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<title>A Philosophical Grammar of Ithkuil, a Constructed Language - Introduction</title>
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<div align="center"><font color="#999999" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Ithkuil:
A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language</strong></font><br>
<img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/Images/Title-Script5.gif"><br>
<br>
</div>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td width="9%" height="25" valign="top"><div align="left"><font size="1"><a name="menu"></a></font></div></td>
<td width="27%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index.htm" target="_top">Home</a></font></div></td>
<td width="37%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch5a-verbs.htm">5a
Verb Morphology </a></font></div></td>
<td width="27%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch9-syntax.htm">9
Syntax</a></font></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"><div align="left"><font size="2"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-intro.htm">Introduction</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch5b-verbs-contd.htm">5b
Verb Morphology (continued)</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch10-lexicosemantics.htm">10
Lexico-Semantics</a></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"><div align="left"><font size="2"></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font size="2"></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch1-phonology.htm">1
Phonology</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch6-moreverbs.htm">6
More Verb Morphology</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch11-script.htm">11
The Script </a></font></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch2-morphophonology.htm">2
Morpho-Phonology</a></font><font size="2"> </font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch7a-affixes.htm">7a
Using Affixes </a></font></font></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch12-numbers.htm">12
The Number System</a></font></font></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font size="2"> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch3-morphology.htm">3
Basic Morphology</a></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch7b-affixes-contd.htm">7b
Using Affixes (continued) </a></font></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-lexicon.htm">The
Lexicon</a></font></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch4-case.htm">4
Case Morphology </a></font> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch8-adjuncts.htm">8
Adjuncts</a></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Ilaksh_Intro.html" target="_blank">Revised Ithkuil: <font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I</font>laksh</a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="center"> </p>
<h3 align="center"><a href="update_2011.htm" target="_top">Update: Important Changes Coming to the Ithkuil Website in June-July 2011!</a></h3>
<p align="center"> </p>
<h2 align="center">INTRODUCTION<br>
</h2>
<p align="center"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td height="21" colspan="5" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<p><font size="4"><strong>0.1 Background</strong></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">Ithkuil is an artificially constructed human language systematically
designed to blend a high degree of communication of cognitive intent and meaning
with a high degree of efficiency, i.e., to allow speakers to say a lot in as
few syllables as possible. The navigational links above (or at the bottom
of this page) lead to chapters on the major grammatical components of the language
and should be read in sequence, as each chapter is cumulative and assumes knowledge
of the preceding. While this grammar assumes only a basic knowledge of linguistic
concepts, it will be helpful to briefly familiarize the reader with the hierarchical/schematic
structure of human language in general, as the organization of this grammar
is somewhat based around this structure. The analysis of human language can
be organized into the following hierarchical schema of primary concepts:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Phonology</strong>: The manner in which vocally
articulated sound is structured for use within a language; this is the basic
realm of the acoustic sounds produced by the lungs, vocal cords, tongue,
and lips, i.e., consonants, vowels, volume, pitch, tone, stress, etc.<br>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Morphology</strong>: The grammatical rules, structures,
categories and functions which can be manipulated to form words and the
component phrases of sentences; this is the realm of prefixes, suffixes,
word-roots, and conceptual categories like tense, singular vs. plural, moods,
active vs. passive voice, etc.<br>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Syntax</strong>: The rules governing how words
and phrases can be combined into grammatically acceptable sentences. <br>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Semantics</strong>: The realm of meaning; what
the words, phrases, and syntactical structures of the language represent
in terms of meaning.<br>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Lexicon</strong>: The list of word-roots within
a language, i.e., the vocabulary of the language. <br>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><strong>Pragmatics</strong> <strong>and Discourse Rules</strong>:
The analysis of how language is actually used in real-world situations as
determined by cultural and context-driven rules; the realm of style, rhetoric,
formal versus informal language, slang, etc., outside the realm of grammar.
Because this is a formal grammar for a hypothetical language (i.e., it has
no “real world” linguistic context), pragmatics and discourse
rules will not be covered. </div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="justify">
<div align="justify">
<blockquote>
<div align="justify">
<div align="justify"></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div align="justify">The above components of language in turn operate in an interrelated
fashion, combining to designate several additional or secondary levels of analysis.
For example:</div>
<div align="justify">
<ul>
<li><strong>Morpho-phonology</strong>: The interrelationship between phonology
and morphology, i.e., the manner in which the sounds of the language are
manipulated into structures that can contain meaning. For example it is
morpho-phonology that explains why different word-endings signify concepts
such as masculine or feminine in Spanish. <br>
</li>
<li><strong>Morpho-syntax</strong>: The interrelationship between morphology
and syntax, i.e., how the grammatical structures within words impact the
overall structure of a sentence, as illustrated by the relationship between
the sentences <em>It is undeliverable</em> versus <em>It cannot be delivered</em>.<br>
</li>
<li><strong>Lexico-Morphology</strong>: The interrelationship between morphology
and the lexicon, i.e., the structure of word-roots and how they interact
with other morphological categories, as illustrated by the concept of “irregular”
verbs, e.g., ‘go’ + PAST = ‘went.’<br>
</li>
<li><strong>Lexico-Semantics</strong>: The interrelationship between the lexicon
and semantics, i.e. between words and their meaning; what mental concepts
are selected by a language to be instantiated as word-roots and the cognitive
processes behind the selection criterhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ia. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<p align="justify">The interrelationships between these components can be illustrated
by the following diagram.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="Images/Intro/Intro_1.gif" width="479" height="198" align="top"></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td height="21" colspan="5" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<p><font size="4"><strong>0.2 How the Language Works</strong></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">As a model for human language, Ithkuil is capable of high levels
of conciseness and semantic detail while overtly reflecting a deep level of
cognitive conceptualization, more so than in natural languages. This means,
essentially, that Ithkuil is designed to convey large amounts of linguistic
information using fewer words, with those words being based on monosyllabic
roots and word-parts. In turn, the grammar supporting these words reflect the
speaker’s cognitive intent explicitly, while displaying little of the
euphemism, vagueness, circumlocution, redundancy, polysemy (i.e., mulhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/tiple meanings),
and ambiguity manifested in natural languages. </p>
<p align="justify"> NOTE: The preceding paragraph may remind some readers of the
“<a href="http://www.urticator.net/essay/2/296.html" target="_blank">Speedtalk</a>”
language in Robert Heinlein’s novella <em>Gulf</em>, in which every morpheme
(meaningful word-part) is apparently represented by a single phoneme (sound).
To some extent, Ithkuil approaches this ideal. However, Heinlein’s Speedtalk
appears to focus only on the morpho-phonological component of language (i.e.,
the correspondence between sound and individual grammatical components) without
any corresponding focus on the logical redesign of a language’s morphology,
lexico-morphology, or lexico-semantics to provide an equally “compressed”
morpho-syntactical and lexical component. Ithkuil has been designed with an
equal focus on these latter linguistic components. Additionally, the apparent
purpose of Heinlein's language is simple rapidity/brevity of speech and thought,
while Ithkuil is focused on maximal communication in the most efficient manner,
a somewhat different purpose, in which brevity <em>per se</em> is irrelevant.</p>
<p align="justify">As an example of the morphological richness and efficiency
possible in this language, examine the following Ithkuil sentence, comphttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/aring
it to its literal English translation:</p>
<table width="97%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td height="43" colspan="3" valign="top">
<p><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-1.mp3"><img src="Images/https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/Intro/Intro_2.gif" width="388" height="35" border="0"https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/></a>
</p></td>
<td widthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/h="34%" valign="middle"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-1.mp3">Listen!
</a><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-1.mp3"><img src="Images/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="14%" height="36" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TRANSLATION</font>:</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top">‘<em>On the contrary, I think it may turn
out thttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/hat this rugged mountain range trails off at some point</em>.’</td>
</tr>
</table>
<font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">NOTE: See Phonology, <a href="Ch-1%20Phonology.htm#Sec1o2" onClick="javascript:changenav1();">Section
1.2</a> on how to pronounce the Romanized orthography used to transliterate the
Ithkuil characters.</font><br>
<p align="justify">The reader may well wonder why it takes a 19-word sentence
in English to translate a two-word Ithkuil sentence. One might assume the sentence
“cheats” in that the two Ithkuil words simply have innately intricate
and specialized meanings. While it is true that the first word, <strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">oumpeá</font></strong>,
translates as ‘<em>on the contrary, I havhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/e a feeling it may turn out at
some point (that)</em>,’ and the second word, <strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">äx’ää<img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle">uktëx</font></strong>,
means ‘<em>the unevenly high range of mountains in question trails off</em>,’
it would be quite erroneous to conclude that these are simply autonomous words
one might theoretically find in an Ithkuil dicthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ionary. Indeed, the only part
of the sentence that represents any sort of “root” word is -<strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">xä<img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle"></font></strong>-,
a stem more or less meaning ‘hill’ or ‘upland.’ The
remainder of the sentence is made up entirely of morphological, not lexical
components, i.e., prefixes, suffixes, infixes, vowel permutations, shifts in
stress, etc. For example, the first word, <strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">oumpeá</font></strong>,
has four parts to it as shown below:</p>
<table width="98%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="4%" height="29"> </td>
<td width="4%" valign="top">1.</td>
<td width="6%" valign="top"><strong>ou</strong>-</td>
<td width="3%" valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top">an aspectual prefix translatable as ‘it
turns out that’ or ‘it is revealed that’</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="46"> </td>
<td valign="top">2.</td>
<td valign="top">-<strong>mp</strong>-</td>
<td valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top">an infix indicating both a rebuttal to an allegation
and a conclusion based on the speaker’s intuition, translatable as
‘on the contrary, I have a feeling’</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="27"> </td>
<td valign="top">3.</td>
<td valign="top">-<strong>ea</strong></td>
<td valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top">an aspectual suffix translatable as ‘at
some point’ or ‘somewhere along the way’</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="25"> </td>
<td valign="middle">4.</td>
<td colspan="4" valign="middle"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">stress
on final syllable + falling tone </font> = subjunctive mood, translatable
https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/as ‘may’</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify"><br>
The second word, <strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">äx’ää<img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle">uktëx</font></strong>,
breaks down morphologically as follows:</p>
<table width="98%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="4%" height="47"> </td>
<td width="4%" valign="top">1.</td>
<td width="6%" valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>ä</strong>-</font></td>
<td width="3%" valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top">a prefix indicating, among other things, that
the entity displays depletion (i.e., ‘trailing off’ or ‘petering
out’) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="87"> https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/</td>
<td valign="top">2.</td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>x’ä<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle"></font></strong></font></td>
<td valign="tohttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/p">=</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top">a stem derived from <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>xä<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle"></font></strong></font>
‘hill, upland’ (in turn derived from the root <strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica,https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ sans-serif">x</font></strong><font size="2"><strong>-</strong></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/l-cedilla.gif" width="5" height="17" align="absmiddle"></font></strong></font>
indicating the level of a landscape), the mutation of the initial consonant
<strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">x</font></strong>- into
<strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">x</font>’</strong>-
indicating that the stem is to be re-interpreted as comprising a composite
entity of non-identical members consolidated together into a single segmented
whole (i.e., ‘hill’ becomes ‘uneven range of hills’)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="27"> </td>
<td valign="top">3.</td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">-<strong>ukt</strong>-</font></td>
<td valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top">a demonstrative suffix translatable as ‘this’
(= ‘the one in question’ or ‘the one at hand’)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="68"> </td>
<td valign="top">4.</td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">-<strong>ëx</strong></font></td>
<td valign="top">=</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top">a suffix indicating that the stem is to be interpreted
as being very large in size, and furthermore, that the increase in size
creates a new gestalt entity, i.e., not simply a ‘very large hill
or upland’ but rather a ‘mountain’</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="86"> </td>
<td valign="top">5.</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">stress
on antepenultimate (i.e., third-from-last) syllable (indicated in the Romanized
spelling by doubling of the stem vowel -ä-)</font></td>
<td width="5%" valign="top">=</td>
<td width="57%" valign="top"> generic statement neutral as to time or present
impact</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="25"> </td>
<td valign="top">6.</td>
<td colspan="3" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">falling
tone (unmarked)</font></td>
<td valign="top">=</td>
<td valign="middle">statement reflects objective fact as opposed to subjective
interpretation, i.e., that it describes a real situation irrespective of
the speaker’s beliefs, opinions, convention, usage, etc. (i.e., the
fact that the mountain range does have an ending whether one knows where
it is or not)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">The following additional example sentences illustrate how the
language manifests a cohttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/mbination of semantic richness withhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ morphological conciseness:<br>
</p>
<table width="62%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="62%"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-2.mp3"><imhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/g src="Images/Ch%208/8-1-3-2d.gif" width="136" heighthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/="25" border="0"></a></td>
<td https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/width="38%" rowspan="2"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-2.mp3">Listen!</a>
https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ <a href="Sound_Files/Intro-2.mp3https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/"><img src="Images/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-2.mp3"><img src="Images/Intro/Intro_10.gif" width="179" height="26" border="0"></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<em>Hey! Something belonging to you and your hodge-podge of parts is crawling
on me!</em> <br>
[What a Star Trek character might say to a Borg who has just produced an assimilated
arachnid from hhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/is pocket]<em><br>
</em>
<p align=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/"justify"> </p>
<table width="62%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="62%" height="59"><em><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-3.mp3"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/Images/Intro/Intro_6.gif" width="254" height="49" https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/border="0"></a></em></td>
<td width="38%" valign="middle"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-3.mp3">Listen!
<img src="Images/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<em>We successfully took part in the effort using a formal set of varying parts
on behalf of the group of people with whom you anhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/d he are associated.</em><br>
<p alhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ign="justify"> </p>
<table width="62%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="62%" height="59"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-6.mp3"><img shttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/rc="Images/Intro/Intro_12.gif" width="188" height="52https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/" border="0"></a></td>
<td widthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/h="38%" valign="middle"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-6.mp3">Listen!</a>
<a href="Sound_Files/Intro-6.mp3"><img src="Images/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<em>The sound coming from the banks of prihttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/nters kept on steadily repeating.</https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/em>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<table width="68%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="85%" height="59"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-5.mp3"><img shttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/rc="Images/Intro/Intro_11.gif" width="372" height="61https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/" border="0"></a></td>
<td widthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/h="15%" valign="middle"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-5.mp3">Listen!</a>
<a href="Sound_Files/Intro-5.mp3"><img src="Images/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<em>As it turned out, the snake-handler apparently began trapping each mouse in
a container, one at a time like clhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ockwork.</em><br>
<p align="justifyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/"> </p>
<table width="62%" height="65" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="82%" height="33"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-4.mp3"><img src="Images/Chhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/%2010/10-1-2l.gif" width="287" height="33" border="0"https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/></a></td>
<td width="18%" rowshttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/pan="2" valign="middle"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-4.mp3">Listen!</a>
<a href="Sounhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/d_Files/Intro-4.mp3"><img src="Imaghttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/es/Audio_icon.gif" width="19" height="16" border="0" align="absbottom"></a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="30"><em><a href="Sound_Files/Intro-4.mp3"><img src="Images/Intro/Intro_7.gif" width="345" height="21" border="0" align="top"></a></em></td>
</tr>
</table>
<em>Aided by the bird’s own stupidity, the man, in inadvertently letting
it out of the house, unexpectedly and accidentally killed it without even realizing
he’d done so.</em><br>
<p align="justify"><br>
Such detail plus conciseness is possible due to the design of the grammar, essentially
a matrix of grammatical concepts and structures designed for compactness, cross-functionality
and reusability. This matrix-like grammar is combined with a vocabulary/lexicon
of semantic stems which (1) are capable of a high degree of flexibility and
synergism within that matrix, (2) have been completely reconceptualized from
the cognitive level up regardless of their correspondence to actual word roots
and grammatical categories in existing languages, and (3) reflect the inherent
dependencies and interrelationships between one semantic concept and another.
Therefore, the morphemes of the language (i.e., word-roots, suffixes, prefixes,
grammatical categories, etc.) are as phonetically brief as possible, function
in multiple roles with one another, and correspond more closely to human cognitive
categories than in natural languages. In this fashion, a limited number of sounds
and word-roots can be made to generate a vast array of variations and derivations
corresponding to and even surpassing all of the grammatical and semantic functions
of the usual stock of words, phrases, and idiomatic constructions in natural
languages. These linguistic design principles are described in greater detail
in the sections below by means of illustrative analogies with English examples.
</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td height="21" colspan="5" valign="middle" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <p><strong><font size="4">0.3
A Synergistic Matrix of Semantic and Grammatical Categories</font></strong></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">The above-described matrix can be dramatically illustrated
by describing the distinct difference between Ithkuil and other languages in
the way its lexicon (stock of word-roots) has been created and the principles
underlying its lexico-semantics (the relationship between words and meaning).
In natural languages, the choice as to what mental concepts and categories will
be overtly reflected as word-roots and stems is arbitrary and unsystematic (while
in most invented languages, the lexicon is by and large consciously or sub-consciously
patterned after that of natural languages). While it is true that virtually
all languages reflect certain basic universals of word choice (e.g., all have
words for <em>sun, moon, speak, mother, father, laugh, I, you, one, two, water,
blood, black, white, hot, cold</em>, etc.), the manner in which these words
are created is haphazard and with little regard for basic conceptual interrelationships.
The result, in most cases, is a plethora of separate, distinct word roots which
bear no morpho-phonological, or morpho-semantic relation to one another (i.e.,
the patterns of sounds used to create particular words are unsystematic and
independent for each word-root regardless of whether those word-roots are semantically
or cognitively related to one another). Ithkuil word-roots have been created
in a more efficient and systematic manner, with a recognition that the interrelatedness
between what are large sets of discrete words in other languages can be formalized
and systematized into a vast array or matrix of derivational rules, the result
being a drastic reduction in the number of basic word-roots, which in turn allows
all individual stems to be extremely compact phonologically-speaking. </p>
<p align="justify">For example, consider the following series of English words:
<em>see, sight, vision, glimpse, stare, gawk, view, panorama, look, eye, glance,
visualize</em>. Note how each of these is a separate, autonomous word despite
the fact that it shares a single underlying semantic concept with the others
(a concept which we can conveniently refer to as <font size="2">SIGHT/VISION</font>),
each representing a mere manipulation of either durational aspect, situational
perspective, or manner of participation relating to that underlying concept.
What is more, these manipulations are, by and large, haphazardly applied, vague,
subjective, and particular to the specific underlying concept (i.e., the aspectual/perspectival
manipulations applied to <font size="2">SIGHT/VISION</font> do not parallel
those manipulations applied to the concept <font size="2">TRANSFERENCE OF POSSESSION</font>
by which we derive the series <em>give, take, receive, steal, donate, lend,
borrow, send</em>, etc.). </p>
<p align="justify">In Ithkuil, it is the seminal underlying concept which is lexified
into a word-root which then undergoes a series of regular, predictable, and
universally applicable modifications at the morphological (i.e., grammatical)
level to generate new words that, in some cases, parallel such series of English
words, but in most cases, far exceed the dynamism and range of such English
word series. This is illustrated by the list of Ithkuil words in the table below,
all of which are simply grammatical derivations, using affixes and systematic
phonemic mutations (i.e., sound shifts), of a single word-root <strong><font color="#FF0000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">r–q</font></strong>
whose meaning is translatable as ‘<font size="2">EXISTENT THING; TO EXIST
(AS SOMETHING)</font>.’ Alongside each word is its translation. (Note:
the translations below represent convenient approximations at best, as purely
literal translations would have to capture the systematic and derivative structure
of the Ihttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/thkuil words. For example, the word<font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>amriqoçi<img src="Images/Ch%201/Symbols/Qv.gif" width="10" height="18" align="absmiddle"></strong></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
</font> translated below as ‘destroy’ literally means ‘unmake
a constructed componential set by extreme violence.’ Note also that the
list below represents only a smalhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/l number of the thousands of derivations theoretically
possible for this single word-root.)</p>
<table width="73%" border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="Images/Intro/Intro_4.gif" width="555" height="668"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">Another principle underlying the formation of words in Ithkuil
is <strong>complementarity</strong>. Western thought and language generally
reflect Aristotelian logic in the way they conceptualize the world and the interrelationships
between discrete entities in that world. Ithkuil, on the other hand, views the
world as being based on complementary principles, where, instead of discrete
independence between related entities, such concepts are seen as complementary
aspects of a single holistic entity. Such complementarity is in turn reflected
in the derivation of word-roots. By “complementarity” is meant that
the manifestation of a concept appears in any given context as either one sort
of entity or another, but never both simultaneously; yet, neither manifestation
can be considered to be a discrete whole without the existence of the other.
A simple illustration of complementarity is the flip of a coin: the coin can
only land on one side or the other, yet without both sides being part of the
coin, any given coin toss has no meaning or contextual relevance no matter which
side is face-up. </p>
<p align="justify">For example, in Western languages, words such as <em>male</em>,
<em>night</em>, <em>limb</em>, <em>sit</em>, and <em>happen</em> are all autonomous
words, linguistically representing what are inherently considered to be basic
mental concepts or semantic primitives. However, in Ithkuil, none of these words
is considered to be a semantic primitive. Instead, they are seen to be parts
of greater, more holistic semantic concepts, existing in complementary relationship
to another part, the two together making up the whole. </p>
<p align="justify">Thus, Ithkuil lexical structure recognizes that the word <em>male</em>
has no meaning in and of itself without an implicit recognition of its complementary
partner, <em>female</em>, the two words mutually deriving from a more basic,
holistic concept, translatable into English as <em>living being</em>. Similarly,
the word <em>night(time)</em> derives along with its complement <em>day(time)</em>
from the underlying concept translatable as <em>day</em> (24-hour period), while
<em>limb</em>, along with its complement <em>trunk</em> or <em>torso</em>, derives
from the stem <em>(corporeal) body</em>. </p>
<p align="justify">Actions, too, are not exempt from this principle of complementarity,
an example being the relationship between <em>sit</em> and <em>seat</em>; one
has no meaning without an implicit and joint partnership with the other, i.e.,
one cannot sit unless one sits upon something, and whatever one sits upon automatically
functions as a seat. We see the awkward attempt of English to convey these jointly
dependent but mutually exclusive perspectives when comparing the sentences <em>Please
sit down</em> and <em>Please be seated</em>. Another example involves the word
<em>happen</em> or <em>occur</em>, which Ithkuil recognizes as having no real
meaning without the attendant implication of <em>consequence</em> or <em>result</em>,
the two being complementary components of a holistic concept roughly translatable
as <em>event</em> or <em>situation</em>.</p>
<p align="justify">The Ithkuil word for <em>hole</em> illustrates another instance
of complementarity. Holes can be looked at from two different, but interrelated
perspectives: either as an opening connecting two different spaces (or access
point to a previously unavailable space, i.e., a pit), or as a discontinuity
in the surface or structural integrity of the dividing entity separating the
two realms. In other words, one can focus on the potential function or consequences
of the hole, or on the structural nature of the hole. Either of these two perspectives
represents a legitimate, but complementary way to consider a hole or puncture.
Thus, the Ithkuil word would have two derivative roots each indicating one of
these two perspectives. One such root would be used when saying <em>There’s
a hole in your shirt</em>, while the other would be used when saying <em>She
saw me through a hole in the fence</em>.</p>
<p align="justify">Ithkuil recognizes that such complementarity exists for virtually
any concept, in fact that it is one of the foundational principles of the universe
itself. No beam of light can be spoken of without implicit recognition of its
source. No signal can be described without accounting for the signaling device.
Indeed, in Ithkuil no river is without its channel, no surface without its firmament,
no message without its medium, no sense impression without its sense faculty,
no contents without their container, no occurrence without its consequence,
no memory without its present effect, no plan without its purpose, no music
without its playing, no relief without prerequisite deprivation, no pleasure
without its absence, no motion without space in which to move.</p>
<p align="justify">Other principles underlying Ithkuil word-derivation include
the interrelated principles of fuzzy logic, prototype theory, and radial categorization.
Incorporation of these principles into the architecture for word-formation allows
roots to be grouped into various types of affiliated sets, each of which then
functions as a conceptual gestalt, the individual members of which being marked
as having varying degrees and kinds of relatedness or similarity to a hypothetical
prototype member or archetype. Thus, Ithkuil is able to systematically derive
words such as <em>crowd, mob, group, troop, club, association, assembly, </em>and
<em>gathering</em> all from the single root-word <em>person</em>. Similarly,
words such as <em>grove, orchard, forest, woods, jungle</em>, and <em>copse</em>
can all be derived from the single root-word <em>tree</em>.</p>
<p align="justify">As one last example exemplifying the dynamism and conciseness
of Ithkuil lexico-semantics, consider the following list of English words and
phrases: <em>drenched, wet, damp, moist, near-dry, dry, parched</em>. Rather
than provide separate autonomous words for these concepts, Ithkuil recognizes
that these terms all indicate relative degrees of moisture along a continuous
range. Such continua would be addressed by a single root whose meaning more
or less corresponds to <font size="2">[DEGREE OF] MOISTURE</font> to which an
array of simple suffixes would be added to specify the particular degree along
that range, all the way from <em>bone dry</em> (or <em>parched</em>) through
<em>drenched </em> to<em> saturated</em>. All such phenomena which Western languages
tend to semantically delineate into binary oppositions (e.g., <em>hard/soft,
light/dark, shallow/deep</em>, etc.) are recognized and lexified in Ithkuil
as single roots which then systematically use suffixes to specify the particular
degree along a continuous range.</p>
<p align="justify">The above paragraphs illustrate how Ithkuil is able to capture
and systematically present at the morphological level what other languages accomplish
haphazardly at the lexical level. By systematically finding and structuring
the covert dependencies and interrelationships between what are disparate words
in other languages, the hundreds of thousands of words in a language like English
are drastically reduced down to the 3600 word-roots of Ithkuil. This is morpho-lexical
efficiency on a grand scale. Nevertheless, by means of the matrix-like morphological
scheme previously described, each of these 3600 roots can in turn generate thousands
of permutations to convey complex and subtle semantic distinctions and operations
which dwarf the capacity of existing languages to convey without resorting to
cumbersome paraphrase. This is lexico-semantic and morpho-semantic efficiency
on an equally grand scale. Such a synergistic design for grammar lends a dynamism
that allows the Ithkuil language to describe reality to a minute lehttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/vel of detail
and exactitude despite a limited number of word-roots. This dynamism is visible
throughout this work, but is discussed in systematic detail in <a href="ithkuil-ch10-lexicosemantics.htm">Chapter
10: Lexico-Semantics</a>.</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td height="21" colspan="5" valign="middle" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <p><strong><font size="4">0.4
Addressing the Vagueness Inherent in Natural Languages</font></strong></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">To further illustrate the cognitive depth at which Ithkuil
operates, consider one of the most pervasive aspects of natural human languages:
semantic vagueness. For example, consider the following four English sentences:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p align="justify">(a)<em> The boy rolled down the hill.</em><br>
(b) <em>Maybe she just stopped smoking.</em><br>
(c) <em>Joe didn’t win the lottery yesterday.</em><br>
(d) <em>There is a dog on my porch.</em></p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">In examining these four sentences most native English speakers
would deny that any vagueness exists. This is because the vagueness does not
exist in terms of the overt meanings of the words themselves. Rather, the vagueness
lies at the nearly subconscious level of their grammatical (or syntactical)
relations and cognitive intent. For example, in sentence (a) we have no idea
whether the boy chose to roll himself down the hill or whether he was pushed
against his will. (In formal linguistic terms we would say it is unknown whether
the semantic role of the subject ‘boy’ is as <em>agent</em> or <em>patient</em>.)
And yet knowing which scenario is correct is crucial to understanding the speaker’s
intent in describing the action. </p>
<p align="justify">Imagine sentence (b) <em>Maybe she just stopped smoking</em>
being spoken as an answer to the question ‘Why does she seem so irritable?’
In interpreting sentence (b), we have no idea whether the subject is indeed
a smoker or not; i.e., is the speaker offering this speculation because he/she
knows the subject to be a smoker, or as mere conjecture without knowledge one
way or the other whether the subject smokes or not? </p>
<p align="justify">Sentence (c) <em>Joe didn’t win the lottery yesterday</em>
illustrates four-way ambiguity. Joe’s failure to win the lottery could
be either because: the speaker knows Joe didn’t play; because the speaker
knows Joe did play but lost; because the speaker doesn’t know whether
Joe played or not and is simply voicing a conjecture; or because the statement
is an inference based on some indirect clue (e.g., since Joe showed up for work
today, he must not have won the lottery).</p>
<p align="justify">And while sentence (d) <em>There is a dog on my porch s<em></em></em>eems
on its surface to be the most straightforward of the four, is the intent of
the speaker to simply describe and identify the participants to a scene, or
does she wish to convey the idea that the scene has personal significance to
her, e.g., because she has a phobia of dogs or has been waiting for a long-lost
pet dog to return home? In other words, the sentence itself does not convey
the intent behind the utterance, only the static description of the scene.</p>
<p align="justify">In all four instances, such vagueness exists unless and until
the audience can ascertain information from the surrounding context of other
sentences. This shows that, despite the fact that all four sentences are grammatically
well-formed English sentences whose words in and of themselves are unambiguous,
their grammar alone is insufficient to convey the cognitive information necessary
to fully comprehend the intent of the speaker’s utterance. This failure
of grammar to inherently convey the requisite information necessary to understand
a speaker’s cognitive intent is a functional pitfall of human language
in general which Ithkuil grammar has been designed to avoid. The Ithkuil equivalents
to the above four sentences would mandatorily convey all of the “missing”
information noted above without requiring any extra words not corresponding
to the English originals. The grammatical elements of the words themselves (word-selection,
declensions, conjugations, prefixes, suffixes, etc.) would convey all the elements
mentioned.</p>
<p align="justify">Similar examples can be given to show the extent to which natural
languages such as English must often resort to idiomatic expressions, metaphor,
paraphrase, circumlocution and “supra-segmental” phenomena (e.g.,
changing the pitch of one’s voice) in their attempts to convey a speaker’s
intended meaning. Ithkuil grammar has been designed to overtly and unambiguously
reflect the intention of a speaker with a minimum of such phenomena.</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td height="22" colspan="5" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <p><font size="4"><strhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ong>0.5
Comparison to Other Constructed Languages</strong></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">Those readers familiar with the history of <a href="http://donh.best.vwh.https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/net/Esperanto/EBook/chap03.html#introduction" target="_blank">artificial
language construction</a> might think this endeavor belated or unnecessary,
in that <a href="http://minyeva.alkaline.org/links.htm" target="_blank">logical
languages</a> such as James Cooke Brown’s renowned Loglan (or its popular
derivative, Lojban) already exist. This serves to illustrate exactly what distinguishes
Ithkuil from such previous attempts. Loglan was published in the 1950s as a
spoken/written language based on symbolic logic (formally known as the first-order
predicate calculus), an algorithmic system of symbol manipulation devised by
mathematicians and logicians. As a result, one might think that such a language
is the most capable means of achieving logical, unambiguous linguistic communication.
However, Loglan and its derivatives are merely sophisticated tools for symbol
manipulation, i.e., the levels of language previously described as morphology
and syntax. It is not within the scope of such languages to address any reorganization
of the semantic realm. This means that symbolic logic simply manipulates arguments
which are input into the system, they do not analyze the origin of those arguments
in terms of meaning, nor are they capable of analyzing or formalizing the structure
of the cognitive or semantic realm of the human mind in terms of how meaning
itself is assigned to arguments. (Indeed, Lojban derives its roots via statistical
“sampling” of the most frequent roots in the six most spoken natural
languages, a method virtually guaranteed to carry over into the Lojban lexicon
all of the lexico-semantic inefficiencies previously described.) By not addressing
these components of language, Loglan and similar efforts fail to address the
inconsistencies and inefficiency inherent in language at the lexico-semantic
level. Ithkuil has been designed to systematically address this issue. </p>
<p align="justify">Other readers might think of international languages (or “interlanguages”)
such as Esperanto, Interlingua, or Ido, as being logical and efficient representations of language.
However, these languages are merely simplified, regularized amalgamations of
existing languages (usually Indo-European), designed for ease of learning. While
addressing many overt irregularities, inconsistencies, and redundancies of language
found at the morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic levels, they do little
to address the problems found within the other components of language, especially
the lexico-semantic. For example, while Esperanto admirably employs systematic
rules for word derivation as <em>knabo</em> ‘boy’ versus <em>knabino</em>
‘girl,’ it preserves the basic lexico-semantic categorization scheme
of Indo-European languages in general, rather than seeking opportunities to
expand such word derivation schemes into multidimensional arrays as will be
shortly illustrated for Ithkuil.</p>
<p align="justify">All in all, neither logical languages such as Loglan nor interlanguages
such as Esperanto, are designed specifically to achievehttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ the purpose of cognitive
exactness and conciseness of communication which is the goal of Ithkuil. Actually,
Ithkuil might more readily be compared with the <a href="http://www.alamut.com/subj/artiface/language/johnWilkins.html" target="_blank">analytical
language of John Wilkins</a> of the Royal Society of London, published in 1668,
in which he divided the realm of human conception into forty categories, each
containing a hierarchy of subcategories and sub-subcategories, each in turn
systematically represented in the phonological structure of an individual word.
For example an initial <em>g</em>- might stand for a plant, while <em>go</em>-
indicated a tree, <em>gob</em>- a particular class of tree, and <em>gobo</em>
a particular tree species. While unworkable in terms of specifics, Wilkins’
underlying principles are similar in a simplistic way to some of the abstract
derivational principles employed in Ithkuil lexico-morphology and lexico-semantics.
Another comparable predecessor in a simplistic sense is the musical language,
Solresol, created by Jean François Sudre and published in
1866.</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td height="22" colspan="5" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <p><font size="4"><strong>0.6
The Uniqueness of Ithkuil</strong></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="justify">The above description demonstrates that Ithkuil is rather unique
in the niche it occupies in the array of both natural and invented languages.
The design of Ithkuil has slowly and painstakingly evolved from my early attempts
as a teenager (following my introduction to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Charles
Fillmore’s seminal 1968 article on case grammar) to explore beyond the
boundaries of Western Indo-European languages to a complex, intricate array
of interwoven grammatical concepts, many of which are wholly of my own creation,
others of which have been inspired by such obscure linguistic sources as the
morpho-phonology of Abkhaz verb complexes, the moods of verbs in certain American
Indian languages, the aspectual system of Niger-Kordofanian languages, the nominal
case systems of Basque and the Dagestanian languages, the enclitic system of
Wakashan languages, the positional orientation systems of Tzeltal and Guugu
Yimidhirr, the Semitic triliteral root morphology, and the hearsay and possessive
categories of Suzette Elgin’s Láadan language, not to mention ideas
inspired by countless hours studying texts in theoretical linguistics, cognitive
grammar, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, linguistic relativity, semantics,
semiotics, philosophy, fuzzy set theory, and even quantum physics. </p>
<p align="justify">The Ithkuil writing system likewise derives from both original
and inspired sources: it employs a unique “morpho-phonemic” principle
of my own invention, its logical design borrows from the mutational principles
underlying the Ethiopic and Brahmi scripts, and its aesthetic visual design
bears a superficial resemblance to Hebhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/rew square script and the various Klingon
fonts.</p>
<p align="justify">As for the name of the language, Ithkuil, it is an anglicized
rendering of the word <img src="Images/Intro_5.gif" width="40" height="20" align="absbottom">,
whose approximate translation is ‘hypothetical language.’ </p>
<p align="justify">This website provides a systematic presentation of the grammar
of the language. In addition to a description of the various components of the
grammar, the reader will find example phrases or sentences illustrating those
components. Each example comprises an Ithkuil word, phrase, or sentence written
in native Ithkuil script, accompanied by a Romanized transliteration, an English
translation (sometimes divided into a “natural” versus literal translation),
and a morphological analysis. The morphological analysis is presented serially,
morpheme-by-morpheme, using three-letter abbreviations or labels for Ithkuil
morphological categories. These labels are presented within the body of the
work in conjunction with the explanation of each morphological category. This
system is illustrated by the example below, where the labels <font size="2">OBL</font>
and <font size="2">PRP</font> refer https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/to the <font size="2">OBLIQUE</font> and
<font size="2">PROPRIETIVE</font> noun cases respectively. (These noun cases
are explhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ained in <font color="#FF0000"><a href="ithkuil-ch4-case.htm" onClick="javascript:changenav4();">Chapter
4</a></font>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p align="justify"><img src="Images/Intro/Intro_3.gif" width="84" height="21"><br>
<strong>têr hionn</strong><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">title</font>-<font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">OBL</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">father</font>-<font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">PRP</font><br>
<em>‘a father’s title’</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">This work is not meant as a primer or means of self-instruction
in speaking the language, a task beyond even its creator, given that Ithkuil
may be perhaps the most grammatically complex language ever devised. Simplicity
was not my purpose, but rather bridging the gap between extreme morphological
dynamism, the overt reflection of human cognitive processes via language, and
extreme morpho-semantic economy and efficiency. I believe I have achieved a
result which is close to the ideal I sought. I leave it to the reader to explore
that result.</p>
<p align="justify">I wish to thank all of those who have taken an interest in Ithkuil. I especially wish to thank Stanislav Kozlovskiy, whose 2004 article “The Speed of Thought” brought Ithkuil to the attention of so manyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ people. Спасибо, Стас! Thanks also to Lexa Samons for his hard work in translating the original <a href="http://ithkuil-russiahttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/n.narod.ru/" target="_blank">Ithkuil site into Russian</a>. My appreciation also to fellow linguist and conlanger Davhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/id J. Peterson for bestowing upon Ithkuil the <a href="http://dedalvs.cohttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/nlang.org/smileys/2008.html" target="_blank">2008 Smiley Award</a>. </p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://dedalvs.conlang.org/smileys/2008.html" target="_blank"><img src="smiley_award.PNG" alt="Smiley Award" width="214" height="80" border="0" longdesc="http://dedalvs.conlang.org/smileys/2008.html"></a></p>
<p align="justify">I dedicate this work to my brother, Paul, in fond memory of
<em>Kccöj</em>, <em>Mbozo</em>, and our other made-up langhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/uages, and all
the fun times we had as kids learning about and playing with linguistics.</p>
<p align="right"><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch1-phonology.htm" onClick="javascript:changenav1();">Proceed
to Chapter One: Phonology >></a></font></strong></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td width="9%" height="25" valign="top"><https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/div align="left"><font size="1"><a name="menu"></a></font></div></td>
<td width="27%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sanhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/s-serif"><a href="index.htm" target="_top">Home</a></font></div></td>
<td width="37%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch5a-verbs.htm">5a
Verb Morphohttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/logy </a></font></div></td>
<td width="27%" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch9-syntax.htm">9
Syntax</a></font></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"><div align="left"><https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/font size="2"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/etica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-intro.htm">Introduction</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/ch5b-verbs-contd.htm">5b
Verb Morphology (continued)</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch10-lexicosemantics.htm">10
Lexico-Semantics</a></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valighttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/n="top"><div align="left"><font size="2"></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font size="2"></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-sehttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/rif"><a href="ithkuil-ch1-phonology.htm">1
Phonology</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch6-moreverbs.htm">6
Morhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/e Verb Morphology</a></font></div></td>
<td valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch11-script.htm">11
Thttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/he Script </a></font></font></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch2-morphophonology.htm">2
Morpho-Phonology</a></font><font size="2">&nbhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/sp;</font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch7a-affixes.htm">7a
Using Affixes </a></font></fohttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/nt></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch12-numbers.htm">12
The Number System</a></font></font><https://web.archive.org/font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font size="2"> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch3-https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/morphology.htm">3
Basic Morphology</a></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch7b-affixes-contd.htm">7bhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/
Using Affixes (continued) </a></font></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-lexicon.htm">Thhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/e
Lexicon</a></font></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Hehttps://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/lvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch4-case.htm">4
Case Morphology </a></font> </td>
<td valign="top"><font face=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606100823id_/http:/www.ithkuil.net/"Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ithkuil-ch8-adjuncts.htm">8
Adjuncts</a></font></td>
<td valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="ilaksh/Ilaksh_Intro.html" target="_blank">Revised Ithkuil: <font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I</font>laksh</a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><font size="-1">©2004-2011 by John Quijada. You may copy or excerpt any portion
of the contents of this website provided you give full attribution to the author
and this website. </font></p>
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