Kekeblin is a language sketch I use primarily for naming, individual words, and short phrases, but I also expanded the language enough to form many types of sentences. I originally intended to expand it beyond that, but realized I had passed a point of diminishing returns and quit. I did develop the grammar further than any of my other languages, however.

For those interested, a detailed grammar for Kekeblin can be found here, and a grammar summary with a dictionary here. For those that haven’t studied linguistics, I make heavy use of linguistic terms in both documents, so consider that a jargon warning.

It should also be noted that Kekeblin intentionally incorporates many features that fly in the face of naturalistic languages. (The story behind that is that Kekeblin is an invented language within the Third Realm universe, with the person inventing the language intentionally being obtuse.)

Finally, languages are extremely detailed. Upon reviewing my old grammatical sketch for Kekeblin, I found a lot of rules that either weren’t easily compatible or were outright paradoxical. It’s not something I ever plan on going back and fixing, because the language accomplished what I wanted it to accomplish.

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Basic Grammar

OVS (object, verb, subject), technically. However, verbs function very unusually in Kekeblin: they take the form of prefixes that get attached to the noun, rather than being words in their own right. As an example:

nɛtsɛwindzɛnrɑɪ	emleɪsy-xedz
tomorrow	to.give.birth-stone
“Tomorrow, the stone will give birth.”

The verb “emleɪsy” means “to give birth.” In this sentence, is attached to the subject “xedz,” meaning “stone.” (“The stone will give birth” is a Kekeblin colloquialism that refers to lava coming out of the ground.)

When more than context is needed to tell whether the action is past, present, future, or something else, supplemental words (like “nɛtsɛwindzɛnrɑɪ,” in this instance) provide this information.

Grammatical order is very strict in Kekeblin, rarely changing even for poetry or wordplay.

Other Grammatical Features

Because Kekeblin verbs do not exist as solitary words, they are never conjugated to represent verb tense (past, present, future). Kekeblin use context to establish such things when possible, but they are able to say something like “past-run-man” (the man ran) using adverbs or other supplemental words when they need to be more specific.

Kekeblin sentences may not have sentences as subjects; instead, sentences are linked together in logical progression. For example, in English you can say “The man who drives the cart saw you.” In Kekeblin, you would say, “The man saw you; he drives the cart.” Here’s the breakdown:

sɑɪn	ɛtsɛ-jʌpf	–	nɑpfrodʌn	ɑ	ɑjelo-sʌn
you.f	see-man		cart	hab	drive-he.m
“The man saw you, he drives the cart.”

And much more. To be frank, it’s been so long since I’ve needed my language sketch of Kekeblin that I don’t even understand most of my own notes. That’s a risk of making too detailed of a sketch—if you don’t work with it regularly, remembering your own rules can be a hassle.

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_{Copyright © 2023 by David Ludlow}