Rules
Overview
Endonym: Aithárion (/ai'θa.ri.on/), “upper air.” Exonym (Terran): Aitharin. Cultural style: elevated, poetic and philosophical; spoken with grace and precision. Core philosophy: “Language is breath given shape.”
Aithárion is written in an alphabet of 24 standard glyphs and 3 runic “leaf” letters. Each consonant bears a small stem-leaf serif, a nod to the speakers’ arboreal heritage. This guide writes the language in Latin transliteration.
Sounds and spelling
- Short vowels: a /a/, ae /ɛ/, e /e/, i /i/, o /o/, u /u/. The digraph ae is always one vowel.
- Long vowels, marked by a macron: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.
- Diphthongs: ai, oi, au, ou, aei, aeu. Every other sequence of vowels is pronounced as separate syllables (ii = i-i, ao = a-o).
- Consonants: b, d, g, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, z, and the aspirates th /θ/, ph /ɸ/, kh /x/. The r is lightly trilled, matching a heroic, airy timbre.
- h occurs only at the start of a word or of a compound element (ha, hī, háti). v occurs only in the stem novís- (“starship”). No other letters are used.
- At the end of a word, s never follows a vowel: it is written and pronounced l. Inside a word it stays s, so a root ending in this sound alternates: phāl “light”, phāsian “lamp”.
- Stress falls on the penultimate syllable unless an acute accent marks another syllable. A word carries no more than one stress mark. A circumflex marks a stressed long vowel (aeî, aemaû).
- Invented glyphs: ϻ, a mid-back nasal /ŋ/ (like “ng” in “sing”); ϗ, a glottal-fused stop /kʼ/; Soft Breath (unnamed glyph), a whispered vowel or prolonged exhalation.
Nouns
Nouns have three genders, three cases and two numbers.
| Case | Usage | Masculine (Solar) | Feminine (Lunar) | Neuter (Neutral) |
|---|
| Core | Subject / Object | -al | -ī / -o | -an |
| Possessive | Ownership | -au | -au | -au |
| Motion-toward | Destination | -an | -an | -an |
| Plural core | Subject / Object | -ai | -oi | -o |
| Plural possessive | Ownership | -ān | -ān | -ān |
| Plural motion-toward | Destination | -aul | -ol | -o |
Example: novísal (“starship”) → novísau (“of the starship”) → novísan (“toward the starship”); plural novísai (“starships”), rizo → rizoi (“roots”), daendran → daendro (“trees”).
The table gives the regular endings. Every noun’s gender is listed in the lexicon, and the listed gender governs articles and agreement, including inherited nouns whose endings do not match their gender. Nouns without a regular ending keep their listed form, and the article marks the case.
Articles contract heavily in rapid speech, giving the language a lilting, murmuring cadence.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|
| Core | ha | hī | ta |
| Possessive | tau | tīl | tau |
| Motion-toward | tan | tīn | ta |
| Plural core | hai | hoi | to |
| Plural possessive | tān | tān | tān |
| Plural motion-toward | taul | tol | to |
Adjectives and adverbs
- Adjectives are listed in the masculine core form (-al) and always follow the nouns they modify: kréstolal lomprál (“radiant crystal”). An adjective takes the gender, case and number endings of its noun.
- Comparison: remove -al, add the linking vowel -a-, then -taeral for the comparative or -toital for the superlative: lomprál → lompratáeral → lompratoital (“radiant, more radiant, most radiant”).
- Adverbs replace the masculine core ending -al with -āl: kolál → kolāl (“good” → “well”). A relational adjective in -ikál forms its adverb the same way, meaning “with respect to …”.
- Negative adjectives prefix o- (on- before a vowel or h): naeal → onaeal (“new” → “not new”).
Verbs
Conjugation is aspectual rather than tense-driven: it expresses the shape of an action rather than clock time. Regular verbs are listed in the first-person singular -ā; inherited and irregular verbs keep their listed form.
| Aspect | Marker | Example (phātaeúā, “I shine”) |
|---|
| Ongoing / Imperfect | Unmarked | phātaeúā |
| Completed / Perfect | aek- prefix | aekphātaeúā (“I have emitted light”) |
| Potential / Hypothetical | -ikhaen suffix | phātaeúikhaen (“I might emit light”) |
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|
| 1st | -ā (aegā phātaeúā, “I shine”) | -amaen |
| 2nd | -aeil (sé phātaeúaeil, “you shine”) | -aetae |
| 3rd | -aei (outal phātaeúaei, “he shines”) | -ausi |
- Imperatives drop the subject pronoun and use the bare stem with a rising intonation. Singular: Phātaeú! (“Shine!”). Polite plural: Phātaeútae!
- Negation: auk before the verb: auk phātaeúā (“I do not shine”). mī́ negates commands and potentials: mī́ phātaeúikhaen (“I might not emit light”).
- The copula aeimí (“to be”) links a subject to a quality or identity. It does not take the regular person endings and is often placed at the end of a sentence for formal emphasis: Aegā noutilorkhál aeimí (“I am a pilot-captain”).
| aeimí | aeî | aestí | aesmáen | aestáe | aeisí |
|---|
| I am | you are | he/she/it is | we are | you (plural) are | they are |
Pronouns
| I | you | he | she | we | you (plural) | they |
|---|
| Subject (Core) | Aegā | Sé | outal | outī | haemaeîl | hemaeîl | outai |
| Object (Motion) | Aemáe | Sáe | | | | | |
| Possessive | Aemaû (my) | Saû (your) | | | | | |
Relative pronouns follow the article genders: hal (m.), hī (f.), ha (n.). The other pronouns and the question words are listed in the lexicon. Question words stand at the start of their clause.
Syntax
- Word order: SVO by default; SOV is formal and VSO is poetic. Case endings preserve meaning when the order changes.
- Possession may omit the article to imply intimacy: Dresīl kláeidī (“my key of Drysē”).
- Questions are formed by intonation or by placing the particle ī at the start of the sentence. Between alternatives, ī means “or”.
- In formal address, a single listener is spoken to with second-person plural forms, as in the polite imperative.
| koi | and |
| ollo | but |
| ī | or (between alternatives) |
| háti | because / that |
| aun | therefore / so |
| aen | in / within |
| aeil | into / toward |
| aek | out of / from |
| maeto | with |
Word formation
- Compounds: the first element modifies the final head, and the compound takes the head’s gender. Remove the first element’s regular ending; after a consonant stem add the linking vowel -a-, but not when the head already begins with it.
- Agent: verb stem + -tīl (m.); a stem ending in -aeu changes it to -ī: noutaeúā → noutītīl (“sailor”).
- Action: verb stem + proksil (f.): “the act of …ing”.
- Instrument: verb stem + argonan (n.): “instrument used to …”.
- Place: verb stem + tapal (m.): “place for …ing”.
- Tool from a noun: noun stem + -ian (n.): phāl → phāsian (“lamp”).
- Quality: adjective stem + -a- + paiatīl (m.): “quality of being …”.
- Relational adjective: noun stem + -ikál: “relating to …”. Some inherited stems differ: náal → naītikál (“mental”).
Numbers
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|
| haen | dea | traeil | taettorael | paentae | haeks | haepto | aktā | aennaeo | daeko |
- 11–19: daeko + unit: daekohaen (11), daekodea (12).
- Tens: unit + daeko, with the linking vowel after a consonant: deadaeko (20), traeisadaeko (30).
- Hundreds and thousands: unit + the word for “hundred”; the word for “thousand” stands alone or after a unit. Both are listed in the lexicon.
- Other numbers join the parts with koi, largest first: deadaeko koi haen (21).
- Ordinals: cardinal + -tal, with the linking vowel after a consonant: haenatal (“first”), deatal (“second”).
Culture, idioms and naming
Elves speak in metaphors, using natural analogies and indirect praise or insult. Greetings and idioms are fixed expressions and keep their traditional forms.
- Greetings: Kholóā klódan (“Relax your branch” / hello). Klódal hīsekhal (“Peaceful branch” / formal greeting).
- Idioms: Rizo boráeo, korpál glekaeúl (“Heavy root, sweet fruit” / good effort yields reward). Skiáphrān aeksā, phāl aesā (“Shadow-mind out, light within” / speak honestly).
- Names combine nature and celestial roots with earned epithet suffixes: -pheloks (guardian), -pháral (bearer), -laeiptál (seeker).