I found ithkuil has an addictive quality to me. I just HAVE to understand it, yet its grammar description as described in 'New Ithkuil" is rather vague and elusive. I did a few example lessons last night. I just 'went for it". I didn't care if everything made sense to me or not at this point. I carefully made cards, but I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I just printed all the charts I could find and went from there.

I was like "wow" this is really something truely creative. I won't pretend to understand everything, but I do see some patterns, some patterns to everything. I am so totally drawn in. What has John Q done to me? its like the ultimate seduction, a total mind &*(#. I have to say its the best ever.

I did notice that the uniplex with all defaults seems to occur very, very often. Thats rather grounding. How often does one refer to a single object? Basic, and existential seems very common also. This morning I was looking at some feature which combines two or more verbs, expressed as a single action. At the moment I can't remember what this is called. This causes an H or a W to be placed at the start of a word. I am definately going to look at this again.

Its quite amazing to me how i started in total bewilderment and frustration, feeling overwhelmed. But it is breaking through with interest, and curiousity. I just hope there is some fruitful outcome from this interest. I don't quite understand this 'addiction" to Ithkuil.

I believe I may have found a typo on the website. At 2.4.3 on ithkuil.net, the leading sentence is "Each root has three stems, shown by the vowel form VR [R in subscript] in Slot II...". I am fairly confident that this is referring to the vowel form VV [V in subscript] in Slot II. However, I am so inexperienced in the use of Iţkuîl that I thought to post this question. I am also wondering what actions I would take if I found a more obvious typo on ithkuil.net. Apologies for my pre-graduation English.

Edit: Corrected "VR [R in subscript] in Slot IV" to "VV [V in subscript] in slot II" and removed unintended asterisks.

i'm really bad at translating anything, and my friend couldn't do it, so i'd really appreciate it if this could be done

either "child" or "mixture" would work. thank you guys so much!

(either v3 or v4 would work!)

For more information:

Specifically, in the context of a deity. Meaning "He who causes all to come into being", as in the creator of the world. I couldn't just say "how do you translate God", because that's too nebulous. This epithet is more specific, so I wanted to see how it would work.

tried translating the meaning of one of my friend's names into Ithkuil

I used this document here to document/organize the process:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zi_tBeER9YUge4Eo5aGxw2_I7WA06dkXpEO_XSH4pbw/edit?usp=sharing

feedback either in the comments or on the document would be greatly appreciated

I'm planning on getting notecards, a simple binder, multiple different highlighter and marker colors, separate line paper, folders, and separators. I want to do color coding and all the other advanced studying strategies to create my own Ithkuil almanac that is tailored to myself. But first I need some pointers. I understand that the sections are already ordered in a way that is best learned but of there's another way to order things in a way that compartmentalizes the studying experience I would like to know.

Please & thank-you! :)

And what changes do you think it will make?

I am doing an artwork for a contest celebrating the 30th anniversary of a psychology clinic and I would like to put the ithkuil script in it as I really like the idea of Quijada's work.

I decided to try to translate something after reading the official website, and I'm looking for advice or improvements I can make to my Ithkuil IV sentence, as I think there are probably better ways to express some part of the original text.

The sentence being translated:

It is not through pushing but rather through unfolding your whole self, limb by limb and muscle by muscle, that you at last achieve the first true success in the Music of your Life.

Context: This is from a specific game with choose-your-adventure style. The main character of this game is a non-human being, and this sentence is used to describe the moment the main character is hatched from an egg.

My translation is the following:

Ümbruiliay šu alkiada'o yopsse'e seu ečnejeëlwä eḑçéjogä so wašmeo wamzveo.

Gloss:

ümbruiliay                           šu
S3.CPT​-“working toward”​-DYN.FNC​-PMP  2m.BEN​-IND 

alkiada'o                       yopsse'e                               seu
S1​-“music playing”​-RPS​-PRX​-CNR  S0.PRX​-“experience​/perceive​/live”​-COR  2m​-ATT 

ečnejeëlwä
S2​-“pushing an entity in order to create a gap”​-CSV​-A​-(case:CRS)​-INS 

eḑçejogä                                                                 so 
S2​-“stretching muscles​/limbs”​-CSV​-A​-EXN₁​/7("to a large degree")-INS\FRA  2m​-ERG 

wašmeo         wamzveo
S1​-“limb”​-CLA  S1​-“muscle”​-CLA 

By the way, the reason I chose this to translate is that when I was reading the official website, the examples given reminded me about texts in that game from time to time, which makes think that it would be interesting to translate them.

Ive tried to spell out random phrases or words in iihkuil but it’s just so confusing! I try to use the website but I don’t even know what most of it is saying! I can’t even make a single word! I feel so stupid right now.

I started using Ithkapp to gloss the word examples provided on ithkuil.net in the New Ithkuil section and I came across an inconsistency between them. The example anzwul - ‘spherical-shape’-OBJ-UPX claims that the word contains OBJ but Ithkapp says its DYN/BSC. ‘spherical-shape’-OBJ-UPX should be anzwil according to official documentation. What's going on here?

Here are my references:

Website Examples: https://www.ithkuil.net/newithkuil_03_morphology.htm

Website 2.1 Standard Vowel-Form Sequence: https://www.ithkuil.net/newithkuil_02_morpho-phonology.htm

3.4 SLOT IV in the design doc linked from this Subreddit: https://www.ithkuil.net/New_Ithkuil_design_doc_v_1_3.pdf

Ithkapp: https://thexxos.github.io/ithkapp/

meaning?

Is there, maybe a translator website or app that translates Ithkuil to English or vice versa? I got interested in this. Thanks.

I was trying to find an explanation, but failed.

I have a specific example in mind:

Let's take the root -RR- ("cat") in the first stem with the default shortcut: we get rrala.

But why not arral? If we also change it to the second stem, we get erral, which I can understand.

And why does rrala then also have the -a at the end?

If we then change the version to CPT (completive), we also get just ärral, which again makes sense.

Okay, one can say that this is just done for the first stem, but then why if we take the root -GH- ("bruise") we suddently get aghal for the first stem.

I am completely confused.

(PS: the other shortcutting method with w- and y-, on the other hand, seems to be regular and I understand it: warra.)

The goal is to write in Ithkuil IV using only the 26 letters of the modern Latin alphabet (ISO basic Latin alphabet, no diacritics or punctuation-like marks), with minimum deviation from the official romanization. I will call this experimental system "basic" for short.

The general principle is that "h" softens and "q" hardens the preceding letter. To free up "h", official "h" is "xh" in basic (soft "x").

Glottal stop is "j" in basic. To make this possible, official "j" is "dq" in basic (hard "d").

Other Consonants

• Official "ţ" is "th" in basic.
• Official "d͕" is "dh" in basic.
• Official "š" is "sh" in basic.
• Official "ž" is "zh" in basic.
• Official "ç" is "ch" in basic.
• Official "l͕" is "lq" in basic.
• Official "ẓ" is "zq" in basic.
• Official "č" is "cq" in basic.
• Official "ň" is "nh" in basic.
• Official "ř" is "rq" in basic.

Vowels

• Official "ä" is "ah" in basic.
• Official "ë" is "eh" in basic.
• Official "ö" is "oh" in basic.
• Official "ü" is "uh" in basic.

Syllabic stress is indicated with a "q", but always at the end of a vowel cluster. For example, official "ôi" is "ohiq" in basic.

Samples

• Official: Wäšwelciçxöehâ walhaci walhecue.
• Basic: Wahshwelcichxohexhahq walhaci walxhecue

• Official: Yiţxirňiexnalté wialmya.
• Basic: Yithxirnhiexnalteq wialmya.

• Official: Iuprulövḑuadnó walxu ëivḑilamki’a lei.
• Basic: Iuprulohvdhuadnoq walxu ehivdhilamkija lei.

• Official: Wušštilkříu wopňuivẓe!
• Basic: Wushshtilkrqiuq wopnhuivzqe!

• Official: Ätrulúi žu Hakšivé-Warswi’o ä eutruloewû.
• Basic: Ahtruluiq zhu Hakshiveq-Warswijo ah eutruloewuhq.

• Official: Weňayá kšilo eňtyarkena äpçólö’yu lu thaxač.
• Basic: Wenhayaq kshilo enhtyarkena ahpchoqlohjyu lu txhaxacq.

• Official: Erčädókh elavöte žžjádu’u kšivëi.
• Basic: Ercqahdoqkxh elavohte zhzhdqaqduju kshivehi.

As practice I am generating various words related to "goldfish" in ithkuil Using the word generator. Do these look correct?

- PSTY- ‘CYPRININE AND ALEPOCEPHALID FISH stem 1 "goldfish"

pstyala - a golfish UPX

pstyaca -a pair of similar goldish (DSS)

pstyaţsa -a pair of dissimiliar goldish (DSS)

pstyata -several similar goldish(MSS)

pstyaţa -several dissimilar goldfish(MDS)

pstyalä -a goldish(instrumental) A goldfish used as a means to bring about an event?

pstyalo -a goldish(ergative) a goldfish is the agent causing a change in a patient?

pstyato -many similar goldfish (MSS)(ERG) are agents causing a change in a patient?

pstyatro -some amount of goldfish( Agglomerative) are agents causing a change (erg) in a patient

Wow, I feel very intimidated by ithkuil, yet I feel drawn to it, maybe like a moth to a flame. These wrods look so similiar, yet many categories I don't know how to interpret.

How could I construct a sentence, that some amount of goldfish cause children to be interested(in watching them in a tank)?

​

​

Is there a good ithkuil text to speech app? I think its possible to use an IPA text to speech, but it might not render with Ithkuil rules. And how to ask the app to include tonal differences?

I am curious to hear more samples. The samples included by John Q seem to be rather nasal in quality, is this a required sound? Also sometimes it reminds me of speaking crossed with a slide flute. But all the samples seem to sound like that. If there are any text to speech apps that can handle ithkuil accurately please post. thank you

I am having fun with the new ithkuil app, but I haven't the slightest as to how to make the most of it. I wondered about how one might express the idea of "candy". I started with the root -MS- 'sweet flavor" with stem 1. objective specification. static function. PRC version (I don't have a goal in mind for candy)

So far it just says ámsila sweet flavor. What more could be added to give the more specific sense of 'candy'? I tried adding other elements/cases, and it really changes the word, but how does one know what meaning each of these new words have?

I suspect adding something like 'a little bit of food' to sweet flavor might get some sense of candy. Would this be another word, or can those be combined?

Today I am thinking that a bridge language from more natural language patterns would be helpful towards understanding ithkuil. It would ultimately be its own thing, with its own grammar rules. but if it somehow expanded the roots, and affixes, and other parts of speech maybe it might be helpful? But only if the expanded words still reflected the parts of speech, and could eventually be shortened or combined to make accurate ithkuil words.

Just an idea, but it there are so many elements of ithkuil which are just not present in natural language

Since the current lexicon doc still has outdated grammatical terms and missing roots that should exist, I added some and re-patterned them to make everything more regular.

I removed the two roots for “concatenated root/stem” and re-assigned them. They were inherited from the “incorporated” ones, and now there is concatenation status, so they are unnecessary.

Here're my newly assigned roots. The patterns should look more regular than shown in the current lexicon doc.

Morphosyntactical Categories / Part of speech / Morphological Structure (bare, L- & Ř- classes)

-MPÇ-
lexical root
-MPĻ-
lexical stem
-MPM-
concatenation status
-MPN-
concatenation type
-MPX-
Case-Scope
-MPS-
UNFRAMED Relation
-MPŠ-
FRAMED Relation

-LMP-
VxCs affix
-LMPW-
VxCs affix-type
-LMPY-
VxCs affix-degree
-LMPL-
formative (part of speech)
-LMPR-
adjunct (part of speech)
-LMPŘ-
referential (part of speech)
-LMPĻ-
register (adjunct)
-LMPÇ-
modular adjunct
-LMPM-
Specialized Cs-Root
-LMPN-
“Specialized Personal-Reference” Root

-ŘMP-
Slot (with category+PUR for "a specific slot for ...", e.g. Cr = slot root-PUR)
-ŘMPW-
Ca Complex Slot
-ŘMPY-
VnCn Modular Slot
-ŘMPL-
Vr Complex Slot
-ŘMPÇ-
Vv Complex Slot
-ŘMPĻ-
Vk Complex Slot

VnCn Modular, Context and Vc/Vf/Vk Categories (R- class)

-RMP-
case or format
-RMMP-
case-accessor affix, or inverse case-accessor affix, (used as warmmpa ëi[CsVx]’ve, use its Type-2 form)
-RMPY-
bias category
-RMPŘ-
illocution category
-RMPÇ-
validation category
-RMPĻ-
mood category
-RMPM-
context category
-RMPN-
aspect category
-RMPH-
effect category
-RMPR-
level category
-RMPW-
phase category
-RMPL-
valence category

Ca and Other Categories (-Ţ- class)

-MŢPL-
essence category
-MŢPR-
perspective category
-MŢPŘ-
extension category
-MŢPY-
configuration category
-MŢPF-
plexity category
-MŢPŢ-
similarity catetgory
-MŢPÇ-
separability category
-MŢPW-
affiliation category
-MŢPS-
version category
-MŢPŠ-
function category
-MŢP-
specification category

Also by "flavours of ice-cream", I mean "scoops of ice-cream but every scoop is a different flavour".