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Ædri Ky, commonly referred to as Angelic, is the first of several conlangs I plan on making for my webcomic Through Arcane Eyes. As a conlang, I made it into a learning experience in how other languages work, and it may end up helping me understand how natlangs other than English work when I start learning them.



As a language, Ædri Ky is extremely hierarchal and subtle. Intended levels of respect that are taken for granted by angels simply cannot be gleaned from straight translation alone - and the higher the choir that the angel speaking is in, the more condescending their tone gets, even when referring to other angels.

For example: a Seraph (a single angel in the highest of the nine choirs) speaking about a human will have a different intended level of respect than an Archangel (second-lowest of the choirs) speaking about the same human. Regardless of what choir the speaker is from, however, they all will treat a common piece of furniture with more respect than they would a demon. In fact, the only reason a demon is listed as above inanimate objects in their hierarchy is because of a demand from God.


More info directly related to Ædri Ky will be coming soon 3nodding

I'm not very good at script-making, but I do want it to look very calligraphic and elegant (like you'd expect an angelic written language to be). The script is in development, but unless I get entirely frustrated with it, I'm definitely going to try and make it myself.

Yes, I've seen the Enochian script, as well as an angelic alphabet, but neither particularly appeals to me. For one, I'll want entirely distinctive scripts for the webcomic, and those scripts look too similar to ones used by the alchemists and mages in the story. Aside from that, they're simply not what I would expect the Angelic written language to look like.



Anyways, Ædri Ky has a grammatical case system and a set of fourteen genders, each one directly linked to the angelic hierarchy. In all of these genders, there is only one 'neutral' gender, and refers simply to the angelic race as a whole - nothing more, nothing less - and it is considered extremely rude and sarcastic to knowingly refer to an angel of a higher choir with this neutral gender.

The heirarchy, and their associated list of noun suffixes:

Seraphim - ʐuli
Cherubim - xaje
Arelim (or Thrones) - romw
Kyriotites (or Dominions) - sælde
Dynameis (or Virtues) - mæshel
Exousiai (or Powers) - kali
Archai (or Principalities) - xwtæ
Archangels - kwsrw
Grigori (common angels, or "Watchers") - dæxwn
Neutral gender - iel
Human - la
Animal - ki
Demon - tæos
Inanimate Object - xikky



Pronunciation

First off, I'll start with the vowel system. There are eight vowel sounds, each one represented by a unique letter.

A, a - IPA e
Æ, æ - IPA æ
E, e - IPA ɛ
I, i - IPA iː
Y, y - IPA aɪ
O, o - IPA o
U, u - IPA uː
W, w - IPA ʌ


There are nineteen consonants in Ædri Ky, most of which actually follow the rules of the English language, so I won't even bother with them here. Notable exceptions are as follows:

X, x - IPA ʃ
J, j - IPA j
C, c - IPA tʃ
G, g - IPA g
F, f - IPA ɸ
P, p - No real pronunciation difference, just slightly less stressed and a bit 'softer' than in English
V, v - IPA w
R, r - This one's tricky... it's a lateral apical postalveolar flap, like the one found in Japanese
ʐ - IPA ʐ (I was actually deliberately looking for the IPA symbol for this particular consonant xp )

The rough visual I have in my mind looks something like a cross between Arabic and Tengwar sweatdrop Not a whole lot to go on, but I do want it to look beautiful and flowing - something that would be considered an artform to truly master.

Ædri Ky has five cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, and Vocative. Each of these cases has a distinct grammatical particle, and all but Genitive have four variations indicating plurality.


Nominative: None - pw; Singular - kw; Double - mw; 3+ - tw
Accusative: None - tws; Singular - dws; Double - dæx; 3+ - xiin
Dative: None - kan; Singular - ran; Double - tan; 3+ - pan
Vocative: None - ri; Singular - ti; Double - bi; 3+ - di


Genitive case particles must match in gender with the noun suffixes indicated above.

Seraphim - ækt
Cherubim - xy
Arelim - væxtim
Kyriotites - yarw
Dynameis - hædwl
Exousiai - iʐdy
Archai - lay
Archangels - kuæde
Grigori - tiix
Neutral Gender - ædri
Human - xukw
Animal - rax
Demon - kææl
Inanimate Object - vox



Tense

There are eight tenses, indicated by prefixes to the verbs.

Distant Past Tense: tul
Distant Past Perfect Tense: kext
Near Past Tense: twm
Near Past Perfect Tense: kyst
Present Tense: py
Present Perfect Tense: kæo
Near Future Tense: dem
Distant Future Tense: demno




Questions

Questions are formed by adding a single query particle (xi) at the beginning of the sentence. The rest of the sentence structure is unchanged.

Okay, so I know I haven't been very active in this guild for a while. It doesn't mean I've stopped conlanging!

Anyways, for Serali: My first shot at a script for Ædri Ky

Ironically... it says "Ædri Ky" xp