âFar across the sea from great cities of
the lands of the sun and the palaces of NekÄchta, at the furthest edge of the world before the
curtain of shadow lies the desolate volcanic archipelago of Nhlogqwa. It is here, and in a select few port cities
along the coast of the mainland, that Ilothwii, the oldest of all tongues, still clings to
existence, unchanged even after untold millennia. Though it has largely been forgotten by the
mainlanders, it is still hailed as a language of ancient mystery, associated with mysticism,
the occult, and antiquity.â Okay, so to be real for just a minute, I started
working on the original version of Ilothwii in 2014, very soon after I abandoned Thandian,
when I resolved to try my hand at making a polysynthetic language. The project very quickly degenerated into
complete trash, so I had to scrap it and start again from the ground up, and this happened
four more times until I finally managed to make it into something I was somewhat satisfied
with, which Iâm very pleased to be sharing with you in this video, which is being sponsored
by Campfire, be sure to stick around to the end to hear more about that. Within the context of its fictional world,
Ilothwiiâs genetic relationships to other languages remain unclear. Some scholars have argued that itâs a highly
aberrant ThirÄan language, but if thatâs case, it would have to have diverged long
before even Proto-ThirÄan. The more likely scenario is that itâs just
an isolate thatâs been influenced by areal affects from being in reasonably close proximity
to NekÄchti and other ThirÄan languages. Whatever the case may be, Ilothwiiâs phonology
is unusual to say the least. The consonant inventory includes both voiceless
and voiced uvular stops, the voiceless lateral fricative and affricate, the voiceless dental
fricative, and the velarized lateral approximant, but no labial obstruents at all. As for the vowels, the front mid vowels are
conspicuously absent. In Old Ilothwii, the /e/ vowel raised to /i/
in stressed and final syllables and centralized to /Ó/ everywhere else, leading to some fun
alternations when words are conjugated. Illothwii has a highly complex syllable structure
and allows nasals and liquids to serve as syllable nuclei. However, word-final syllables form an exception:
not only are words forbidden from ending in clusters, but only a limited set of consonants
can serve as word-final codas, and only the long and short variants of /a/, /i/, and /u/
are permitted as nuclei. This overall reduction in the number of distinctions
made in word-final syllables is one of the areal features Ilothwii has in common with
NekÄchti. Being within the ThirÄan sprachbund, Ilothwii
has been affected by some of the same sound changes as the mainland languages, such as
aspirated /t/ becoming the dental fricative, /d/ going to /r/ between vowels, and non-syllabic
/r/ going to /d/ following nasals. However, Ilowthii also has many phonological
quirks of its own, such as voiceless stops becoming glottal stops between vowels, front
vowels becoming centralized following uvulars, and alveolar stops going to velar stops before
velar approximants. Stress in Ilothwii is virtually always on
the penultimate syllable. There is some tentative archaeological evidence
to suggest that Ilothwii once had its own writing system, with some crude inscriptions
dating back to a time before the ThirÄan peoples migrated into the central regions,
which would therefore make it the earliest known writing system in the world, and some
particularly brazen scholars have even posited that this script was the basis for the Ancient
Edun Logography. However, even if these prehistoric markings
do constitute a proper script and not just simple pictographs, the system fell out of
use over a thousand years before the rise of the Empire of the Sun, and the specifics
of how it worked has long since been lost. For much of its history, Ilothwii has gone
without a writing system, but when the NekÄchti borrowed the Edun script and then thoroughly
simplified it, the new system spread all across ThirÄa and was adopted by practically every
language that came across it. However, Ilothwii was much slower than most
in taking up the new script, mainly because its phonology was so different from any of
the mainland languages that it presented a serious challenge for the NekÄchti system
to adapt to. First of all, the revised version of the Edun
script that Nekachti was using at the time could only transcribe clusters of two or three
consonants, which worked just fine for NekÄchti, but Ilothwii allows enormously long strings
of consonants, not to mention syllabic resonants, which the NekÄchti speakers were unable to
pronounce without inserting epenthetic vowels. To help them more accurately transcribe the
ilothwii syllables, the Nekachti scribes invented a new diacritic that they called the âkipsatstaâ
or âsuppression markerâ, that indicates the syllable is missing a vowel. The other major problem was that Ilothwii
had a large number of sounds that had no obvious counterparts in NekÄchti, and therefore the
scribes had no way to represent them. Some of these sounds were dealt with by borrowing
additional characters from Edun, yielding glyphs for /Ĺ/, /dĘ/, /Ę/, and the isolated
form of the /u/ vowel, and for /u/âs corresponding diacritic, it was easy enough to invent a
new marker based on how the system worked already. And since Ilothwii doesnât have the /e/
vowel, its corresponding glyphs in the NekÄchti script could instead be used to represent
Ilothwiiâs central vowels. For most of the remaining sounds, the scribes
modified some of the existing characters by introducing another diacritic, marking them
as ilothwii-specific variants of those sounds. The only remaining sound was the glottal stop,
which the scribes interpreted as the absence of a consonant rather than a consonant in
its own right, and therefore, the kipsatsta, while signifying a missing vowel when used
as a diacritic, can also be used to transcribe a missing consonant when placed in onset or
coda position. The resulting system, while a bit clunky,
worked well enough, and was adopted by the nhlogqwa islanders soon after it was introduced. Over the next few centuries, the Edun glyphs
used in the nekachti script began to simplify, which was accompanied by the blending together
of the individual components of each syllable block into ligatures. This simplification happened independently
in many other languages across thirea, including Ilothwii, but unlike Nekachti, Ilothwii has
retained a much more angular aesthetic and the onset and coda characters are most often
still distinct from each other. In terms of grammar, Ilothwii is pretty definitively
polysynthetic and very strongly head-marking, featuring polypersonal agreement, obviation,
and whole lot of noun incorporation. First of all, letâs talk about nouns. Nouns take no marking for case, number, gender,
definiteness, or basically anything else, other than agreeing with their possessors
in person and number. Okay, now that weâve talked about nouns,
letâs talk about verbs. Verbs in Ilothwii can get pretty darn complicated. To begin with, all verbs are divided into
three classes based on lexical aspect. Momentaneous verbs are verbs that occur, for
all intents and purposes, instantaneously or within a single point in time. Durative verbs occur over an indefinite but
limited span of time, and stative verbs, as you might expect, are intransitive verbs that
describe states of being without any clearly defined endpoint. Some derivational affixes can cause verbs
to change between classes, like, for example, applying the causative suffix to âmuââ,
âto sleepâ creates the verb âmuâgqaâ, âto put to sleepâ, which converts the
rootâs class from durative to momentaneous. These three classes interface with five different
primary verbal aspects or âmodesâ: the perfective, imperfective, habitual, future,
and irrealis. However, the exact meaning conveyed by of
each of these modes depends on the class of the verb theyâre applied to. For instance, momentaneous verbs, like âtlwiâ,
âto punchâ, are, in a way, inherently perfective, so when placed in the imperfective,
the action is most often interpreted as taking place multiple times, so âgqĂŤtlwiluâ
means something like âI punched it over and over againâ. Whereas durative verbs, like âmuââ,
âto sleepâ, are already implied to take place over a duration even in the perfective
mode, so placing them in the imperfective mode highlights the fact that the action is
incomplete or is still in the process of occurring, so âgqĂŤmuâluâ means something like
âIâm still sleepingâ or âI havenât finished sleeping yetâ. Likewise, stative verbs, like âthliâ,
to be cold, essentially occur over an unlimited duration, so in the imperfective, they take
on an inchoative meaning, implying the state hasnât been reached yet, so âqthliluâ
means âI am becoming coldâ. Also, since stative verbs are already implied
to take place often or customarily by their very nature, applying the habitual mode wouldnât
really change the meaning in any way, so combining the two is considered ungrammatical. The five modes are complemented by a large
array of additional aspectual affixes, with the specific meaning of each one depending
on the class and mode of the verb that itâs paired with. For example, in the perfective mode, applying
the prefix âya-â to a momentaneous verb creates a semeliterative meaning, or single
repetition of the action, whereas the same prefix applied to a durative verb is interpreted
as a resumptive, signifying a continuation of the action after a pause or hiatus, and
for stative verbs, the same prefix encodes a reversionary meaning, or a return to the
state described by the verb. Many of these aspectual affixes can be combined
with each other and with various other affixes that convey mood and valency to express some
very precise and specific meanings. But the complexity doesnât stop there. Throughout its history Ilothwii has been extremely
fond of noun incorporation, which operates on both a lexical and discourse level, so
if any of the arguments have already been introduced and can be understood from context,
or if theyâre just not particularly relevant to the conversation, they can be backgrounded
by being shoved inside the verb complex. Over the eons, some of the more commonly incorporated
words and phrases have shortened into a system of prefixes that can classify one or more
of the arguments, as well as the instrument with which the action is carried out, or the
direction, location, or even the manner of the action. Many verbs are required to take one or more
of these classifiers in order to make sense. For instance, simply saying âqthathraâ,
âI gave it to youâ, is ungrammatical. Even if we specify whatâs being given, something
like âqthathra luâumgqaâ, âI gave you a fishâ, it would still be incorrect,
because the verb âto giveâ canât occur without a classifier that specifies the properties
of whatâs being given. In this case, assuming the fish is alive and
intact, the verb is required to take the small animal classifier âtli-â, so the sentence
literally means âI small-animal-give to you by means of a fishâ. Note that in this particular case, the classifier
acts as a sort of valency-changing operation, promoting what is functionally the indirect
object, the person to whom the fish is given, to the status of direct object, which is reflected
in the person marking, and the original direct object can be either reintroduced with an
adpositional phrase, or, if itâs not especially relevant, we could incorporate it into the
verb, or with sufficient context, we could even just get rid of it entirely. In this sentence, because the classifier relates
to the direct object, itâs rendered in the so-called âdirectâ form, which specifically
applies to the verbâs core arguments, usually the direct object in transitive verbs and
the subject in intransitive verbs. Many classifiers also have an instrumental
form to indicate the means by which the action is carried out. In our earlier sentence, if the fish is being
directly handed from one person to the other, the speaker might use the âby handâ classifier,
or if the fish is inside a small container or bag, one might use the âhandheld toolâ
classifier, or if the fish is on the end of a fishing line, one might use the long, slender
object classifier. Some classifiers also have a locative form,
that describes the location or position of the action, turning a sentence like âGqngwĂŤâookhlu
tlaâiâ, âI am throwing stonesâ into âGqĂŤkshingwĂŤâookhlu tlaâiâ, âI
am throwing stones in or at the fireâ, or âGqĂŤthngwĂŤâookhlu tlaâiâ, âI am
throwing stones in or at the waterâ. Somewhat confusingly, though, many verbs of
motion take the location or destination of motion as the direct object, and therefore
the direct form of the classifier is used instead of the locative classifier as one
might expect. The locative classifiers are very frequently
combined with the andative or venitive suffixes, which specify the direction of motion away
from or toward the referent respectively, so one could say something like âGqĂŤthngwĂŤâookhthaalu
tlaâiâ, âI throw stones into the waterâ, or âGqĂŤthngwĂŤâookhyolu tlaâiâ, âI
throw stones away from or out of the waterâ. These classifiers are immensely useful when
it comes to derivation; a very simple root can convey some very disparate meanings depending
on which classifiers itâs combined with. For instance, the verb root meaning âto
splitâ or âto divideâ can be combined with the direct form of the long slender object
classifier to mean âto snap or break a rope or something of a similar shapeâ, and applying
the instrumental classifier for handheld tools on top of that yields a meaning of âto cut
through or sever a long, thin objectâ. Alternatively, when the andative suffix is
applied to the same root, the meaning becomes âto split fromâ or âto separate fromâ,
which in the mediopassive becomes âto be separated or apart fromâ, and adding an
instrumental classifier, like for example the by-water classifier, identifies the means
of separation. These sorts of derivational processes very
often involve a lot of metaphorical extension. For example, the instrumental form of the
water classifier can be also be used to mean âin a spilling or seeping mannerâ, which
can be used to describe multidirectional or amorphous movement, such as that of low vegetation,
diseases, or even rumors and hearsay. With the exception of a small number of adverbial
proclitics, the person-markers precede all other elements of the verb complex. The markers include a unique form for the
first person inclusive dual, that is âyou and Iâ, and the third person markers have
separate forms for proximate and obviate arguments. In any verb phrase with more than one third
person argument, the speaker must designate one of them as proximate, and all other 3rd
person arguments are considered obviate, or background information thatâs less salient
than the proximate argument. Thereâs also a separate marker for indefinite
or unknown arguments, which is frequently used as a sort of antipassive or mediopassive. The order in which the person markers occur
relative to each other is based not on their grammatical role, but rather on their positions
on the person hierarchy. The implicit assumption in transitive sentences
is that whichever argument is higher on the hierarchy is the subject, and the other argument
is therefore the object, but if this isnât the case, an inverse marker is added to the
very end of the verb complex to signify that the expected roles have been reversed. If the subject is simultaneously the agent
and patient of the verb, the person marker is immediately followed by a reflexive marker,
which when reduplicated is interpreted as a reciprocal. Only 2nd person distinguishes separate forms
for singular and plural arguments. For all other persons, if either one or both
of the arguments is plural, a âdistributive pluralâ marker can be inserted just before
the mode suffix. With all of these elements together, a single
verb can encode a very complex meaning that would be represented by an entire sentence
in a less synthetic language. Verbs also fill all the functions of adjectives,
either by being used on their own as predicates or by being given a suffix to turn them into
a relative clause, which can then be placed immediately adjacent to nouns to modify them
in the same way as attributive adjectives, or, once again, the noun can be incorporated
into the adjective, which can then be used on its own as an independent noun. Generally, Ilothwii is very happy to zero-derive
nouns from certain verb forms; placing a momentaneous or durative verb in the 3rd person habitual
form allows it to be used as an agent noun, and applying the mediopassive participle creates
either an abstract or patientive noun. These sorts of strategies are used so routinely
that nouns that donât derive from verbs in some way are comparatively quite rare. Conversely, any noun can be used as a predicate
by applying the copula as a suffix and then conjugating the resulting verb accordingly. When Ilothwii does resort to using more than
one word in a phrase, the order the words can come in is pretty flexible. In noun phrases, the order is generally head-final;
attributive adjectives, or rather the relativized verbs that do the job of attributive adjectives,
can come either before or after the nouns they modify as the speaker chooses, while
possessors most often precede the nouns they possess, and postpositions exclusively follow
nouns, although more often than not, postpositions donât occur as independent words, instead
attaching to the preceding nouns as enclitics. At the clause level, word order is mainly
contingent on focus and salience. Generally, proximate nouns go before the verb
while obviate and inanimate nouns go after it, with the proviso that non-salient elements
tend to get sucked into the verb complex anyway. Typically, whichever argument is chosen as
proximate will remain so for long stretches of the discourse, until some newly introduced
item becomes more salient. This system of information structure is one
of the biggest points of departure between Ilothwii and the languages of the mainland,
and, along with its sheer remoteness and isolation, has contributed to its reputation of strangeness
and mystery. Although Ilothwii has never had more than
a few hundred thousand speakers at any given point in its history, it has hardly changed
at all over millennia, and the people of the nhlogqwa islands embrace and cherish it as
an important aspect of their cultural identity, so it will doubtlessly live on well into the
future, clinging to existence before the walls of shadow at the very edge of the world. So, those are some of the basic features of
Ilothwii. Like I said, it took me a long time and many
failed attempts to get it right, and even now itâs nowhere near complete, but if youâre
making your own conlang, one thing that might help streamline things for you is Campfire. Campfire is a writing and worldbuilding software
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check out the link in the description. Until next time⌠Qlalmiliâthughan!
I mean let's face it, approximately 100% of this sub is already subscribed to him and were going to find this in their subscriptions list anyways
Beautiful but I'm having flashbacks to a conlang a friend of mine made (a goergian Nahuatl mix) shudder
Illothwii is like jeojwkwnwkekwnenkinsertrandomvowelsherekehkwnc
Biblaridian's showcase videos are just insane, it's honestly hard to believe that he created the languages. It's the perfect worldbuilding, where he can explain it as if he's simply an explorer or linguist describing what he sees.
He has an account, but I donât think he has been active. look up his account. He posted on here.
I know he makes conlangs in a naturalistic manner but holy bejibies.... That looks like a toddler took all the crayons and scribbled them all on a piece of paper because they were available. That being said, itĘťs gorgeous <3 Complex, and intricate, but not artificial sounding or looking in the slightest. I only dream to be as good a conlang maker as he!
Itâs actually an old conlang. Just a new presentation.
Guy really likes his noun incorporation and polypersonal marking.
This conlang be like QthrmjaaqĂŤĂŤmaa' mohlnmdrwykqgrmdan.
I wish more people did conlang showcases like this, this is great