Drabbish

Drabbish is a constructed language that appears in the Drabbleverse, a fictional setting used in microfiction and fan works. It was designed to be concise and expressive for 100-word stories known as drabbles, hence its name. The language emphasizes directness, compact grammar, and ease of learning for readers who encounter frequent short texts.

Phonology and writing system: Drabbish has a small phoneme inventory, including consonants p, t, k, m, n, s, h, r, l and vowels a, e, i, o, u; syllable structure is typically CV or CVN, with stress on the penultimate syllable. The writing system uses a Latin-based alphabet with diacritics to indicate vowel length and tone. Punctuation marks indicate sentence boundaries, and inflection is minimal.

Grammar and syntax: The basic word order is subject–verb–object. Articles and gender are largely absent. Verbs show tense through particles preceding the verb, while pronouns function as independent words. Noun phrases rely on demonstratives and quantifiers, and reduplication can indicate emphasis or plurality. The language favors analytic morphology over extensive inflection.

Usage and resources: Drabbish is popular among fans and writers within the Drabbleverse. There are fan-made grammars, dictionaries, and translation guides that explain common idioms and conventions. The language is commonly employed to craft concise, image-rich microfiction and dialogue suited to short-form storytelling.

See also: constructed language, conlang, drabble, microfiction.