Introduction

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Ilaksh: A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language

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Home	4 Case Morphology	9 Syntax
Introduction	5 Verb Morphology	10 Lexico-Semantics
1 Phonology	6 More Verb Morphology	11 The Writing System
2 Morpho-Phonology	7 Suffixes	12 The Number System
3 Basic Morphology	8 Adjuncts	The Lexicon

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Introduction

These webpages present the grammar of an artificially constructed language, Ilaksh. For those readers already familiar with my constructed language Ithkuil, this new language, Ilaksh, represents a revision of the Ithkuil language to allow easier pronunciation for those persons who have an interest in trying to speak Ithkuil but are daunted by the complex phonology (sound system). The revision consists mostly of a simplification of the phonology of the language and a complete restructuring of the morpho-phonology. While most of the morphology of the original Ithkuil remains intact, I have taken the opportunity to revise several morphological elements with which I’ve been less than satisfied.

Like Ithkuil, the purpose of Ilaksh is to present a philosophical design for a hypothetical language featuring extreme morpho-phonological conciseness while overtly presenting a much deeper level of human cognition than is found in natural human languages, i.e., maximal communication of underlying cognitive intent coupled with maximal morpho-phonological efficiency.

The specific differences found in Ilaksh compared to Ithkuil are as follows:

The number of phonemes (i.e., relevant speech sounds) has been reduced from 82 to 40. I have eliminated what many readers would consider the most difficult-to-pronounce phonemes. Specifically, the number of consonants has been reduced from 65 to 30 and the number of vowels from 17 to ten. In partial compensation of this reduction, however, Ithkuil’s five tones have been increased to seven in Ilaksh. Tone also plays a more pervasive role in Ilaksh than in Ithkuil.
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The reduction in total phonemes has required a drastic restructuring of Ithkuil’s morpho-phonology, i.e., the patterns in which phonemes (speech sounds) are mapped to morphemes (meaningful word-components). All in all, Ilaksh is more agglutinative and less synthetic in its grammar than Ithkuil. As a result, Ilaksh looks and sounds rather differently than Ithkuil, and the structure of the words is different as well. Therefore, to all surface appearances, both visual and aural, Ilaksh is a different language than Ithkuil.
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Ithkuil’s four Levels have been expanded to 18 in Ilaksh.
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Ithkuil’s 81 noun cases have been consolidated to 72 in Ilaksh. However, a system of 24 new specialized noun cases have been added which operate in conjunction with the expansion of the Level categories, resulting in a total of 96 noun cases in Ilaksh.
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Ithkuil’s nine Validations (evidential categories) have been expanded to 14 in Ilaksh.
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The Ithkuil category of Focus has been eliminated as a morphological category in Ilaksh. Topic and Focus are primarily handled at the syntactic level in Ilaksh rather than at the morphological level. As a result, word-order is more important in Ilaksh than in Ithkuil.
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The 259 Derivations of Ithkuil verbs, used to expand upon the seven basic verb Conflations, have been eliminated. Instead, Ilaksh now allows the option to incorporate any formative stem into a verbal stem, i.e., Ilaksh verbs are optionally incorporative. The category of Conflation has been renamed Function and an additional Function has been added bring the number to eight, compared to Ithkuil's seven.
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The HORTATIVE has been moved from a Validation category to an Illocution category.
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The number of morpho-semantic classes of formative stems has been reduced from 17 in Ithkuil to ten in Ilaksh.
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Ilaksh uses a completely different writing system than Ithkuil. The new system is non-linear and two-dimensional, and almost entirely morphemic in nature, as opposed to the morpho-phonemic script used for Ithkuil (a sample of Ilaksh writing is visible above in the header/title area of this page).
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I wish to thank all of those who have taken an interest in Ithkuil and who have patiently looked forward to Ilaksh. I hope you find the new site interesting. And I especially wish to thank Stanislav Kozlovskiy, whose 2004 article “The Speed of Thought” brought Ithkuil to the attention of so many people. Спасибо, Стас! Thanks also to Lexa Samons for his hard work in translating the original Ithkuil site into Russian.

—John Quijada
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Proceed to Chapter 1: Phonology >>
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Home 4 Case Morphology 9 Syntax
Introduction 5 Verb Morphology 10 Lexico-Semantics
1 Phonology 6 More Verb Morphology 11 The Writing System
2 Morpho-Phonology 7 Suffixes 12 The Number System
3 Basic Morphology 8 Adjuncts The Lexicon

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©2007-2009 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.
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