Kēlen (IPA: [ˈkeː.len]) is a constructed language created by Sylvia Sotomayor in 1998. The language is designed to be a truly alien language by violating a key linguistic universal — namely that all human languages have verbs. In Kēlen, relationships between noun phrases making up the sentence are expressed by one of four relationals. According to Sotomayor, these relationals perform the functions of verbs but lack any of the semantic content. However, the semantic content found in common verbs, such as those that are semantic primes, can also be found in Kēlen's relationals, which calls into question whether Kēlen is technically verbless. Despite its distinctive grammar, 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. In an interview, Sotomayor stated that she aimed 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".
Background and history In its concultural setting, Kēlen is spoken by an alien species called the Kēleñi, for whom the language was created. Kēlen has gained recognition and acclaim within the conlanging community. It 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 ISBN 1-4039-7673-2, ISBN 978-1-4039-7673-4) where she discusses Lingua Ignota in the context of constructed languages up to the present day. Higley describes Kēlen 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." Logan Kearsley discusses Kēlen in his essay "How to Not Verb", describing it as "almost the prototypical example of a conlang without verbs" and the most well fleshed-out of the languages he reviewed for the essay. However, he does mention that by some definitions, relationals could be considered a small closed class of verbs. Peter Bleackley cites Kēlen as a key influence on his conlang iljena. Kēlen is also discussed at length in a book by M. Yu. Sidorova and O.N. Shuvalova, including several glossed examples. 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". Peterson 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.
Phonology
Consonants
Sylvia Sotomayor analyses the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ as a stop, because "it used to be [pronounced] like German <z> or /ts/. This pronunciation is still found in some dialects." In addition, all sonorants, except /ʎ/, can be geminated, as follows: mm /mː/, nn /nː/, ññ /ɲː/, ŋŋ /ŋː/, ll /lː/, rr /rː/.
Vowels Kēlen has the same five monophthongs as in Spanish, with the addition of vowel length and diphthongs making it similar to the system found in Hawaiian. Some dialects also use a central short monophthong.
Monophthongs
Diphthongs Sotomayor specifies that when any two vowels appear next to one another that are not specified as being read as diphthongs, they are instead spoken as two separate vowels.
Syllable structure Kēlen uses a (C)V(C) syllable structure.
Writing systems The romanization of Kēlen is given in the phonology section next to the phonemes that each Latin character represents. However, Kēlen also features three original writing systems by Sylvia Sotomayor.
Kēlen Writing System – While not given its own name by Sotomayor, the primary writing system of Kēlen is ostensibly an alphabet, and bears a superficial resemblance to Devanagari. Box Script – A variation upon the standard writing system which encloses text within a box. Ceremonial Interlace Alphabet – An alphabet used for ceremonial purposes where each character is represented by a pattern which crosses over itself, "interlacing." as Sotomayor says, "Letters start in the bottom right hand corner, and continue over - under - over - under (or under - over, etc.) until they end at the top right hand corner."
Grammar
Syntax The word order of Kēlen depends upon the relational used in a given sentence. However, adjectives always come after nouns.
Pronouns Personal pronouns in Kēlen have singular, dual, paucal, and plural forms, as well as distinctions of clusivity in the first-person.
Kēlen features reflexive pronouns, most of which can also be used as so-called "reduced" forms of the ordinary personal pronouns with the exception of the 3rd person inanimate, "ja". When used as reduced pronouns, some are considered more or less polite than others.
Le, ri, and ma can all be used as reduced forms of the singular, dual, and paucal of their corresponding full-length personal pronouns. Ma can be freely used in place of any 3rd person pronoun. Using le as a reduced pronoun is considered polite, ri is considered impolite, and ma is "neutral as far as politeness is concerned". There are three demonstrative pronouns in Kēlen, distinguishing between the proximal, medial, and distal. They can be used as adjectives, and "generally follow the noun they modify, but can immediately precede it. They can also be used to reference a previously mentioned noun. However, in certain contexts, the noun they are assumed to modify is 'place'". The table below outlines potential uses of the demonstrative pronouns.
Indefinite pronouns in Kēlen function similarly to the demonstratives, where they can be used either as modifiers or standalone. Unlike the demonstratives, however, which indefinite is used depends upon number and animacy.
Nouns
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