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.

A note on the use of the apostrophe: the author will sometimes use an apostrophe in bracketed Romanisations of Ælis words (e.g.: lA2tE  [la'ete]) to remind the reader that both sounds are to be pronounced seperately. The apostrophe is not a part of correct orthography but merely a pronunciation guideline. It can be omitted.

Ideology
hAnWnArAsAiA2tE (Welcome!) k1lISK [Ælis] is a constructed a priori language with a very particular approach on grammar. As such, it might be very interesting for aficionados of theoretical linguistics to use Ælis as a tool to start philosophizing about and exploring the boundaries of human grammar. Ælis has no nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs in a grammatical sense; verb conjugations, inflections, declensions, tenses, moods or voices; (hardly any) stress in words which is relevant; no tones, no fixed word order, (hardly any) punctuation, and no spaces to divide words or sentences from one another. Nonetheless, Ælis has a solid, very consistent and unambiguous grammar. The entire language is built on a few hundred root words. These roots are not fusional but independent, which means that every root is always a morpheme and always has the same meaning. They do not depend on the words to which they are attached.

Apart from the philosophical aspect, the language aims to be an artlang, aesthetically appealing both to the ear and the eye; as well as an auxlang, equally easy to learn for speakers with a variety of native backgrounds.

Phonemes
The table below contains all the phonemes that the Ælis language features (IPA). Bold-faced phonemes represent the preferred pronunciation, phonemes in brackets are allowed variations that will not cause ambiguity.

Alphabet and syllabic writing
The alphabet has 21 letters, of which 6 vowels and 15 consonants. Technically, [aɛ] is a diphthong, but it is regarded as a common vowel. All written letters should always be pronounced and vice-versa. The table below follows the Ælis alphabetical order. Letters in bold are those where the Romanisation differs from the actual IPA phonemic symbols.

Ælis has two sets of letters: the so called primary and secondary case. The language is written in an alternation of these two cases in order for the different root words to be visually distinguishable. The writing style follows this pattern: the first phoneme of every root word is written in the primary case, every other letter is written in the secondary case. Compare the following clusters:


 * aM = [am] eN = [en]  iR = [ir]
 * mA = [ma] nE = [ne]  rI = [ri]

In Ælis, every root is at the same time a morpheme and a syllable. Any regular root word has either two or three phonemes/letters, for which only certain phonemic clusters are admissible:

Two letter root words: Three letter root words:
 * 1) CV: tW [tæ] (colour)
 * 2) VC:  aR [ar] (reason, causality)
 * 3) VV:  uA [ua] (centre, half)
 * 1) CVC:  lIS [lis] (concept, notion)
 * 2) CVV:  gOE [goe] (water)

Toponyms, given names and borrowed words fall outside these syllabic restrictions, as they're not seen as 'regular' root words. Still, the same writing rule (where the first letter is written in the primary case and any following letters use the secondary case) applies. E.g.:
 * khIMALAIAK (Himalaya)
 * keSPERANTOK (Esperanto)
 * kqLINONK (Klingon)

Punctuation and the name tag
Ælis has a full stop ( . ) and a comma, but these are used only very sporadically. There is not even an obligation to use these punctuation marks at all.

There is, however, a set of two fairly important symbols which are used as a name tag: the rea. These two (mirrored) symbols enclose any type of proper name or borrowed word in order to mark it as such. The rea may be literally pronounced. E.g.:


 * eG1lIS [egælis] = peaceful language;
 * eG k 1lIS K [eg rea 'ælis] = the language (that is named) Peace. (=Ælis)

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

iA1mAhA rEA kfREDERIQK ==> My name is Frederic.

Morphology
Ælis words are nearto always clusters of several roots, 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 [te] means 'human/person'. uBlE [uble] means 'strong'. An interesting and possibly unique feature of the Ælis root word approach is that semantically related words are nearto always lexically similar. The following words are lexically related, which in correlation means that they have a certain amount of root words in common:
 * tEuBlE [te>uble] means 'a strong person'
 * uBlEtE [uble>te] means 'human strength'

tEnAiO [tenaio] ==> person>quality>little; a bad person --> enemy

tEnAlE  [tenale] ==> person>quality>much; a good person --> friend

mAnAlE  [manale] ==> male>quality>much; a good man --> male friend

nInAlE  [ninale] ==> female>quality>much; a good woman --> female friend

nInArA  [ninara] ==> female>quality>total; a perfect woman --> female best friend / girlfriend

etc.


 * --> Main article: /Morphology/

Topicalization
To cover for the facts that there are no word classes; that the word order is free; and that there are no spaces to divide words and sentences, Ælis places a very big emphasis on the semantic functions that different words have within a sentence. There is a high rate of 'topicalisation', or function marking, which in this case means that each word has one or more prefixed function markers that point out the semantic function of the respective word within the sentence.

As opposed to the 'traditional' grammatical functions of subject, verb and object, it is noteworthy that none of Ælis' semantic functions must be obligatorily present in a sentence for it to be grammatically correct. Furthermore, none of the functions is restricted to one use per sentence.


 * --> Main article: /Topicalisation/

Vocabulary

 * --> Main article: /Root word list and vocabulary/.

Example text: The Lord's Prayer
 Ælis 

lA2tEhAtEuE2dAlE lAeMaNeAnArAtA hAnArAiArEAiAvW2tEtA iRaMdIlEhA1lISiRiIaNuAtA iRaNlWlA2tEhAdIiWhAaSdArAtA iRaNtEiRaNEAnArAtA iRaMdIlEiA6tEiRaSqArAdOhAqAnAlEtA hAiInAlEiAlWhAnAiOlA6tEiWlA2tEtA iAlWhAnAiOiA6tEiWlA6tEtA iA6tEhAaQrAhAvWqArAeInAiO hAvWqArAnAiOtA iRaMdIlE.

 Romanised 

la'ete hateue'edale la'emaneanarata hanara iarea iavæ'eteta iramdile ha'ælis iriianuata iranlæ la'ete hadiiæ ha'asdarata irante iraneanarata iramdile iauæte irasqarado haqanaleta haiinale ialæ hanaio lauæteiæ la'eteta ialæ hanaioiauæteiæ lauæteta iauæte ha'aqra havæqaraeinaio havæqaranaiota iramdile.

 Analytic translation 

You are the father - (you) at the abstract place of perfection - the best to the name that is yours - by will, peace and eternity be in this place and at the place where you exert will - on the place of people - on the abstract place of perfection - by will, the good befall us every day - you restore that what we do bad - that what has been done bad to us, we restore - for us the biggest possible distance from improper thoughts - and from bad things (in general) - by will.

Writing Ælis on the computer
If you're interested in writing Ælis in your own text editor, you can download the ttf font and the corresponding kerning table. 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 rea symbols have been assigned to the k-key. Lowercase 'k' for the opening rea k and uppercase 'K' for the closing rea K.