Eriopoez

Eriopoez is a fictional constructed language developed for speculative fiction and linguistic worldbuilding. It has appeared in a range of short stories and a standalone novella, where it serves to illustrate how language can encode social identity, power, and community belonging. The language is designed to be coherent enough for plausible dialogue while remaining a tool for narrative and worldbuilding exploration.

Phonology and writing: Eriopoez uses five vowels /a e i o u/ and a consonant inventory that commonly includes p t k m n s l r f h. Syllable structure is typically CV or CVC, though occasional CCV clusters occur in borrowed words. Stress is generally final or penultimate, depending on word formation. The writing system is an alphabet of roughly two dozen letters, with a romanization commonly used in fan resources. Some world-building materials also depict a complementary syllabary for ceremonial use.

Grammar and syntax: The language follows a subject–object–verb (SOV) base word order and is predominantly agglutinative, attaching suffixes to nouns and verbs to indicate case, number, tense, aspect, mood, and evidentiality. Noun phrases place adjectives after the nouns they modify. Core grammatical relations are marked by suffixes rather than prepositions, and there is an explicit inclusive/exclusive distinction in the first-person plural pronoun. The evidential system distinguishes direct, indirect, and inferred knowledge, shaping discourse and reporting.

Lexicon and usage: Word formation relies on roots combined with productive affixes, enabling a wide range of predicates from kinship to ritual term designations. Borrowings from neighboring imagined languages appear in loanwords for technology and trade. In fiction, Eriopoez often signals social hierarchy, regional affiliation, and cultural memory through its loanword patterns and formal speech registers.

Reception and in-fiction role: Among fans and writers, Eriopoez has inspired amateur dictionaries and learning guides, contributing to debates about naturalistic conlang design while remaining firmly rooted in a fictional context.