Knálish

Knálish is a constructed language (conlang) developed for fiction and worldbuilding by an online community of language enthusiasts. It is presented as a fully realized linguistic system within its fictional setting, with its own phonology, grammar, and writing style. The name Knálish reflects the community surrounding the project and is used for both the language and its speakers in the lore.

It uses a Latin-based alphabet with diacritics to mark vowel length and select contrasts. The phonology combines stops, fricatives, nasals, and approximants, with five basic vowels and occasional length distinctions. Letters are designed for a mostly phonemic orthography, and stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable. A mild pitch accent occurs in a subset of words, mainly for emphasis or questioning.

Knálish is primarily analytic with an agglutinative layer of affixes. The basic word order is SVO. Nouns can take suffixes for plurality and definiteness; pronouns distinguish singular/plural and inclusive/exclusive. Verbs mark tense and aspect with suffixes and auxiliary particles, while adjectives follow nouns. Negation and questions are formed with separate particles and intonation.

The language features a growing lexicon drawn from daily life, nature, and technology within its fictional world, and includes borrowings from related fictional languages. It has an active learner community, with grammars, dictionaries, and example texts shared online. Knálish is commonly used in fan fiction, role-playing games, and worldbuilding projects.

See also: Constructed language, Conlang community, Worldbuilding.