Update - April, 2007

Dear Visitor to the Ithkuil Website:

From the many e-mails I have received since this website went online in January 2004, it appears a lot of people maintain an ongoing interest in Ithkuil, including those who (to my astonishment!) have expressed the desire to learn and/or speak the language.  However, an obvious stumbling block to learning or speaking Ithkuil is its large number of phonemes (relevant sounds), which at the time of Ithkuil’s design, I thought necessary to convey the large number of morphological categories in a phonologically concise manner (as well as the fact that I personally like “exotic” phonemic inventories).

I now have worked out a drastic revision to Ithkuil’s morpho-phonology in order to reduce the number of phonemes to create a version of the language that will be much easier to pronounce.  This revision utilizes only 30 consonants and ten vowels (instead of Ithkuil’s 65 consonants and 17 vowels).  The use of tone will be more complex and prevalent as a necessary way of “compensating” for the reduced number of consonants and vowels.  The new morpho-phonological scheme is also somewhat more agglutinative and less synthetic than Ithkuil’s. The revised version of the language is called Iláksh (whose meaning is identical to that of the name Ithkuil: “hypothetical representation of (a) language” ).

Included in the revision will be a few changes in the morphology regarding certain categories and structures with which I’ve been less than pleased. These changes are in the morphological categories of Focus, Level and Validation, the consolidation of certain noun cases and expansion of others, and the creation of a new category called Relation which deals with the way case-frames are indicated. Additionally, incorporation of one stem into another will be a new feature. There will be two new writing systems (the first will simply be a “re-mapping” of the existing writing system to the revised morpho-phonology and will employ the same visual character designs, while the second is a wholly new, two-dimensional “morphographic” writing scheme I’ve been designing). 

Comparative Examples:

(NOTE: The comparative examples which previously appeared here have been withdrawn, as the language is in the process of being further modified.)

Not a Replacement for Ithkuil

Note that this revision of the language will not be a replacement for Ithkuil.  The original Ithkuil language will continue to exist and be available on the Internet in its current form, as I consider it my own personal version of the language.  Rather, the revised form of the language will be offered simply as an alternative for use by those who wish to attempt learning/speaking a language which preserves all of Ithkuil’s design goals and morphological and morpho-semantic structure and complexity (and even expands upon it a bit) but is far easier to pronounce.

At this point, I have completed the design of the revised version and am planning to unveil the new website sometime in June, 2007.  After that, I should hopefully be able to get back to the long-delayed task of completing the Ithkuil lexicon.

Lastly, to all the people who have e-mailed me or discussed Ithkuil in various online newsgroups, blogs, online journals, message boards, etc., I sincerely appreciate your interest in the language.  I am particularly grateful to Stanislav Kozlovsky for bringing Ithkuil to the attention of a large Russian-speaking audience, and to Lexa Samons for translating and making available the Ithkuil website in Russian.

Stay tuned!

John Quijada
April 8, 2007

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©2004 by John Quijada. You may copy or excerpt any portion of the contents of this website provided you give full attribution to the author and this website. The Ithkuil script used in the examples and detailed in Chapter 11 may be used and modified by others for their own private, non-commercial use, provided the end product attributes this author and website as the inspirational source.