Ithkuil

Ithkuil is an experimental constructed language created by John Quijada,^[1] designed to express deeper levels of human cognition briefly yet overtly and clearly, particularly with regard to human categorization. Presented as a cross between an a priori philosophical and a logical language striving to minimize the ambiguities and semantic vagueness found in natural human languages,^[2] Ithkuil is notable for its grammatical complexity and extensive phoneme inventory, the latter being simplified in the final version of the language. The name "Ithkuil" is an anglicized form of Iţkuîl, which in the original form roughly means "hypothetical representation of a language".^[3] Quijada states he did not create Ithkuil to be auxiliary or used in everyday conversations, but rather to serve as a language for more elaborate and profound fields where more insightful thoughts are expected, such as philosophy, arts, science and politics.^[4]

The many examples from the original grammar book^[2] show that a message, like a meaningful phrase or a sentence, can usually be expressed in Ithkuil with fewer sounds, or lexically distinct speech-elements, than in natural human languages. For example, the two-word Ithkuil sentence "Tram-mļöi hhâsmařpţuktôx" can be translated into English as "On the contrary, I think it may turn out that this rugged mountain range trails off at some point".^[5] Quijada deems his creation too complex and strictly regular a language to have developed naturally, but nonetheless a language suited to human conversation. No person, including Quijada, is known to be able to speak Ithkuil fluently.

Three versions of the language have been publicized: the initial version in 2004, a revised version called Ilaksh in 2007, and a final, definitive version in 2011.

In 2004^[6]—and again in 2009^[7] with Ilaksh—Ithkuil was featured in the Russian-language popular science and IT magazine Computerra. In 2008, it won the Smiley Award.^[8]

Outline

Influences

For his influences, Quijada cites the "morpho-phonology of Abkhaz verb complexes, the moods of verbs of certain American Indian languages, the aspectual system of Niger–Kordofanian languages, the nominal case systems of Basque and Dagestanian languages, the enclitic system of the Wakashan languages, the positional orientation systems of Tzeltal and Guugu Yimithirr, the Semitic triliteral root morphology, and the hearsay and possessive categories of Suzette Elgin's Láadan language".^[2]

Ilaksh: a revision of Ithkuil (2007)

Since the mention of Ithkuil in the Russian magazine Computerra,^[6] several speakers of Russian contacted Quijada and expressed enthusiasm to learn Ithkuil, with several complaining about its difficulty in pronunciation. Quijada remade Ithkuil's morphophonology and published the revision on 10 June 2007 as Ilaksh.^[2] The innovation featured other amendments to grammar, like some additional Levels or a slight shuffling of noun cases.

The Ilaksh script was redesigned.^[9][10] It had 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 represented 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 had particular shapes that indicate one set of inflections, the colors indicate another set of inflections, and the textures yet another one. On the cartouches, "letters" of hexagonal outline would spell out the shapes of particular lexemes. The cartouches formed phrases, with primary phrases overlapping subordinate phrases. The coloring system utilized different color densities and texturing for different colors in order to be usable by color-blind people. These density conventions also allowed the formal system to be inexpensively printed in black-and-white, or inscribed or imprinted on stone or other materials.^[11]

As of July 2011, Quijada planned to adopt the formal script "for use as an alternative, 'ornamental' writing system for artistic purposes" to the newest revision of Ithkuil, which was made to be morphologically similar to Ilaksh.

Past Versions

Phonology of Original Ithkuil (2004)

The phonological system of the original Ithkuil consisted of 65 consonants and 17 vowels. The consonants were as follows:

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

The vowels are as follows:

The diphthongs of the original Ithkuil were /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 were pronounced as separate syllables.

Original Grammar

The lexicon of the original Ithkuil potentially consisted of 3,600 word roots, just 900 of which were assigned individual translations. Each root consisted of 2 consonantal radicals, and could derive thousands of lexemes through the use of Ithkuil's complex rules of morphophonology, which involved both consonantal and vocal mutation, shifts in syllabic stress and tone, and affixation.

Ithkuil words can be divided into just two parts of speech, formatives and adjuncts. Formatives functioned both as nouns and as verbs, depending on the morpho-semantic context.^[12] Both nominal and verbal formatives were inflected to one of the possible 3 stems, 3 patterns, 2 designations (formal or informal), 9 configurations, 4 affiliations, 4 perspectives, 6 extensions, 2 foci, 4 contexts, 2 essences, and 81 cases; formatives could also have taken on some of the 153 affixes, which further qualified into one of 9 degrees. Verbal formatives were additionally inflected for 7 illocutions and 7 conflations.

Verbal adjuncts work in conjunction with adjacent formatives to provide additional grammatical information.^[13] Two types of verbal adjuncts were inflected to indicate 14 valencies, 6 versions, 8 formats, 37 derivations, 30 modalities, 4 levels, 9 validations, 9 phases, 9 sanctions, 32 aspects, 8 moods, and 24 biases.

An example of morphological analysis

(based entirely on the original Ithkuil grammar book^[2])

The word iţkuîl was 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 was 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 gave no emphasis on the meaning or the vocal rendering of the word.

• The u → uî mutation of the infix

Secondary mode, as opposed to primary mode, meant that the word kuîl is not to refer to a real-life phenomenon, but rather to a mental representation, or projection, of that phenomenon; to an imaginary or hypothetical object. Thus translating as, "a made-up word".

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

The configuration of the term was 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" or "lexicon".

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

The extension was delimitive, perceiving "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 was coalescent. This indicates that the individual members of the set act together toward a higher purpose by coordinating 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 collection of many languages existing separately, the general phenomenon ("human languages") or the abstract idea of language.

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

Numeral system

Ithkuil uses a base 100 numeral system with 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 a stem-specific derivative affix used with a number root to add a multiple of 10, providing the numerals up to 99. Ithkuil did not originally use the concept of zero. Numbers greater than 100 are expressed periphrastically in speech, whereas Içtaîl had logograms for the numbers 1 to 100 and exponential powers of 100.

Phonology of Ilaksh (2007)

The phonological system of Ilaksh was revised to consist of only 30 consonants and 10 vowels. The consonants were as follows:

/m n̪ ŋ l/ can be syllabic. /h/ is [ɸ] when preceded by a vowel and followed by another consonant. All consonants except /j w/ can be geminated; when geminated, /h/ is a bidental fricative and /ɽ/ an alveolar trill. The clusters /n̪j/, /tj/, /dj/, and /lj/ may be pronounced as such or as the palatals [ɲ], [c], [ɟ], and [ʎ].

The vowels are as follows:

The 14 diphthongs of Ilaksh were /ai̯/, /æi̯/, /ei̯/, /əi̯/, /oi̯/, /øi̯/, /ui̯/, /au̯/, /æu̯/, /eu̯/, /əu̯/, /iu̯/, /ou̯/, and /øu̯/. All other sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables.

Ithkuil (2011)

Phonology

The newly revised Ithkuil has 45 consonants and 13 vowels. At the left of each cell in the table below is the phoneme, and at the right its transliterated representation if it's not written the same in IPA as in romanized Ithkuil. The consonants are as follows:^[14]

/m n̪ ŋ l ɽ/ can be syllabic. All consonants except /j w/ can be geminated; when geminated, /h/ is a bidental fricative or a voiceless pharyngeal fricative ([ħ]), and /ɽ/ is an alveolar trill.

At the left of each cell in the table below is the phoneme, and at the right its transliterated representation. The 13 vowels of Ithkuil are as follows:^[14]

The diphthongs in Ithkuil are /aɪ̯/, /ɛɪ̯/, /əɪ̯/, /ɔɪ̯/, /œɪ̯/, /ʊɪ̯/, /aʊ̯/, /ɛʊ̯/, /əʊ̯/, /ɪʊ̯/, /ɔʊ̯/, /œʊ̯/. All other sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables.

Grammar

Ithkuil words can be divided into just two parts of speech, formatives and adjuncts. Formatives can function both as nouns and as verbs, derived from the root and depending on the morpho-semantic context.^[15]

Formatives

Roots are Ithkuil's most basic semantic units. All Ithkuil formatives are derived from a limited number of roots. Each root consists of a cluster of 1–4 consonants (five-consonant clusters are also available, but remain without an assigned meaning).^[16] The current lexicon of Ithkuil can potentially consist of approximately 3,600 word roots.^[16] So far, just over 1000 have been assigned translations.^[17] From the root, word stems are formed by affixing the vocalic affix that indicates pattern, stem type, and function, and by stressing a particular syllable to indicate informal or formal designation.^[16][18]

There are three stems associated with each root. Each stem comes in three patterns, one holistic and two complementary ones. Holistic stem 1 typically refers to the most general manifestation of a root, whereas holistic stems 2 and 3 typically refer to more specific manifestations associated with the root. Each holistic stem has two complementary stems associated with it, which refer to the complementary concepts related to the holistic stem.^[19] The specific meaning of complementary stems depends somewhat on the root. These are derived from the word roots by prefixing a vowel or diphthong that also indicates the grammatical category function.^[20] Two examples are given in the tables below:

Basic morphology

All Ithkuil formatives, whether functioning as nouns or verbs, inflect for various grammatical categories that are quite dissimilar from any of those in natural languages.^[21] Quantization is more or less covered by the grammatical categories configuration, affiliation, and perspective, even though these do not technically refer to number per se.^[22]

Cases

There are 92 grammatical cases in Ithkuil. Both nominal and verbal formatives inflect for case. The grammatical cases of Ithkuil can be divided into several distinct groups:^[29]

Verbal morphology

Several distinct grammatical categories apply only to verbal formatives. These are listed below:^[31]

Ithkuil nominal formatives also carry a function, but cannot be inflected for them, always remaining in the "stative".^[32]

Adjuncts

There are two types of adjuncts in Ithkuil: personal-reference adjuncts and verbal adjuncts.^[33] All adjuncts are highly synthetic.

Personal-reference adjuncts

Personal-reference adjuncts are akin to pronouns in English. There are two types of personal-reference adjuncts in Ithkuil: Single-referent and dual-referent.^[34]

Verbal adjuncts

Verbal adjuncts are adjuncts that work in conjunction with verbal formatives to provide information about the latter's valence, level, phase, sanction, illocution, modality, aspect, and bias.^[33] Of these, modality and level can only be indicated using verbal adjuncts, whereas the others can also be expressed on the verbal formative.^[35]

Orthography

"Tram-mļöi hhâsmařpţuktôx" written in Içtaîl. English translation: "On the contrary, I think it may turn out that this rugged mountain range trails off at some point"

Ithkuil's native script was called Içtaîl, the 2004 Ithkuil word for 'hypothetical writing system'. It is a morphophonemic script because characters convey both phonetic and morphological information. Its use is closely tied to Ithkuil's grammatical system, which allows much of the phonological aspect of words to be morpho-syntactically inferred. Those parts of an Ithkuil word whose pronunciation is predictable are not written, whereas the characters used to indicate the pronunciation of the unpredictable parts of a word also convey the grammatical information necessary to reconstruct the implicit phonetics. Words are thus written in a highly abbreviated manner, particularly useful for the highly inflected, occasionally elongated words of the Ithkuil language. The script is also used alphabetically for transliterating foreign words and mathematical expressions.

Possible advantages

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis postulates that a person's language influences their perceptions and cognitive patterns. Stanislav Kozlovsky proposed,^[6] 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. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis would suggest that, Ithkuil being an extremely precise and synthetic language, its speakers would have a more discerning, deeper understanding both of everyday situations and of broader phenomena, and of abstract philosophical categories.

However, strong forms of the hypothesis, which postulate that language determines thought and not only influences it, have been disproven within mainstream linguistics.^[36] Moreover, in line with this, John Quijada (Ithkuil's creator) has stated he does not believe a speaker would think necessarily any faster, because even though Ithkuil is terse, a single word requires a lot more thought before it can be spoken than it would in a natural language.^[37]

"For these reasons, I believe use of Ithkuil would probably allow one to think more deeply, critically, and analytically; but think faster? I doubt it."

Kozlovsky also likened Ithkuil to the fictional Speedtalk from Robert A. Heinlein's novella Gulf, and contrasted both languages with the Newspeak of the communicationally restricted society of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ithkuil is by far the most complete language of the three.^{[lower-alpha 1]} John Quijada acknowledged the similarity of Ithkuil's design goals to those of Speedtalk,^[2] 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."

Notes

References

External links

• Ithkuil official site, now presenting the version as of July 2011
• New Yorker article on the history of Ithkuil – December 2012
• Community on Reddit devoted to the Ithkuil language
• Information site in Russian