ellentétébl

Ellentétébl is a constructed language (conlang) created for speculative fiction and shared by a community of language developers. The name is formed from invented morphemes in the language, commonly interpreted as "light of the river" within its fictional culture.

Geographic and demographic context: In the in-world geography, Ellentétébl is spoken on the archipelago of Lérion, particularly on the western island of Nélra. Estimates place fluent speakers within a few hundred in-world individuals, though the language is primarily studied and enjoyed by hobbyists worldwide.

Linguistic features: Ellentétébl is usually treated as an isolate in-world, though the community notes convergent features with neighboring conlangs. It employs an SOV base order, with postpositions, evidential mood, and agglutinative morphology. Nouns show case markings for nominative and accusative, and verbs take aspect and mood markers. The phonology includes a 6-vowel system and a consonant inventory with palatal and glottal consonants; stress is penultimate.

Writing system: A Latin-based alphabet with diacritics is used, along with a phonemic orthography; diglossia exists between a formal ceremonial script and informal casual script. There's a standard orthography used in educational materials and fan fiction.

Status and use: Ellentétébl has no official community, but has active online resources, dictionaries, and learning guides; it's used in world-building, role-playing games, and academic-like discussions within conlanger communities. Ongoing documentation and revitalization efforts aim to maintain consistency across works.