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Ithkuil
Iţkuîl
Pronunciation	ɪθˈkʊ.il [1]
Created by	John Quijada
Date founded	1978—2004
Total speakers	presumably none
Category (purpose)	constructed language Ithkuil
Writing system	original (Içtaîl), with romanized transcription
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	art
ISO 639-3	–
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

A phrase in Ithkuil, rendered in native script.

Romanization: Oumpeá äx’ääļuktëx. Pronunciation: [oumpɛ.a æˈkxʼæɬʊktɤx] listen (help·info).

Translation: "On the contrary, I think it may turn out that this rugged mountain range trails off at some point."

Ithkuil is a constructed human language marked by outstanding grammatical complexity, expressed with a rich phonemic inventory or through an original, graphically structured, system of writing.

The language’s author, John Quijada, presents^[1][2] Ithkuil as a cross between an a priori philosophical language and a logical language^[3] designed to express deeper levels of human cognition overtly and clearly, yet briefly. The many examples from Quijada’s original grammar^[1] show that, in the general case, a message would take significantly longer to explicate in a natural language than in Ithkuil.

Quijada deems his creation too complex and strictly regular a language to have developed “naturally”, but nonetheless a human-accessible language useful for general conversation and literature. No person is hitherto known to be able to speak Ithkuil fluently; Quijada, for one, does not.^[1]

In 2004^[4] - and again in 2009^[5] with its offshoot, Ilaksh - Ithkuil was featured in the Russian-language science magazine Computerra.

Grammar and lexicon

Morphology

The lexicon of Ithkuil potentially consists of 3,600 word roots; so far only about a thousand are assigned with definite meanings. Each root consists of 2 consonantal “radicals”, and can derive thousands of lexemes through Ithkuil’s complex rules of morphophonology, which involve both consonantal and vocal mutation, shifts in syllabic stress and tone, and affixation.

All formatives are inflected for 3 stems, 3 patterns, 2 designations, 9 configurations, 4 affiliations, 4 perspectives, 6 extensions, 2 foci, 4 contexts, 2 essences, and 81 cases, and can be affixed with 153 affixes, each put into one of 9 degrees. Verbal formatives are inflected for 7 illocutions and 7 conflations. Two types of adjuncts are inflected to indicate 14 valences, 6 versions, 8 formats, 37 derivations, 30 modalities, 4 levels, 9 validations, 9 phases, 9 sanctions, 32 aspects, 8 moods, and 24 biasses.

An example of Ithkuil’s morphology at work

(based entirely on the original Ithkuil grammar book^[1])

The word iţkuîl is a formative derived from the root k-l (broadly concerning “speech”, “voice”, or even “interpretation”) through the addition of several morphological determinants:

• The -u- vocalic infix

  kul is the holistic variety of the Stem 2 of the three other possible stems from k-l. Translating roughly as “a meaningful unit of speech,” i. e. “a word”, it gives no emphasis on the meaning or the vocal rendering of the word.

• The u → uî mutation of the infix

  Secondary, as opposed to Primary, Mode, means that the word kuîl refers not to a real-life phenomenon, but rather to a mental representation, or projection, of that phenomenon; to an imaginary or hypothetical object. Thus “a made-up word”.

• A Grade 8 mutation of the first radical consonant: k → ţk

  The Configuration of the term is Composite. Roughly corresponding to the plurality concept in Indo-European languages, it also implies the objects in question (words, kuîl) to be diverse, while forming a “coherent emergent entity” (rather than just a collection or an array of different words), thus meaning “a vocabulary/lexicon”.

• The i- vocalic prefix, one of the 24 possible for formative roots

  The Extension is Delimitive, perceiving “the vocabulary” as entire, with clearly distinguished boundaries, as opposed to it being just a local manifestation – such as slang or a dialect – of a broader lexicon (-ţkuîl).

  The Affiliation of the set of objects in question is Coalescent. This indicates that the individual members of the set act together toward a higher purpose by coōrdinating their complementary functions. Thus, “a vocabulary/lexicon” becomes “a language”.

• Syllabic stress on the penultimate syllable (-u-)

  The Perspective of the noun is Monadic, seeing “the language” as a single and specific entity, rather than a many languages existing separately, the general phenomenon (“human languages”) or the abstract idea of language.

Thus, the approximate translation of iţkuîl is “an idea/fantasy of a complete purposeful system of complementary speech elements”, or simply “an imaginary language”.

Phonology

Ithkuil's phonological system of 65 consonants and 17 vowels is based on sounds from a variety of languages, including Chechen and Abkhaz. The consonants of Ithkuil are as follows:

/m n ŋ l ɫ ɭ/ can be syllabic. /h/ is pronounced [ɸ] when preceded by a vowel and followed by another consonant. /t͡ɬʰ/ is in free variation with [t͡ɬʼ]; the latter is more common at the beginning of a word. All consonants except /j w/ can be geminated; when geminated, /h/ is pronounced as a bidental fricative and /ɽ/ is pronounced as an alveolar trill.

The vowels of Ithkuil are as follows:

The diphthongs in Ithkuil are /ai̯ æi̯ ei̯ ɤi̯ øi̯ oi̯ ʊi̯ au̯ æu̯ eu̯ ɤu̯ ɪu̯ ou̯ øu̯ aɯ̯ eɯ̯ ɤɯ̯ ʊɯ̯ oɯ̯ ɪɯ̯ æɯ̯ øɯ̯ ʉɯ̯ ae̯/. All other sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables.

Numeral system

Ithkuil uses a numeral system of base 100 and of superbase 10000. There are roots for the numbers 1 to 10 (l-s, k-s, š-s, p-s, ţ-s, t-s, n-s, x-s, f-s, and m-s), and the stem-specific derivative affix is used to transform a numeral by adding a multiple of 10, generating the numerals up to 99. Ithkuil thus doesn't use the concept of zero. Numbers greater than 100 are expressed periphrastically in speech, while Içtaîl has logograms for the numbers 1 to 100 and for various powers of 100.

Orthography

Içtaîl (the Ithkuil word for 'hypothetical writing system'), a "morpho-phonemic" script whose characters convey both phonetic and morphological (i.e., grammatical) information. Its use is closely tied to the Ithkuil language, whose grammar allows much of the phonological component of words to be morpho-syntactically predictable. Those parts of an Ithkuil word whose pronunciation is predictable are not written, while the characters used to indicate the pronunciation of the unpredictable parts of a word also convey the grammatical information necessary to "reconstruct" the unwritten parts of the word. Words are thus written in a highly abbreviated manner, particularly useful for the highly inflected words of the Ithkuil language. The script is also used alphabetically for transliterating foreign words.

Example

Example

Romanization: Pull^\ uíqišx ma’wałg eřyaufënienˉ päţwïç auxë’yaļt xne’wïļta’şui tua kit ölla^/ yaqazmuiv li’yïrzişka’ p’amm^/ aìlo’wëčča šu’yehtaş

IPA: [ˈpʊ̃lː ʊˈɪ́qɪ̀ʃx ˈmáʔwàʟɡ ɛʁjɑʊfɤˈnɪ́ɛ́n ˈpǽθwɯ̀ç aʊˈxɤ́ʔjàɬt xnɛʔwiɬˈtáʔʂʊɪ̀ tʊ́à kɪ̂t œlˈːǎ jaˈqázmʊɪ̀v lɪʔjɯɾˈzɪ́ʂkàʔ pʼǎmː aɪlɔˈwɤ́tʃːà ʃʊʔˈjɛ́htàʂ]

audio (help·info)

Translation: As our vehicle leaves the ground and plunges over the edge of the cliff toward the valley floor, I ponder whether it is possible that one might allege I am guilty of an act of moral failure, having failed to maintain a proper course along the roadway.

Influences

For his influences, Quijada cites the "consonantal phonology and verbal morphology of Ubykh and Abkhaz, certain Amerindian verbal moods, Niger-Kordofanian aspectual systems, Basque and Dagestanian nominal case systems, Wakashan enclitic systems, the Tzeltal and Guugu Yimidhirr positional orientation systems, the Semitic triliteral root morphology, the evidential and possessive categories of Suzette Elgin's Láadan, and the schematic word-formation principles of Wilkins' Analytical Language and Sudre's Solresol".[In the Land of Invented Languages, Arika Okrent, (C) 2009, p. 290.]

Possible advantages

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis asserts that a person’s language influences his way of thought. Stanislav Kozlovsky proposed^[4], in the Russian popular-scientific magazine Computerra, that a fluent speaker of Ithkuil, accordingly, would think “about five or six times as fast” as a speaker of a typical natural language. One may also argue that, Ithkuil being an extremely precise and synthetic language, its speaker would, under the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, have a clearer and deeper understanding of both real-world phenomena and abstract philosophical categories.

Along these lines, Kozlovsky likened Ithkuil to the fictional Speedtalk from Robert A. Heinlein’s novella Gulf, and contrasted both languages with the Newspeak of the dull, cultureless society of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ithkuil is by far the most complete language of the three.^[6] John Quijada acknowledged the similarity of Ithkuil’ design goals to those of Speedtalk^[1], remarking that, “[h]owever, Heinlein’s Speedtalk appears to focus only on the morpho-phonological component of language[, whereas] Ithkuil has been designed with an equal focus on [morphology, lexico-morphology, or lexico-semantics]. 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 per se is irrelevant.”

Ilaksh: the revision of Ithkuil

Since the mentioning of Ithkuil in the Russian magazine Computerra^[4], several speakers of Russian contacted Quijada and expressed enthusiasm to learn the language, with several complaining of its difficulty in pronunciation. Quijada remade the language’s morphophonology and published the revision on 10 June 2007, as Ilaksh.^[7] The innovation featured other amendments to grammar, like some additional Levels or a slight shuffling of noun cases.

The Ilaksh script was redesigned^[8]. It now has two forms, a sequential “informal” system suitable for handwriting or compact typesetting, and a “formal” logographic system with artistic possibilities resembling Maya scripts.

In the “informal” writing system, several parallel sets of lines are shaped to correspond sequentially to the different parallel sets of lexemes and inflections. It is directly pronounceable. The author designed it with reserve for convenient handwriting. The overall design would permit compact, clear, black-and-white rendering.

In the colorful “formal” script, a single complex glyph represents an entire sentence. Diversely shaped, shaded and superimposed “cartouches” represent the syntactic relations of the verb and noun phrases of a sentence. The edges of the cartouches have particular shapes describing one set of inflections, while the colors describe another set of inflexions, and the textures yet another set. On the cartouches, “letters” of hexagonal outline spell out the shapes of particular lexemes. The cartouches form phrases, with primary phrases overlapping subordinate phrases. The coloring system utilizes different color densities and texturing for different colors in order to be usable by color-blind people. These density conventions also allow the formal system to be inexpensively printed in black-and-white, or inscribed or imprinted on stone or other materials. [2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language – John Quijada’s grammar of Ithkuil
2. ^ Language profile at langmaker.com
3. ^ Seek explanation of the terms in the Constructed language article
4. ^ ^{a b c} «Скорость мысли», Станислав Козловский – (Russian) Speed of thought by Stanislav Kozlovsky, Computerra, №26-27, June 20, 2004
5. ^ Ithkuil and its philosophical design (Russian) by Mikhail Gertelman, Kompyuterra (17(781)2009 p 12)
6. ^ Speedtalk and Newspeak been merely “sampled” by their creators, neither with an outline of the language’s grammar or lexicon.
7. ^ Ilaksh grammar
8. ^ http://www.ithkuil.net/ilaksh/images/script_diagram.gif