Kiehuvar

Kiehuvar is a constructed language developed for the fictional archipelago of Vayra. It was devised by a language hobbyist in the early 2010s as part of a worldbuilding project. The language is designed to be expressive and systematic, featuring an agglutinative morphology and a moderate phoneme inventory that supports nuanced everyday speech and literary style.

Phonology and grammar: Kiehuvar has a phonemic set of five vowels and a consonant inventory that includes p, t, k, s, h, m, n, l, r, and v. Stress typically falls on the penultimate syllable. The basic word order is subject–object–verb (SOV). Nouns inflect for number and four grammatical cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative). There is no definite article; demonstratives and possessives mark specificity. Adjectives follow the nouns they modify. Verbs encode aspect and mood primarily through suffixal affixes, with tense conveyed by auxiliary particles and verbal morphology. An evidential system distinguishes direct, reported, and inferred information.

History and development: Kiehuvar originated as a private project around 2010–2012, with a community of contributors later documenting the grammar and building a lexicon. Over time, discussions and revisions produced a relatively stable form that is now used by enthusiasts in written texts and fan-fiction within hobbyist communities. It has no native speakers in real life and exists mainly as a hobbyist language.

Usage and resources: In its fictional setting, kiehuvar serves as a lingua franca among coastal communities of Vayra and as a vehicle for poetry and ritual speech. Learners commonly use a romanization system, while a syllabic script has been proposed. Public resources include a grammar guide and an open-access dictionary.