Consonants.
Traditionally, Kēlen claims five stops (ansāorīki anpōhi). They are written thus:
| p (japōha japiēxa) |  or  |
| t (japōha japīra) |  |
| s (japōha jaxīwa) |  |
| c (japōha jūsne) |  or  |
| k (japōha jakōλa) |  or  |
There are the five fricatives (ansāorīki ankōrji) to complement the five stops:
| w (jakōrja japiēxa) |  or  or  |
| þ (jakōrja japīra) |  |
| x (jakōrja jaxīwa) |  |
| j (jakōrja jūsne) |  or  or  |
| h (jakōrja jakōλa) |  or  or  |
Then the fourteen sonorants (ansāorīki antāni):
| m (jahīña japiēxa) |  | and mm (jahīña japiēxa jōma) |  | ||
| n (jahīña japīra) |  | and nn (jahīña japīra jōma) |  | ||
| ñ (jahīña jūsne) |  | and ññ (jahīña jūsne jōma) |  | ||
| ŋ (jahīña jakōλa) |  | and ŋŋ (jahīña jakōλa jōma) |  | ||
| l (jatāna) |  | and ll (jatāna jōma) |  | and λ (jatāna jūsne) |  |
| r (jatāna jarūsa) |  | and rr (jatāna jarūsa jōma) |  | and rj (jatāna jarūsa jūsne) |  |
Vowels
The vowels come in short and long:
| i |  | and ī |  |
| e |  | and ē |  |
| a |  | and ā |  |
| o |  | and ō |  |
| u |  | and ū |  |
The diphtongs also come in short and long:
| ae |  | and āe |  |
| ao |  | and āo |  |
| ie |  | and iē |  |
The vowel y, which occurs in Eastern Kēlen, is usually written the same way as i .
Punctuation consists of a
to mark spaces between words (this is optional),
and a 
(;) to mark the end of clauses or sentences.
An example
is the equivalent of
selnirre anlāsa sū-lānōraen; "We (1p-paucal) give you (2p-plural) welcome at(to) Lānōraen."
Alphabetical Order
Kēlen alphabetical order was finalized before the writing system existed in its current form. Not all of the letters above are included. Those that aren't officially included are unofficially included with other letters. For example, the alphabetical order does not distinguish between and , putting them both under . I have put extra letters in brackets next to the letters they are listed with.
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Children have been known to recite the following rhyme:
ā, ē, ō,
ī, iē, ū,
lā, ñē, tō,
nā, kā, þō,
mū, cē, sū,
pāo, wē, jē,
rā, xō, hē.
The romanization, being for us humans, has a different alphabetical order than the native Kēlen script. The romanization is alphabetized like so:
a, ā, ae, āe, ao, āo, c, e, ē, h, i, ī, ie, iē, j, k, l, ll, λ, m, mm, n, nn, ñ, ññ, ŋ, ŋŋ, o, ō, p, r, rr, rj, s, t, þ, u, ū, w, x
Other Scripts
The Kēleñi pride themselves on their artists and craftsmen. This page shows an example of some box script found in the ruins of Āttarein, where the dialect is very different.
And then there is the ceremonial interlace alphabet.
Last modified: June 07, 2019