Illeran (673–829 lilpo) was the official, standard variety of Lilitika spoken on Illera and trade settlements on Makta during the first Illeran colony. It deviates in a number of notable respects from other dialects of Lilitika in the use of its detailed, nuanced inflections and its peculiar stress accent, which sometimes interact.
Word-final /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ are no longer lengthened to /eː/ and /iː/, respectively.
To accommodate Illeran's stress system in full, five new letters must be added to the standard Latin orthography:
Stress tends toward antepenult, but falls later in the word if strong vowels are not available. The strong vowels are ei, é, í, o, ú, ai, û, ê, oi. If no strong vowels are available at all, stress falls on the first vowel of the inflection.
Using underlines to indicate stress, kotopú, amelía, atsha, alémarobis.
For declension, the first vowel of the vocative ending always steals stress, even when strong vowels are present elsewhere in the word; this is also true of the accusative ending and plural genitive endings (due to compensatory lengthening).
In addition, <í> or <i> may sometimes appear as <ý> to indicate elision into a palatal approximant, especially in poetry.
Conventions: graphemes in () disappear when following a vowel, and graphemes in [] disappear when following a consonant. Empty cells copy from the left; all forms are possible.
See the note above for stress rules induced by declension.
"f-nominative" is the alternative nominal form used with paragrammatical (FPIC) conjunctions to show which side of the equation is part of the parent sentence.
ø is the form used with unmarked nouns, of which there are two kinds: (a) nouns where the case marker has been carried by a preposition, and (b) nouns with no true role because they have been included for a paragrammatical remark.
The egressive, temporal, and terminative cases are the same as the temporal ablative, temporal locative, and temporal dative in other forms of Lilitika.
The gendered forms of the egressive, temporal, terminative, ablative, locative, and dative cases are only used when no preposition is invoked; it is considered an acceptable stylistic choice to use neuter prepositions with correctly-inflected nouns.
Illeran completely lacks the complement cases and simply equates multiple terms in the nominative (or f-nominative). The ablative, locative, egressive, temporal, and terminative cases are used sparsely in general, and remappings occurred over three stages:
These are essentially unchanged from Sarasí: -í or -is for adjectives, -ya or -adis for adverbs, with the former forms indicating prefix and the latter forms indicating postfix. However, most are used in postfix form in Illeran. In addition, genitive forms behave like postfix adjectives, although they can still be used in prefix form (and to derive other words) by restoring the -í stem.
Lilitika has two verb classes, the verbs of action and the verbs of experience. The verbs of experience behave as passive verbs and mimic ergative-absolutive alignment, with the nominative and accusative cases filling in the rules of absolutive and ergative cases, respectively. The difference between the two verb classes is easily recognized in the infinitive, as all passive verbs end in -eshé, while all active verb stems end merely in -é. Verbs can be converted between these forms by adding or removing the -esh- infix, although they are regarded as having default orientations and rarely deviate in Illeran.
Lilitika recognizes 4 discrete temporal intervals: the deep past, the regular past, the present, and the future. These are assembled into six tenses:
In addition, Lilitika recognizes a simple aorist, which it treats as a tenseless verb form. It is used primarily in Sarasí and Illeran as a subjunctive and in combination with the hypothetical particle kai to create a tenseless gnomic mood. Certain other uses of the subjunctive are covered by the so-called subjunctive-optative-jussive mood, which is also known as the gnomic imperative.
Besides the gnomic variant, the imperative is divided into two tenses: the liquid imperative (also known as the regular imperative), and the future imperative.
Finally, there are four regular aspects: inchoative, terminative, perfect, and progressive.
While complete conjugations are shown below, not all forms presented have actually been attested in surviving documents; in particular, the imperative and future imperative are rarely seen outside of 1.pl, 2(d).sg, and 2.pl forms. As with other dialects, the existence and identity of these extra cases is a result of the policies of Survika, the government body responsible for linguistic standardization, although they could be easily reconstructed by interpolation from attested forms.
The à in aorist forms always takes the stress.
Initial í, é, o, and e vowels are non-mandatory and will disappear in proximity with another strong vowel (e.g. the o in natúloé.)
The <dt> ([ɾ]) in the 2 and 2d endings becomes <d> if the last syllable of the stem begins with an r, e.g. olrídé - you eat.
Plural forms ending in -és will replace this with -ezí if followed by an enclitic such as dí or kai, e.g. "írelzezí kai" instead of "írelzés kai". Simlarly, the plural third-person gnomic imperative, ízos, becomes ízozí before such enclitics. These final í vowels are strictly epenthic, and hence never take stress; in a totally unstressed word such as "gelzezí kai", stress must fall on one of the other vowels (in this case, yielding "gēlzezí kai".)
As in previous Lilitika dialects, these are placed between the verb stem and the ending. However, in Illeran, there are more elaborate combining forms:
Note that inchoative and terminative cannot co-exist in a single form (meaning "starts to finish ~" or "finishes starting to ~"); these would be formulated with an auxiliary verb and a gerundial (see -ekhtíu) in the accusative.
Core verb inflection permits incorporation of indicative, imperative, and optative-jussive moods. This leaves many moods to be expressed through external markers. In prior dialects of Lilitika, these markers were termed "mood particles," and in Illeran they are (predominantly) clitics.
Non-realis moods (gnomic, requirement, desiderative) are used with the aorist unless tense provides additional useful information, such as ífégisa, "I want to leave [presently]."
As in Sarasí, the proclitics can be stacked, and ordering affects meaning, e.g. alérímaratàé, "I am not required to come" vs. ríalémaratàé, "I am forbidden to come."
Illeran has a handful of optional irregular forms where naked verb endings may stand in for actual verbs in the aorist tense. These were added to the language by reanalyzing their Oksí Lilitika origins, and are primarily used in poetry.
While it is rarely done, they can be coerced out of the aorist tense by adding on a Íomanazinení/Zeyetaní verb ending, replacing any final vowel, e.g. ílsa = ílétàé, but ílsis = ílíté.
¹Not to be confused with the uvé suffix for nouns or the related -ivé form for adjectives.
²This form gains a final n before being conjugated, to prevent confusion with the present-tense equivalent.
²This form gains a final n before being conjugated, to prevent confusion with the present-tense equivalent.
GRAMMAR OF LILITIKA
Archaic Lilitika
(5–200 lilpo) Low Period and Sarasí Lilitika
(200–673 lilpo) Illera lí Lilitika
(673–829 lilpo) Lilitika Ketalán
(830-1050 lilpo) Colonial Argolects
(1076 lilpo to 300 iky) Other Resources: Dictionary · Textbook (Sarasí) · Usage · Phrasebook · Scripts and Orthographies
Antecedents: Oksí Lilitika · Oksirapho · Rotomemi
Descendants: Thessian Lilitic · Wanisinese (Wanisini Lilitika)
Archaic Lilitika
(5–200 lilpo) Low Period and Sarasí Lilitika
(200–673 lilpo) Illera lí Lilitika
(673–829 lilpo) Lilitika Ketalán
(830-1050 lilpo) Colonial Argolects
(1076 lilpo to 300 iky) Other Resources: Dictionary · Textbook (Sarasí) · Usage · Phrasebook · Scripts and Orthographies
Antecedents: Oksí Lilitika · Oksirapho · Rotomemi
Descendants: Thessian Lilitic · Wanisinese (Wanisini Lilitika)
Phonology and Phonotactics
Word-final /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ are no longer lengthened to /eː/ and /iː/, respectively.
Orthography and Stress
To accommodate Illeran's stress system in full, five new letters must be added to the standard Latin orthography:
| Standard | IPA | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| à | 'a | genitive plural, accusative |
| è | 'ɛ | genitive plural, accusative |
| ò | 'ɑ | genitive plural, accusative |
| á | 'a | vocative |
| ó | 'o | vocative |
Stress tends toward antepenult, but falls later in the word if strong vowels are not available. The strong vowels are ei, é, í, o, ú, ai, û, ê, oi. If no strong vowels are available at all, stress falls on the first vowel of the inflection.
Using underlines to indicate stress, kotopú, amelía, atsha, alémarobis.
For declension, the first vowel of the vocative ending always steals stress, even when strong vowels are present elsewhere in the word; this is also true of the accusative ending and plural genitive endings (due to compensatory lengthening).
In addition, <í> or <i> may sometimes appear as <ý> to indicate elision into a palatal approximant, especially in poetry.
Nouns
Conventions: graphemes in () disappear when following a vowel, and graphemes in [] disappear when following a consonant. Empty cells copy from the left; all forms are possible.
See the note above for stress rules induced by declension.
Case definitions
Case reduction
Illeran completely lacks the complement cases and simply equates multiple terms in the nominative (or f-nominative). The ablative, locative, egressive, temporal, and terminative cases are used sparsely in general, and remappings occurred over three stages:
- egressive → ablative (ablative of initiation)
terminative → dative (terminative dative)
temporal → locative (temporal locative)
- ablative → genitive (genitive of origination)
- locative → dative (dative locative)
temporal locative → genitive or dative
usage and history: The first stage corresponds to a clear analogy between time and space. This was generally uncontroversial as everyday language relied on minimal particle modifiers (i.e. les, wes, and mes), which already served as an efficient way of distinguishing temporal and physical placement from conceptual relationships, which would be unmarked. The second, formalized more or less simultaneously with the first, was more daring, and restored a genitive usage from Oksirapho that was common in some Venrafivíai but had not yet been standardized.
The third stage, a drive toward eliminating the locative, was more progressive. It was never entirely complete, as speakers were accustomed to seeing the ablative and dative as special cases of the locative, so inverting this relationship was unusual. When it was employed, locatives typically became genitives in the past tense and datives otherwise, reflecting the fact that the concept continued to exist as an underlying form.
Under this paradigm, Illeran's case system comes to more closely resemble the later, post-contact Lilitic, with the notable exception that the more specialized case endings could be invoked as needed to disambiguate. Despite these premonitions, this was one of the features that reached a dead end in Illeran: Ketalan would resurrect the everyday usage of all oblique forms, making them regular and simple to employ as part of set, formulaic prepositions.
-a Declension
| case | f.sg | n.sg | m.sg | f.pl | n.pl | m.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ø | a | ai | ôi | |||
| f-nom | (i)fa | afí | ||||
| nom | a | ai | oi | |||
| voc | á | éa | óa | ái | éai | óôi |
| acc | òdta | édta | òne | òdtí | òní | |
| gen | an | ôn | án | òn | ||
| ins | va | ví | ||||
| abl | úas | úasí | ||||
| loc | as | así | ||||
| dat | (a)las | alí | ||||
| egr | ú(a)t[a] | úatí | ||||
| tmp | (a)t[a] | atí | ||||
| trm | (a)ka | akí |
-e Declension
| case | f.sg | n.sg | m.sg | f.pl | n.pl | m.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ø | e | ú | e | ai | ei | oi |
| f-nom | (i)fé | (i)fú | (i)fé | efí | úfí | efí |
| nom | é | ú | é | ai | ei | oi |
| voc | é | ái | é | éi | é | ói |
| acc | éna | ènú | òno | éní | èní | òní |
| gen | an | en | ôn | àn | èn | òn |
| ins | vé | vú | vé | ví | ||
| abl | úes | úesí | ||||
| loc | es | esí | ||||
| dat | (e)l[es] | elí | ||||
| egr | ú(e)t[é] | ú(e)t[ú] | ú(e)t[é] | úetí | ||
| tmp | (e)t[é] | (e)t[ú] | (e)t[é] | etí | ||
| trm | (e)ké | (e)kú | (e)ké | ekí |
-o Declension
| case | f.sg | n.sg | m.sg | f.pl | n.pl | m.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ø | o | ai | ei | oi | ||
| f-nom | (i)fo | ofí | ||||
| nom | o | ai | ei | oi | ||
| voc | ó | ái | éi | ói | ||
| acc | òno | òní | ||||
| gen | éan | éôn | éan | éôn | ||
| ins | vo | ví | ||||
| abl | úos | úosí | ||||
| loc | os | osí | ||||
| dat | elo | elí | ||||
| egr | úto | útí | ||||
| tmp | (o)to | otí | ||||
| trm | (o)ko | okí |
Adjectives and adverbs
These are essentially unchanged from Sarasí: -í or -is for adjectives, -ya or -adis for adverbs, with the former forms indicating prefix and the latter forms indicating postfix. However, most are used in postfix form in Illeran. In addition, genitive forms behave like postfix adjectives, although they can still be used in prefix form (and to derive other words) by restoring the -í stem.
Verbs
Lilitika has two verb classes, the verbs of action and the verbs of experience. The verbs of experience behave as passive verbs and mimic ergative-absolutive alignment, with the nominative and accusative cases filling in the rules of absolutive and ergative cases, respectively. The difference between the two verb classes is easily recognized in the infinitive, as all passive verbs end in -eshé, while all active verb stems end merely in -é. Verbs can be converted between these forms by adding or removing the -esh- infix, although they are regarded as having default orientations and rarely deviate in Illeran.
Forms
Lilitika recognizes 4 discrete temporal intervals: the deep past, the regular past, the present, and the future. These are assembled into six tenses:
| tense | definition | translate as |
|---|---|---|
| deep past | the event happened long ago; something the speaker considers historical | past or pluperfect |
| past | the event happened | past |
| present | the event happens now | simple present |
| liquid | the event happens now, is about to happen, is happening, or soon will happen | simple present, present progressive, or near future |
| future | the event will happen | future |
| prophetic | the event was expected to happen in the deep past; it may or may not have occurred as predicted or have yet come to pass | it is said the event would happen |
In addition, Lilitika recognizes a simple aorist, which it treats as a tenseless verb form. It is used primarily in Sarasí and Illeran as a subjunctive and in combination with the hypothetical particle kai to create a tenseless gnomic mood. Certain other uses of the subjunctive are covered by the so-called subjunctive-optative-jussive mood, which is also known as the gnomic imperative.
Besides the gnomic variant, the imperative is divided into two tenses: the liquid imperative (also known as the regular imperative), and the future imperative.
Finally, there are four regular aspects: inchoative, terminative, perfect, and progressive.
While complete conjugations are shown below, not all forms presented have actually been attested in surviving documents; in particular, the imperative and future imperative are rarely seen outside of 1.pl, 2(d).sg, and 2.pl forms. As with other dialects, the existence and identity of these extra cases is a result of the policies of Survika, the government body responsible for linguistic standardization, although they could be easily reconstructed by interpolation from attested forms.
-é Conjugation (Verbs of Action)
| form | 1.sg | 2.sg | 2d.sg | 3.sg | 1.pl | 2.pl | 2d.pl | 3.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPST | elré | eldré | elzeré | elzé | elrés | eldrés | elzerés | elzés |
| PST | íré | edré | ezré | ellé | írés | edrés | ezrés | ellés |
| PRS | íté | ídté | ídtzé | ízé | ítés | ídtés | ídtzés | és |
| LIQ | ísa | ídta | ídtza | íza | ísein | ídtein | ídtzein | ein |
| FUT | ílsa | íladta | íldtaza | ílza | ílsein | íldtein | íldtazein | ílein |
| AOR | étàé | édtàé | édtzàé | àé | étàés | édtàés | édtzàés | àés |
| IMP | ítémé | ídtémé | ízémé | émé | ítémí | ídtémí | ízémé | émí |
| FIMP | íesamé | ídtamé | ízamé | íemé | íesamí | ídtamí | ízamí | íemí |
| GIMP | énté | éndté | éndzé | ízo | éntés | éndtés | éndzés | ízos |
| PROPH | okoia | okédta | okéza | oka | okon | okrein | oksein | okein |
The à in aorist forms always takes the stress.
Initial í, é, o, and e vowels are non-mandatory and will disappear in proximity with another strong vowel (e.g. the o in natúloé.)
The <dt> ([ɾ]) in the 2 and 2d endings becomes <d> if the last syllable of the stem begins with an r, e.g. olrídé - you eat.
Plural forms ending in -és will replace this with -ezí if followed by an enclitic such as dí or kai, e.g. "írelzezí kai" instead of "írelzés kai". Simlarly, the plural third-person gnomic imperative, ízos, becomes ízozí before such enclitics. These final í vowels are strictly epenthic, and hence never take stress; in a totally unstressed word such as "gelzezí kai", stress must fall on one of the other vowels (in this case, yielding "gēlzezí kai".)
-eshé, -ahé Conjugation (Verbs of Experience)
| form | 1.sg | 2.sg | 2d.sg | 3.sg | 1.pl | 2.pl | 2d.pl | 3.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPST | alré | aldré | alzaré | alzé | alrés | aldrés | alzarés | alzés |
| PST | airé | adré | azré | allé | airés | adrés | azrés | allés |
| PRS | aité | aidté | aidzé | aizé | aités | aidtés | aidzés | ais |
| LIQ | aisa | aidta | aidza | aiza | aisein | aidtein | aidzein | ain |
| FUT | alsa | alla | allaza | alza | alsein | aldtein | aldtazein | alein |
| AOR | atàé | adtàé | adzàé | aé | atàés | adtàés | adtzàés | aés |
| IMP | aitémé | aidtémé | aizémé | amé | aitémí | aidtémí | aizémé | amí |
| FIMP | aiesamé | aidtamé | aizamé | aiemé | aiesamí | aidtamí | aizamí | aiemí |
| GIMP | anté | andté | andzé | aizo | antés | andtés | andzés | aizos |
| PROPH | akoia | akédta | akézha | aka | akan | akrein | aksein | akein |
Aspect Infixes
As in previous Lilitika dialects, these are placed between the verb stem and the ending. However, in Illeran, there are more elaborate combining forms:
| form | progressive | perfect | inchoative | terminative | translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| én | x | is ~ing | |||
| et | x | has ~ed | |||
| ent | x | x | has been ~ing | ||
| ep | x | starts to ~ | |||
| ek | x | finishes ~ing | |||
| ev | x | x | starts to be ~ed | ||
| eg | x | x | finishes being ~ed | ||
| esp | x | x | has started to ~ | ||
| esk | x | x | has finished ~ing | ||
| eps | x | x | x | has started to be ~ed | |
| eks | x | x | x | has finished being ~ed |
Note that inchoative and terminative cannot co-exist in a single form (meaning "starts to finish ~" or "finishes starting to ~"); these would be formulated with an auxiliary verb and a gerundial (see -ekhtíu) in the accusative.
Modal Clitics and Particles
Core verb inflection permits incorporation of indicative, imperative, and optative-jussive moods. This leaves many moods to be expressed through external markers. In prior dialects of Lilitika, these markers were termed "mood particles," and in Illeran they are (predominantly) clitics.
| particle | position | meaning | translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| dí | sentence-final particle | interrogative | makes the sentence a question |
| kú | enclitic | destinate | reverses the meaning of the ablative and dative cases |
| kí | enclitic | reciprocal locomotive | indicates motion between two places, with the dative marking the initial destination and the ablative marking the initial source |
| ké | enclitic | middle voice | indicates mixed or ambiguous involvement between agent and patient |
| kai | enclitic | gnomic | indicates the sentence is a general statement about the way the world works |
| kin | enclitic | potential | could |
| dé | enclitic | subjunctive | would |
| léú | sentence-final particle | deductive | "It would appear..." |
| korr | sentence-final particle | inferential renarrative | "I hear that..." |
| kwedzin | sentence-final particle | causative interrogative | asks "why" the rest of the sentence is |
| nat | proclitic | reversal | undoes the ~ing |
| alé | proclitic | negative | does not ~ |
| ré | proclitic | requirement | must ~ (for some reason) |
| ífé | proclitic | desiderative | wants to ~ |
| rí | proclitic | social requirement | must ~ (by law or agreement) |
| essí | proclitic | natural requirement | must ~ (by nature) |
Non-realis moods (gnomic, requirement, desiderative) are used with the aorist unless tense provides additional useful information, such as ífégisa, "I want to leave [presently]."
As in Sarasí, the proclitics can be stacked, and ordering affects meaning, e.g. alérímaratàé, "I am not required to come" vs. ríalémaratàé, "I am forbidden to come."
Irregular Verbs
Illeran has a handful of optional irregular forms where naked verb endings may stand in for actual verbs in the aorist tense. These were added to the language by reanalyzing their Oksí Lilitika origins, and are primarily used in poetry.
While it is rarely done, they can be coerced out of the aorist tense by adding on a Íomanazinení/Zeyetaní verb ending, replacing any final vowel, e.g. ílsa = ílétàé, but ílsis = ílíté.
Active forms
| verb | 1.sg | 2.sg | 2d.sg | 3.sg | 1.pl | 2.pl | 2d.pl | 3.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arlé | elré | eldré | elzeré | elzé | elrés | eldrés | elzerés | elzés |
| íré | íré | edré | ezré | ellé | írés | edrés | ezrés | ellés |
| vé¹ | íté | ídté | ídtzé | ízé | ítés | ídtés | ídtzés | és |
| ifilé | ísa | ídta | ídtza | íza² | ísein | ídtein | ídtzein | ein |
| ílé | ílsa | íladta | íldtaza | ílza | ílsein | íldtein | íldtazein | ílein |
| ahé | étàé | édtàé | édtzàé | àé | étàés | édtàés | édtzàés | àés |
| saré | ítémé | ídtémé | ízémé | émé | ítémí | ídtémí | ízémé | émí |
| ísé | íesamé | ídtamé | ízamé | íemé | íesamí | ídtamí | ízamí | íemí |
| ané | énté | éndté | éndzé | ízo² | éntés | éndtés | éndzés | ízos |
| okhé | okoia | okédta | okéza | oka | okon | okrein | oksein | okein |
¹Not to be confused with the uvé suffix for nouns or the related -ivé form for adjectives.
²This form gains a final n before being conjugated, to prevent confusion with the present-tense equivalent.
Passive forms
| verb | 1.sg | 2.sg | 2d.sg | 3.sg | 1.pl | 2.pl | 2d.pl | 3.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arleshé | alré | aldré | alzaré | alzé | alrés | aldrés | alzarés | alzés |
| íreshé | airé | adré | azré | allé | airés | adrés | azrés | allés |
| veshé | aité | aidté | aidzé | aizé | aités | aidtés | aidzés | ais |
| ifileshé | aisa | aidta | aidza | aiza² | aisein | aidtein | aidzein | ain |
| íleshé | alsa | alla | allaza | alza | alsein | aldtein | aldtazein | alein |
| thahé | atàé | adtàé | adzàé | aé | atàés | adtàés | adtzàés | aés |
| sareshé | aitémé | aidtémé | aizémé | amé | aitémí | aidtémí | aizémé | amí |
| íseshé | aiesamé | aidtamé | aizamé | aiemé | aiesamí | aidtamí | aizamí | aiemí |
| aneshé | anté | andté | andzé | aizo² | antés | andtés | andzés | aizos |
| okheshé | akoia | akédta | akézha | aka | akan | akrein | aksein | akein |
²This form gains a final n before being conjugated, to prevent confusion with the present-tense equivalent.
