Ælis/Morphology

The oligosynthetic identity of the language means that its vocabulary is constructed from a relatively small set of root words. These roots are strung together into big clusters to create more complex words. The approach basically urges speakers to 'create' their own vocabulary while speaking. To achieve consistency, there are very strict rules for morphology. This page will give you an overview of important morphological elements of the language, and how they fit together.

Basic word structure
The morphological approach is strictly head-initial: the head of the root word cluster has a nominal value, while the tail of the root word cluster is dependent, adjectival or adverbial. An example:  tE [te] means 'human/person'. uBlE [uble] means 'strong'.
 * tEuBlE [te>uble] means 'a strong person'
 * uBlEtE [uble>te] means 'human strength'

As a consequence of the root word approach, semantically related words will also be lexically similar. Consider the following words:

Qualifiers
Qualifiers are a set of five roots used as suffixes to nearly any other morpheme which express a certain amount, degree or quality of something. Qualifiers are essential building stones of the Ælis morphology. There are five levels:

 sI [si] (nothing) - iO [io] (little) - uA [ua] (moderate/middle/half) - le [le] (much) - rA [ra] (all/total) The qualifier word construction pattern can be applied to numerous root words to create a fivefold of words. As such, qualifiers are a very important aspect of the language's morphology. Below are a few example words. Look at which nuance the qualifiers add to the roots:

Number concepts
Along with the 21 common letters of the alphabet, Ælis uses a set of ten additional symbols called number concepts, from now on referred to as "Lisqa". Lisqa are proper root words which all have a numeric value:

Lisqa are a noteworthy aspect of the languages' morphology, mainly because the underlying idea doesn't share any common ground with concepts found in the English grammar (or probably most human languages' grammar, for that matter). A first important remark is that these number concepts are not the same as cardinal numbers. Instead, they are present in words where the corresponding numeric value is somehow conceptually present. The most illustrative lisqa example can be found in the very name of the language: 1lIS [Ælis] consists of 1 [æ] (1) and lIS [lis] (concept, idea), the concept of one meaning as much as 'peace' or 'harmony', or of course ' uni ty'.

Counting
Ælis probably is one of the few languages that doesn't have proper ciphers or digits. Instead, they are a combination of a number concept with the fixed root word qA [qa], which can mean 'number', 'amount', 'countable' or 'unit'. The Ælis counting system could technically be called bi-quinary (5x2), although decimal is also accurate. The first ten cardinal numbers are:

For all positive numbers 10 and up, multiple number concepts are combined as if they were digits. E.g.:

Simple math
The root word [qa] always dilineates different numbers. For instance, while 12qA [æ'eqa] is the number 12, a formulation like 1qA2qA [æqa'eqa] could be used for enumerating lottery numbers, for the results of a sports game, etc.

Operators for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are formed with the root word qE [qe] in combination with one of four qualifiers. Compare:
 * qElE [qele] = addition
 * qEiO [qeio] = subtraction
 * qErA [qera] = multiplication
 * qEsI [qesi] = fraction/division

The formula for "equals", rWrA [ræra], is optional. It may be inserted for clarity purposes. Simple operations are expressed thus:
 * 1qAqElE1qA ( rWrA ) 2qA [æqa-qele-æqa-(ræra-)eqa]: 1+1=2
 * 1qAqEiO1qA ( rWrA ) 0qA [æqa-qeio-æqa-(ræra-)aqa]: 1-1=0
 * 2qAqErA2qA ( rWrA ) 4qA [eqa-qera-eqa-(ræra-)oqa]: 2x2=4
 * 4qAqEsI2qA ( rWrA ) 2qA [oqa-qesi-eqa-(ræra-)eqa]: 4/2=2

Personal pronouns
The number concepts also play a role in the construction of personal pronouns. If you look at them as 'the first/second/third person', the idea becomes more tangible.

Simple personal pronouns
The simple personal pronouns exist in 6 grammatical persons and three genders. The genders are purely semantical, so they don't govern the declension of nouns or the like! Note that the category of undefined pronouns is not the same as the neuter grammatical gender; they are used only if a speaker is either unaware of the gender, doesn't wish to specify, or, in plurals, for referring to a group where both sexes are present. Furthermore, the personal pronouns are only used for arguments that can be interpreted as having a character: people, or sometimes animals, anthropomorphized objects (in literature), ect. They are never used for referring to objects (as opposed to the English use of it).

Ælis attaches great value to the correct use of genders in personal pronouns. In correlation, addressing someone face to face with 2tE [ete] (you, undef.) can be considered offensive.

Addressing someone is often also done by merging a personal pronoun with a noun. Compare:
 * nIuEle [niuele] = "mother" (when speaking about someone's mother);
 * 2nIuEle [eniuele] = "(you,) mother" (when addressing your own mother).

Complex personal pronouns
By combining number concepts in the personal pronouns, the personal pronouns become extremely versatile simply by adding one or two extra vowels. When combining, the 1st person ( 1 ) [æ] and ( 6 ) [uæ] precede the second person ( 2 ) [e] and ( 7 ) [ue], which in turn precede the third person ( 3 ) [i] and ( 8 ) [ui]. The table below contains the full range of possibilities:

These complex pronouns prove useful in contexts such as business meetings or conferences, in which case the singular pronouns 1tE, 2tE and 3tE can be used by/for the representatives of three companies or organisations, while the plurals 6tE , 7tE and 8tE talk about the (members of) the respective parties.

Axial paradigm of time and space
The linguistic continuum of time and space in Ælis is shaped by 'dimensional' axes. The key root word in this domain is dA [da]. Bear in mind the theory of both the number concepts and the qualifiers. Look at the table below, and the paradigm will explain itself.

Pluralization
Nearly every root word in Ælis is principally ambiguous as long as it isn't specified. For instance, '[te]' can mean both 'person', 'people', and 'human'; '[ma]' can mean both 'man', 'men', 'manly', 'manliness', etc. E.g.:

lA mA hAaNdAuA [la ma ha'andaua]
 * ==> There is a man here
 * ==> There are men here
 * ==> There is male presence here

By adding the root qA [qa], with either a number concept or one of the qualifiers, these roots transform into precise (countable) and imprecise (non-countable) amounts, respectively. Compare:

...
 * 1qAmA [æqama] (one man)
 * 2qAmA [eqama] (two men)
 * qAiOmA [qaioma] (a few men)
 * qAlEmA [qalema] (many men)
 * qArAmA [qarama] (all men)
 * etc.

Moreover, [qa] can be combined with a number concept and a qualifier at the same time, by which both nuances will be incorporated:

[lauoqaioma ha'andaua] (nine (not much) men are here) There are only nine men here.
 * lA 9qAiOmA hAaNdAuA

Target and origin
Two other morphemes that are fairly important to the language's morphology are the target and origin morphemes, respectively iI [ii], and lI [li]. Although these root words can literally mean 'target/goal/end' and 'origin/beginning', they are most frequently used as prefixes to express change or figurative movement. In these cases, [ii] expresses that something becomes more like X or moves toward X; while [li] expresses becoming less like X, moving away from X. Below are some examples:

Expressing excessiveness
Expressing excessiveness is simply done by stating that a certain trait is bad or very bad. The words nAiO [naio] (bad) or nAsI [nasi] (very bad) are suffixed to any word that contains a certain value. These words will generally end with one of the qualifiers. Compare: Insufficiency is expressed through opposites. For example:
 * "too short" is the same as "not long enough": aQaNiOnAiO [aqanionaio] (bad little-length)
 * "too dumb" is the same as "not smart enough": eIiOnAiO [eiionaio] (bad little-knowledge).