Silili is a small, logical, work-in-progress language, with a minimalist grammar and an efficient vocabulary.
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 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.
Words are singular by default. Double them to mark them as plural.
kiwi — a bird
kiwi kiwi — birds
ju connects two related words or phrases, like the way "of" does.
kiwi ju kana — bird of knowledge
You can use tone or a question mark for yes/no questions.
nama iti? — Good food? — Is the food good?
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" 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?
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.
wi introduces a condition for the next word or phrase.
iti nama wi anta nama. — If the food is good, you're good.
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!
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
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
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 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.
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.
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.
Check out more on GitHub: github.com/ghoomy/silili
Join the Discord: discord.gg/5km3EgP4kf