Ceqli

Ceqli is an engineered language, based on Loglan. Ceqli is an attempt to retain the terseness and adaptability of English and Mandarin, while simplifying the phonology and eliminating some awkwardness.

Grammar

Pronouns

Header text	Singular	Plural
1st person	go	gozi (inclusive) goda (exclusive)
2nd person	zi	zida
3rd person	da	zeda

• ciba — this thing
• caba — that thing near you
• cuba — that thing remote from both of us^[1]

Adjectives

Adjectives are indicated by the particle 'sa'.

• "gra sa dom" — big house
• "pyu sa hyun" — small dog
• Go ten gra sa hon. — I have a big book.

If no 'sa' is present, the adjective merges with the noun to form a compound word, which is then treated as if it were a root itself. Such compounds have their own meaning, often quite different from the adjective-noun phrase they're derived from.

• "blu sa fawl" — blue bird
• "blufawl" — bluebird
• "cwaq sa cam" — bed room, room for beds, room where beds are sold, etc.
• "cwaqcam" — bedroom
• "bawm sa dom" — tree house, house made of trees, house for trees to live in, etc.
• "bawmdom" — treehouse
• "zver sa hila" — animal doctor, doctor for animals, doctor who is an animal, etc.
• "zverhila" — veterinarian
• "fayr sa cari" — fire stick, stick for fire, stick for burning, etc.
• "fayrcari" — match

Ceqli allows whole phrases to act as adjectives, setting them off with the 'sa'.

"Go xaw kom pan sa hyun." — "I see the dog that eats bread" or "I see the bread-eating dog"
"To dorm to dom sa hyun pa kom to hon." — The dog that sleeps in the house ate the book.
^[1]

Word shape

In Ceqli, letters fall into two main categories: leading letters (cwazim) and following letters (falozim). Falozim are the sonorants – vowels A, E, I, O and U, plus L, M, N, Q (pronounced as "ng"), R, W and Y. All other letters – the obstruents – are cwazim.^[2] All Ceqli morphemes are in the shape nCnF, that is, one or more cwazim followed by one or more falozim.

Vocabulary

Because of the word-shape rule above, Ceqli borrows its words from all languages in the world, starting with the largest, based on whether the words fit the Ceqli word shape. English "green" fits, so the Ceqli word for green is "grin". But "red" does not, so the Mandarin word "hong" is borrowed into Ceqli as "hoq" ("q" makes the "ng" sound). Neither the English nor the Mandarin word for "white" works, so the Russian word is borrowed as "byel". This automatically gives Ceqli a very international vocabulary. In this sentence

to dorm to dom sa hyun pa kom to hon

the words are derived thus:

• "to" is Greek
• "dorm" is French or Spanish
• "to" again is Greek
• "dom" is Russian
• "sa" is made up
• "hyun" is Cantonese
• "pa" is from English "past"
• "kom" is from Spanish "comer"
• then there's Greek "to" again
• "hon" is Japanese

References

1. "ceqli / Lesson 2". Ceqli.pbworks.com. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
2. "ceqli / The Alphabet and Sounds". Ceqli.pbworks.com. Retrieved 25 November 2014.

External links

• The Ceqli Wiki
• The Ceqli Blog
• Ceqli Through Pictures.
• The Original Ceqli, now obsolete