Kelenala

From Langmaker

Conlang	Kelenala
Author	David J. Peterson
Year Began	2003
Language Type	personal language
Lexicon Size	500
Etymologies	Yes
Grammar	Yes
Sample Texts	No
Primer	No

Kelenala was invented by David J. Peterson as a personal language. It has been used for a translation of the Babel Text.

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Language sources

Both Wasabi and Language X--the two languages of my two pidginization experiments. I drafted a word list for students to use so that they could create a pidgin, and my job was to record the results. It never failed, though, that they would do things differently from the way I thought they would, and the way I would if I were a subject in the experiment. Hence, now that the experiments are over, I've made myself the subject of my own experiment.

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Design principles

Most creoles are based on one or more other languages. Kelenala, being a speed creole, is not. So, I create the language based on what I think "sounds best", and what I like. There's definitely English influence, since that's one of my L1's, but I'm not unconsciously mapping English onto these phonological forms; I'm creating the way I would if I had to speak a pidgin/creole. So, sometimes it's like English, but often it's not.

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Interest of others

Actually, yes. A group of RPG'ers from Poland decided they liked Kelenala, and wanted to use it in their RPG. This they proceeded to do. Also, I've extended an open invitation to anyone who wants to create a language from the Kelenala word list. The rules: (1) You can't add any new roots; (2) you should credit me as having created the wordlist; and (3) the name of the resulting language cannot be "Kelenala". If someone translates the Babel Text into their Kele-oid, I'll host it on my site. Someone actually took me up on the offer, but I haven't heard back from them.

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