ĩlwa

Natively known as: ĩlwa /ˈĩlwa/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yĩ u favkhaq yaw̃ u tapam yĩ shè u sĩjũ ènpi z̀ikh fach
Pronunciation: /jĩ u ˈfavχaq jɔ̃ u ˈtapam jĩ ɕɛ u ˈsĩʥũ ˈɛnpi ʑiχ faʨ/
Ĩlwan word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: f j k l m n p q s t v w z ɕ ʁ ʑ ʔ ʥ ʨ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		t			k	q	ʔ
Affricate				ʨ ʥ
Fricative		f v	s z	ɕ ʑ			χ ʁ
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ã e i ĩ o u ũ ɔ ɔ̃ ɛ ɛ̃

	Front	Back
High	ĩ i	u ũ
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ ɛ̃	ɔ ɔ̃
Low	a ã

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	è
ɔ	aw
ʑ	z̀
j	y
ʁ	r
ʥ	j
ɕ	sh
ʨ	ch
χ	kh
ʔ	ʻ

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix qay /qaj/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable qaqay /ˈqaqaj/ dogs

Articles

Ĩlwan has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	chiz̀ /ʨiʑ/ I	awy /ɔj/ me
2nd singular	z̀o /ʑo/ you	è /ɛ/ you
3rd singular masc	u /u/ he, it (masc)	em /em/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	mũz /mũz/ she, it (fem)	zũt /zũt/ her, it (fem)
1st plural	maw /mɔ/ we	è̃ /ɛ̃/ us
2nd plural	mĩv /mĩv/ you all	liv /liv/ you all
3rd plural	yĩ /jĩ/ they	fo /fo/ them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	chiz̀ /ʨiʑ/ my
2nd singular	z̀o /ʑo/ your
3rd singular masc	u /u/ his
3rd singular fem	mũz /mũz/ her
1st plural	maw /mɔ/ our
2nd plural	mĩv /mĩv/ your (pl)
3rd plural	yĩ /jĩ/ their

Verbs

Future

If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zu- zulũkh /ˈzulũχ/ will learn

Ĩlwan uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: a - a lũkh /a lũχ/ learned

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Ĩlwan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ku- kulũkh /ˈkulũχ/ have learned

Numbers

Ĩlwan has a base-10 number system:
1 - su
2 - qi
3 - pish
4 - te
5 - yũ
6 - aw̃f
7 - tisva
8 - law̃zas
9 - ka
10 - è̃
100 - mush
1000 - sè̃ch

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -a
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ze-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ej
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -v
Else: Suffix -ɛv
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix af-
Else: Prefix afã-
Noun to verb = Suffix -ɔ̃
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ĩ
Tending to = Suffix -ũ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -u
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -eq
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -qtã
Else: Suffix -ĩqtã
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -am
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -no
Else: Suffix -ino
Augmentative = Prefix χa-

Dictionary

3022 Words.