Iali

Iali is the official language of Iaden and a conlang developed for Magi Soldat. It is the modern form of an ancient language known as Iadenol.

History

Iali is a modern language developed by the governing bodies of Iaden as a replacement for their original language of Iadenol. It is a technical bastardization of Iadenol that focuses on elegance of speech and the bandwidth of information (the ability to quickly and clearly transmit large amounts of information in as little spoken words as possible).

Dialects

There are two known dialects of Iali, Primary Iali and Andromedid Iali. The primary difference in dialects is that Andromedid Iali is significantly less strict in its phonetic rules.

Phonemes in Primary Iali

Primary Iali employs 10 consonant phonemes, 5 vowel phonemes, and 3 consonant-onset vowel phonemes.

Consonant Sounds

Primary Iali makes use of the following consonant phonemes:

• d
• f
• g [hard g]
• k
• l
• n
• s
• v

Primary Iali also employs the following:

• r
• b

However, r is a reserved phoneme found only in specific words and b is considered a profane phoneme used only in "vulgar" words.

Vowel Sounds

Primary Iali employs the 5 basic vowels:

• a
• e
• i
• o
• u

Their pronunciation is similar to that found in Japanese.

Consonant-Onset Vowels

Consonant-Onset Vowels (or CO Vowels) are phonemes composed of a constant consonant-vowel pairing. In essence, they are a natural pairing of a consonant and vowel sound that remains consistent in all linguistic use. These vowels are:

• h [pronounced 'heh']
• z [pronounced 'zee']
• y [pronounced 'yah']

Phonemes in Andromedid Iali

Andromedid Iali employs the same phoneme structure as Primary Iali. However, it contains a few additional phonemes:

Consonant Sounds

• j
• p
• t
• m

Consonant-Onset Vowels

• x [pronounced 'shi']

Additionally, Andromedid Iali does not practice the rule of restricting usage of the r and b phonemes, using them often in casual speech.

Phonetic Rules

There are a few phonetic rules employed in the Iali language:

Sequential and Double Vowels

In the case of sequential vowels (such as ia) or double vowels (such as aa or ee), the vowels are pronounced individually with a minute glottal stop between them. Iali does not possess combined or elongated vowel sounds.

Sequential Consonants

Iali does not normally possess sequential consonants.

The "F" Rule

Typically, the consonant f is used as a verb suffix and thus is usually found only at the end of verb infinitives. F is also the only consonant sound allowed to be suffixed with another consonant sound, as is the case when conjugating an infinitive.

Trivia

• In the original draft of Magi Soldat, this language was known as Iedenohre.
• Iali was originally called Iafi in early development of Magi Soldat's third draft, though many notes simply referred to it with the placeholder {IA}.
• It's likely that a true language guide for Iali will never be released as it's intended for readers to know only as much as human characters do.
• Iali is inspired by Japanese and the constructed language of Baronh from the Seikai Trilogy.
• Word of God states that the only true qualifier for adding a word or concept to the language is that it "sounds eloquent, like something spoken by an elf".
• Word of God also states that Iali contains a number of easter eggs, mostly in the form of (abstract) references poking at people or fictional characters.
• Iali does have its own written alphabet.
• Despite being an important part of any language, there are currently no Iali words for numbers though there are Iali written symbols.
• The information bandwidth of Iali can be astronomical at times. It's possible to convey in a single short word what would take an entire sentence in English or Japanese.
• Unlike many languages, which tend to utilize their own words over native ones (e.g., in English it's "Japan" but in Japanese it's 日本 <nihon or nippon>), Iali tends to prioritize native words. Thus, it would not be unheard of for an Iali speaker to say something like kona sa Nihongo ko ana da kin sa ey.
• Even so, many speakers of Primary Iali tend to exhibit mild discomfort at foreign words involving r or b sounds.