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Silili

Silili is a small, logical, work-in-progress language, with a minimalist grammar and an efficient vocabulary.

ABCs

Silili uses these sounds: a i j k l m n p s t u w. All the vowels are short, and j is like English y.

Content Words

Content words are not split into nouns and adjectives. If a word can be a noun, it can also be an adjective in the same context. There is no "adjective order", since content words modify each other in the same way.

red bird — lulu kiwi — kiwi lulu

Content words that come beforehand, are generally more emphasized.

Singular and Plural

Words are singular by default. Double them to mark them as plural.

kiwi — a bird

kiwi kiwi — birds

Arbitrary Relation

ju connects two related words or phrases, like the way "of" does.

kiwi ju kana — bird of knowledge

Yes/No Questions

You can use tone or a question mark for yes/no questions.

nama iti? — Good food? — Is the food good?

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Or

wa means "or".

ana wa anta — me or you

You can use kumu (with) to mean "and".

ana kumu anta — me with you — me and you

What

"What" in Silili is kuwa. Combine it with other words to form other question words like "when".

kuwa anta? — Who are you?

kuwa timi nama? — What time is good?

Causative Subjects

ja introduces a causative subject, which refers to the thing that causes the next word or phrase to be the case.

ana ja mulu kiwi. — I caused the dead bird. — I killed the bird.

Conditions

wi introduces a condition for the next word or phrase.

iti nama wi anta nama. — If the food is good, you're good.

Requests and Commands

You can use wili (wanted) with anta for requests and commands.

wili ju anta siwi! — Will of you seen! — Be seen!

Or if the context is clear (for example, when the thing you want didn't happen yet), just say what you want:

anta siwi! — You're seen! — Be seen!

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Quantity vs Intensity

Some determiners have different meanings depending on if the modified word is plural or not. For example:

masa nama — very good

masa nama nama — many good things

Prepositions

kiwi in ama — bird in/on water

kiwi pija ama — bird to water

kiwi kama ama — bird from water

kiwi kumu ana — bird with me

Prepositions don't require content words before or after them:

lipi kiwi in — sleeping bird inside

Sound Rules

Silili has very limited rules on how words can be spoken. All syllables can optionally start with a consonant, have a vowel in the middle, and optionally end in n.

Vowels next to each other, nn and nm in a single word are not allowed. So are ji and wu.

Interjections

Interjections are allowed to break the sound rules. Feel free to make up your own!

alu! — hey!

kiki! — haha!

uu! — oo!

You can use interjections as content words.

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Lilizations

A lilization is a foreign word spoken with the limited sound rules.

Apika — Africa

Kun — Ghoom

It's not required to capitalize lilizations. But it might be necessary if the lilization looks exactly like a native Silili word.

It's best to lilize words from their original language if possible.

Numbers

There are only six digits in Silili aside from 0 (nu).

un — 1     tutu — 2     tuwi — 3 kata — 4     pinki — 5     sun — 6

This system is called senary or seximal. sun here is the "ten" in this system.

Let's dissect the following number to understand more:

kata sun sun un sun tutu — 412 (in senary) — 152 (in decimal)

sun's next to each other are multiplied alongside the digit that comes immediately before sun.

kata sun sun — 4×6×6

un sun — 1×6

The final products are then added with the last digit.

kata sun sun un sun tutu — 4×6×6 + 1×6 + 2

Numerals are ordinal with singulars, and cardinal with plurals.

Other Stuff

Check out more on GitHub: github.com/ghoomy/silili

Join the Discord: discord.gg/5km3EgP4kf

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