How Jeli works
Word order, endings, accents.
Jeli has soft consonants, open syllables and a lot of repetition.
Word order#
The verb goes last. "Me food want", not "I want food".
No articles, no tenses#
There's no a or the, and verbs don't change for past or future.
Endings and repetition#
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Word doubled | Intensity | num food → num num very hungry |
-ka | Question | a word plus -ka asks about it |
-wi | Affection | added to a word or a name |
| Mangled, stuttered | A very young Jeli | not a different word |
Accents#
Each of the ten species applies a few consistent sound substitutions. A word that looks almost like one in the dictionary is usually that word in your Jeli's accent.
Coined words#
Words outside the dictionary are coined. The same English word always produces the same Jeli word, on every device.
Typing to it#
You can type to your Jeli on the phone's Talk tab. It matches on keywords, so short, plain messages work best. Below a certain fluency it responds to being spoken to rather than to what you said.