Teisinese

Teisinese is a constructed language designed for the fictional Teisi archipelago and used in speculative fiction, worldbuilding projects, and conlang communities. It was created by linguist Mara Lince in 2012 with the aim of offering a regular, learnable system that can support nuanced narration and dialogue. The name derives from Teis, the central locale in the imagined archipelago.

Teisinese has a relatively small phoneme inventory. Vowels are five: a e i o u. Consonants typically include p t k m n s l r j ʃ and a glottal stop. Stress is per word and tends to fall on the penultimate syllable in longer words. The standard writing system uses the Latin alphabet, with optional diacritics to indicate vowel quality; a historical in-world script exists in artifacts and some fan materials.

Teisinese is largely analytic, relying on word order and helper words rather than extensive inflection. The basic sentence structure is SVO. Noun phrases use demonstratives and numerals without agreement in gender or number. Nouns take postposed particles to indicate case and role, while tense and aspect are marked on auxiliary verbs and adverbs rather than on the verb itself. Personal clitics attach to the verb or to auxiliary words to indicate subject and, in some contexts, object.

The lexicon emphasizes transparent roots for everyday concepts, with regular sound changes. Borrowings from neighboring fictional language families appear in modern texts and media, often adapted to Teisinese phonology. Materials include a reference grammar, a beginner’s phrasebook, and active online resources, with a community of learners and creators.