Kēlen

Kēlen
Created by	Sylvia Sotomayor
Setting	alien species (the Kēleñi)
Language family	Default artistic language Kēlen
Sources	a priori language, consciously rejecting linguistic universals to create an alien language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	none
Glottolog	none

Kēlen is a constructed language created by Sylvia Sotomayor. It is an attempt to create a truly alien language by violating a key linguistic universal—namely that all human languages have verbs. In Kēlen, relationships between the noun phrases making up the sentence are expressed by one of four relationals. Despite this, Kēlen is an expressive and intelligible language; texts written in Kēlen have been translated into other languages by several people other than the creator of the language, as may be seen here. In this interview Sotomayor states that she aims for Kēlen to be naturalistic apart from its verblessness, and that to achieve this she employs the principle "change one thing and keep everything else the same".

In its concultural setting, Kēlen is spoken by an alien species (the Kēleñi).

Introduction

Kēlen is mentioned prominently by Sarah L. Higley in her book Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An edition, translation and discussion (Palgrave Macmillan 2007, The New Middle Ages) where she discusses Lingua Ignota in the context of constructed languages up to the present day. She describes it as an example of the desire for originality in contemporary conlanging, by virtue of its verbless grammar, and notes that it is a prominent example of a conlang created by a woman. She also says that "fellow conlangers consider Kēlen to be efficient, elegant, strange and innovative, and its writing system is greatly admired." Kēlen is also discussed at length in this paper by M. Yu. Sidorova and O.N. Shuvalova, Several glossed examples are given.

At the third Language Creation Conference David J. Peterson awarded the Smiley Award to Kēlen, describing it as "an engineered language with the soul of an artistic language". He explains that while its experimental structure is in many ways similar to an engineered language, the amount of linguistic and concultural detail given by Sotomayor (including inflection of the relationals, three different scripts, and information on Kēleñi culture and society such as a calendar and a method of divination) make it a fully fledged artistic project rather than a simple experiment. Kēlen also comes with its own writing system, which bears a superficial resemblance to Devanagari.

Phonology

Kēlen has 17 consonants and 16 vowels.

Consonants

According to the Kēleñi, there are five stops (ansāorīki anpōhi). These are /p/, /t/, /s/, /c/, /k/. These are all unaspirated and voiceless. They become voiced between vowels and/or sonorants. They stay voiceless at the beginning and end of words, or next to another stop or fricative. /p/ is pronounced like the Spanish /p/, /t/ like the Spanish /t/. /s/ is nowadays pronounced like English /s/, but used to be like German /z/ or /ts/. This pronunciation is still found in some dialects. /c/ is a palatal stop, and can be mispronounced as English /ch/ without any misunderstanding. /k/ is like Spanish /c/ in /ca/ or /co/.

There are also five fricatives (ansāorīki ankōrji). These are /w/, /þ/, /x/, /j/, /h/. These are all voiceless at the beginning and end of words and next to another stop or fricative, and voiced between vowels and/or sonorants. /w/ is a bilabial fricative, very much like the Spanish /v/. /þ/ is like the English /th/ in /thin/. /x/ is like the English /sh/ in /shoe/. /j/ is like the German /ch/ in /ich/, though mispronouncing it like English /hu/ in /human/ is fine. /h/ is like the German /ch/ in /ach/. Mispronouncing it like the English /h/ in /house/ is fine. In some dialects these sounds are always voiced.

There are thirteen sonorants (ansāorīki antāni). These are /m/, /mm/, /n/, /nn/, /ñ/, /ññ/, /ŋ/, /ŋŋ/, /l/, /ll/, /λ/, /r/, and /rr/. These are almost always voiced, though various dialects will devoice these at the beginning of words. /m/ is pronounced like the Spanish /m/, /n/ like the Spanish /n/, and /ñ/ like the Spanish /ñ/. /ŋ/ is pronounced like the English /ng/ in /sing/. /l/ is pronounced like the Spanish /l/ in /la/, and /λ/ like the English /li/ in /million/. Standard /r/ is pronounced like the Spanish /rr/, but each dialect has its own pronunciation. The doubled versions are pronounced like the single versions, only the sound is sustained longer.

Vowel

Vowels (anrūēli or ansāorīki anūrāni) come in two varieties, the long (anōma) and the short (anīña). These are distinct and make minimal pairs, and so are counted as separate vowels. The long vowels are /ī/, /ē/, /ā/, /ō/, /ū/ and the short ones are /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/. These are pronounced like the Spanish /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/, with the long vowels being lasting longer than the short ones. In addition, there is one short vowel /y/ which only occurs in some dialects. This is pronounced as a high mid vowel, halfway between /i/ and /u/. It is fairly close in pronunciation to the American English short /i/ or to the last vowel sound in the American English word /decided/.

There are also some diphthongs, again in long and short forms. These are /āe/, /ae/, /āo/, /ao/, /iē/, /ie/. /āe/ and /ae/ are pronounced like Spanish /ay/. /āo/ and /ao/ are pronounced like German /au/. /iē/ and /ie/ are pronounced like American English /ye/ in /yet/. Any other vowel pairs are pronounced as separate vowels.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns are made up of a stem together with a prefix and a suffix. Noun stems can be monosyllabic, with a CVC structure. VC, CV, and V stems occur, as well as multisyllabic and compounded stems. Stems are inflected with a mandatory set of prefixes denoting animate, inanimate, and possessed nouns.

• Animate nouns refer to people, to things that are considered to have volition, such as some natural phenomena, or to things that have been elevated to person status, such as pets. What is inflected as animate can vary by idiolect. The most restrictive use of animacy is to designate only kin as animate.
• Inanimate nouns refer to things, events, places, qualities, and abstractions. Occasionally, animate nouns are demoted to inanimate for the purposes of insult. More often, nouns that would be inanimate are promoted to animacy in acknowledgement of honorary personhood. This especially happens in stories. So while a rock would normally be inanimate, a talking rock would not be. Likewise, a storm might be inanimate, but a storm that kills several people might not be.
• Possessed nouns refer to those inanimates that are considered to be part of a person, such as body parts. Possessed nouns that are no longer associated with a person, such as detached body parts, will be inflected as inanimate. Body expressions (smile, frown, etc) can also be possessed. However, communications (sigh, groan) are usually inanimate, but can be possessed in certain contexts. Since motion can be considered an expression, it can be possessed in certain contexts, such as when talking about someone's manner or style of motion. Kinship terms are not generally possessed.

The animacy prefixes are:

	before C	before V
animate	ma-	m-
inanimate	ja-	j-
	an-
1p possessed	le-	l-
2p possessed	ri-	r-
3p possessed	sa-	s-

Number

Stem suffixes denote number: non-plural and plural. The non-plural varies between -a, -e, and a null suffix. Which is used depends on the form and final consonant of the stem. The plural suffixes are -i and -ien. -ien is only used with animates.

Generally, the null suffix is used with stems ending in:

• a vowel
• a single nasal (m, n, ñ, ŋ)
• l, λ, r, or rj

-e is used with stems ending in:

• any two consonants (except rj)
• stems with the suffixes -īk or -īw

Regular stems ending in -īk or -īw do not use the non-plural -e suffix. For example, the stem -kīw- "skin" would not use the -e suffix, but the derived stem -kīwīk- "leather" would.

-a is used everywhere else, especially:

• after any single stop or fricative (varies by dialect)
• after a monosyllabic stem ending in any consonant (varies by dialect)

The plural suffix -i assimilates with stems ending in vowels. For example:

-ā + -i = -āe

-āe + -i = -āji

-iē + -i = -īji

-ēie + -i = -ēji

A combination of prefix and suffix determines the inflection of the noun stem.

Animacy prefix	Number suffix	Complete inflection
inanimate ja-	non-plural -a/-e/-	inanimate singular noun
	plural -i	inanimate plural noun
inanimate an-	non-plural -a/-e/-	stative noun
	plural -i	inanimate collective noun
animate ma-	non-plural -a/-e/-	animate singular noun
	plural -i	animate collective noun
	reduplication of initial consonant + plural -ien	animate plural noun

Both animates and inanimates have three numbers: singular, collective, and plural. These could also be termed non-plural, collective plural, and distributive plural. There is also the stative inflection, which has no number and is neither animate nor inanimate.

Singular

Nouns that are inherently singular include things that can be counted, pieces or parts of things, instances of a feeling or experience, and events. Singular nouns are used with modifying numbers up through four. Possessed nouns, even those that denote paired objects, are singular.

jaxāela 'night'

malāca 'girl'

sakīwa 'skin'

Collective

Collective nouns include inherent aggregations of parts, powders, liquids, and gases. Collectives are also sets, series, or expanses, and can optionally be used for large scale natural phenomena. Collectives can be used to refer to a generic when discussing something that applies to all members of a set.

anhāri 'water'

ancēwriti 'powder'

makīri 'kinfolk'

Plural

Plural is a distributive plural, and refers to multiple distinct entities that are not grouped.

jaxāeli 'nights'

mallācien 'girls'

Stative

Stative nouns include abstractions, qualities, and attributes. The stative can be used to refer to a generic when discussing the essence of something. Also, the stative is the preferred 2nd opject of PA.

ankēra 'holy'

anmāλa 'green'

ankīwīke 'leather'

Stative nouns will often modify other nouns. In this situation, the stative noun will change its inflection to agree with the other noun. Sometimes the modified noun is omitted, and so only the changed stative is left.

anmāλa 'green'

jacēla jamāλa 'green bowl'

jamāλa 'green thing'

Derivational morphology

Stems can have other suffixes attached. These suffixes will occur between the stem and the number suffix. Productive suffixes include:

-anen practitioner of noun, as in anālte 'health' → māltanen 'healer, practitioner of healing'

-ēl person who has quality noun, as in ankēra 'holy' → makērēl 'holy person'

-īhen device associated with noun, as in annītte 'fried in oil' → janīttīhen 'frying pan'

-īk artificial kind associated with noun, as in sakīwa 'skin' → ankīwīke 'leather'

-īñ diminutive, as in malāca 'girl' → malācīñ 'little girl'

-īw opposite or lack of noun, as in ansēña 'harmful' → ansēñīwe 'harmless'

-ōn augmentative or agent, as in jatāena 'story' → matāenōn 'storyteller'

Common non-productive suffixes include:

-eran guild associated with noun, as in jālteran 'healers guild'

-ienāl set of four of a noun, as in jaxāelienāl 'set of four nights'

-isse diminutive, as in jēwānisse 'small pond'

-(n)non male practitioner of noun, as in mērānnon 'hunter'

There are also a few prefixes, none of which are productive:

āl- an older augmentative, as in jāllōhen 'feast'

we- an older negation prefix, as in anwetēla 'unknown'

External links

• An Introduction to Kēlen
• "Verblessness in Kēlen", presented at the 2nd Language Creation Conference