm about to eat (immediate future)

Singular and plural markers
Unmarked nouns in Traditional Lili are neither singular nor plural. To mark them as singular or plural you need to add the operator "c" after the noun, and add s' to make them singular, p' to make them plural, or k' to make a generalization. This is optional.

r̆îń: apple

r̆îńicis': an apple

r̆îńicip': some apples

r̆îńicik': apples in general

The generalization marker is used in sentences like these:

böt̄'icik'ifiḑöb̂: humans are stupid

böt̄': human

c: (connecting operator)

k': generalization marker

f: (connecting operator)

ḑ-b̂: dumb-smart

Genders
After the operator "c", add the operand "ń" for "female" or "v̂" for "male".

pi fińak: I eat/drink

pici ńifińak: I (female) eat/drink

pici v̂ifińak: I (male) eat/drink

Case prepositions
There are a lot of operators that function like prepositions that function like cases. For example, "n̆" is the comitative operator, that means "in company of", "with". For example:

pici pëj̧in̆ib : I walk with you

p: I (operand)

c: (connecting operator)

pëj̧: to walk (operand)

n̆: (comitative operator)

b: you (operand)

As another example, "z̃" is the instrumental operator, that means "by the means of".

pici ńakiz̃iz̄au: I eat with a fork

p: I (operand)

c: (connecting operator)

ńak: to eat/drink (in this case the context is clear) (operand)

z̃: (instrumental operator)

z̄au: fork (operand)

Evidentiality
After the operator "v̊", you can insert the source of a statement. For example:

xao: experienced event

xeu: hearsay

dop: inference (when you are sure something happened but didn't experience it yourself)

zuf: speculation (when you have no idea what you're talking about, similar to the word "might" or "I suppose that...")

Example sentence:

nici cäf̊iv̊izuf: he/she might be sleeping

n: he/she/it (operand)

c: (connecting operator)

cäf̊: to sleep (operand)

v̊: (evidentiality operator)

zuf: speculation (operand)

You can use normal words after "v̊", too. Like "kek̄" (school). Adding "v̊ikek̄" to a sentence means you learned it at school.

Negative and interrogative sentences
After the operator "c", "u" turns a sentence into negative, while "bî" turns it into yes/no interrogative. Example:

pi ńaki r̆îńi zipöd̄i ciu: you didn't eat any apple(s) today

pi ńaki r̆îńi zipöd̄i cibî: did you eat any apple(s) today?

p: you

ńak: to eat/drink

r̆îń: apple

z: (introduces time)

pöd̄: the past part of today

c: (connecting operator)

u: negative; bî: interrogative

It is possible to refer to only part of the sentence, to express some nuances. For example:

picibîl ńaki r̆îńi zipöd̄: was it you who ate the apple(s) today?

pi ńakidi r̆îńicibîlti zipöd̄: was it an apple the thing you ate today?

pi ńaki r̆îńi zidi pöd̄icibî: was it today that you ate the apple(s)?

Types of yes/no questions
There are 9 types of yes/no question markers, according to what the speaker thinks and hopes the answer to be.

"bî": standard

"bë": the speaker hopes the answer to be "yes"

"bö": the speaker thinks the answer will be "no"

"bo": the speaker hopes the answer to be "no"

"be": the speaker thinks the answer will be "yes"

"bä": the speaker thinks the answer will be "yes", but hopes the answer to be "no"

"ba": the speaker thinks and hopes the answer will be "yes"

"bü": the speaker thinks and hopes the answer to be "no"

"bu": the speaker thinks the answer will be "no", but hopes the answer will be "yes"

Relative pronoun
"rä" is the relative pronoun operator, that means "that/who/which". For example:

böt̄'i räldi käc'ivi xüx: killer

---

böt̄': human (operand)

rä: relative pronoun (operator)

d: (open parenthesis)

käc': to cause (operand)

v: (connective operator)

xüx: death (operand)

---

Yes, that's the way to say "killer" in Lili, since there is no direct translation. There is no "-er" suffix like in English, so you need to say "a person who [does something]".

"Like"
There are four ways to say "like" to compare something to something else: use the operators "kak", "kek", "kok" or "kuk".

---

b: you

c: (connecting operator)

fîk: to smell (intransitive)

kak/kek/kok/kuk: like

kbä: goat

---

bici fîki kak ikbä: you smell like a goat (you smell, and goats smell too)

bici fîki kek ikbä: you smell like a goat (the smell is similar)

bici fîki kok ikbä: you smell like a goat (the intensity is similar)

bici fîki kuk ikbä: you smell like a goat (the smell and intensity are similar)

From an individual to a group
The operand "köz̄", after the operator "c", modifies a noun and turns, for example, "human" into "humankind".

böt̄': human

böt̄'iciköz̄: humankind

Vocabulary
Coming soon