Krill

The bubbly language of the Krillians, a race of sentient crustaceans resembling Earth's krill, is spoken on their native planet Zhigil, a murky aquatic world of ice and sea known to humans as Kepler-62f.

The language has two dialects: Standard Krill, and a lesser known Faba Krill, spoken solely by the Faba Krillians (a.k.a Fabae).

Writing System

Krill for decades has been written with the Latin alphabet, with digraphs functioning as separate letters. The letters in their traditional sequence: X, Z, ZH, J, W, L, R, Y, M, B, N, D, G, NG, AU, O, AI, E, OO, U, EE, I, AA, A. Gemination is indicated with a doubled consonant.

Faba Krill has five sounds unique to the dialect, with extra letters to represent them: C (as in English "cool"), S (as in "sing"), TH (as in "think"), K (a voiceless uvular plosive, as in Arabic "Qāf"), and T (as in "tank"). The Krill Latin "J" is used for the palatal approximant in Faba, as the dialect lacks the voiced post-alveolar affricate of Standard Krill.

More recently a Krillian rabbi named Menaxem Yinnon developed a system of writing based on the shapes left behind in the mud when Krillians walk around. Written with an additional symbol to mark spaces, these "Krill Runes" have been gaining popularity and are expected to eventually replace Krill Latin for the Standard dialect.

Krill Runes by Kitsune Sobo

Geographical Distribution

Across Zhigil in Dimension XVIII.

Phonology

The language has five short vowels, three long vowels and two diphthongs:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ iː		ʊ uː
Mid	e		o
Open	aː	ɐ
Diphthongs	aɪ		au

And fourteen consonants:

	Labial	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	b	d	dʒ		ɡ
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Fricative		z	ʒ		x
Approximant		l	r	j	w

The twenty-four phonemes of Standard Krill are assigned magical properties, similar to the Elder Futhark or Mandaic alphabet on Earth, and can be used in gibberish spells.

The Faba dialect of Krill has five additional consonants with their own Krill Latin letters:

	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Plosive		T (t)	C (k)	K (q)
Fricative	TH (θ)	S (s)

The dialect also lacks a "J" sound, and so the letter used for "j" in Krill Latin is used to write the "Y" sound instead.

Morphology

Krill uses animate and inanimate nouns. Nouns that are inanimate or loanwords have no grammatical suffixes. The language has no distinct plural forms.

Animate nouns have six grammatical suffixes, matching the six Krillian genders: Male, Female, Androgynous, Neuter, Feminine Male, and Masculine Female.

For example, the Krill word for "person" could be bada (M), badana (F), baden (A), badan (N), bade (FM), or badane (MF). All animate words (animals, people, etc.) must have one of the six suffixes.

Personal pronouns fall into four categories: formal, informal, rude, and extra rude. There is no distinction between singular and plural You, which is derived from context.

Pronoun	Formal	Informal	Rude	Extra Rude
You	Oba	Oya	Numba	Da
I/Me	Ngama	Mama	Nga	Ma
He	Uba	Uya	Ixaxa	Ixa
She	Eba	Eya	Exaya	Exa
They/It	Obuxa	Obuya	Oxaba	Oxa
We	Aba	Aya	Xaxa	Xa

Syntax

Krill employs an SOV word order, although the Faba dialect has a freer word order that shows evidence of an older OSV word order from Proto-Krill.

Vocabulary

Krill has adopted many loanwords from Hebrew and Yiddish due to the friendly relations the Krillians have had with visiting Jewish communities on Zhigil. Many Krillians have converted to Judaism or adopted some Jewish practices, further enriching their language with terms for concepts not known in native Krill (such as "nebezh", "soul", from Hebrew "nefesh").

No written texts in Krill have been produced by Krillians, although recent attempts by humans to write the language have resulted in some printed pamphlets and schooling materials. The Krill Latin alphabet is used to write the language by foreigners, but has not been adopted by the locals.

Phonetics

Krill has a notable lack of voiceless consonants (except for the obscure Faba variation), and as such Krillians have unique identifiable accents when using other languages. A Krillian speaking English would "zound zomeding lige diz."

Tenses

Krill has no tenses, as time is a non-existent concept to Krillians.

Adjective Order

Usually following a noun, e.g. "badan ngazhdo" (Red Man, literally "person ruddy"). All adjectives end with "o."

Common Phrases

"Zhalamu alaigunu!" ("Hello!", from Hebrew "Shalom aleichem!")

"Xari!" ("Bye!")

"Mama bala" ("I see", commonly interpreted as "I understand" and used as a linguistic filler in conversations)

Common Female Names

Xauwa (from Chavah)

Zara (from Sarah)

Naxama (from Naamah)

Lilidu (from Lilith)

Common Male Names

Yangeb (from Yosef)

Menaxem (from Menachem)

Dowid (from David)

Yexezgel (from Yechezkel)

Common Unisex Names

Zhilo (from Shiloh)

Abidaal (from Avital)

Dal (from Tal)

Zhurancorigon ("Child of Corigon", common among the Fabae), often shortened to "Zhuri."

Common Family Names

Gingold

Goxen (from Kohen)

Lewi (from Levi)

Mizraxi (from Mizrachi)

Beredz (from Peretz)