obliki

Obliki is a fictional linguistic category used in speculative linguistics and worldbuilding to describe a class of oblique grammatical forms that mark spatial orientation or perspective in verbs and nouns. The term is not widely attested in real-world languages and is primarily found in constructed languages, fictional grammars, and linguistic experiments designed for storytelling or theory testing. Etymology: the name blends the English word oblique with a suffix -iki, a stylistic nod to suffixal patterns found in some Slavic languages to evoke plurality or collectivity in form.

Definition and scope: Obliki forms are typically suffixes or fused morphemes that attach to a root to indicate directional viewpoint, such as relation to a reference frame or the speaker’s perspective. Some systems treat obliki as affecting only verbs, others as applying to nouns as well, and some separate obliki from aspect or case marking. The exact meaning of an obliki mark can vary by language within a fictional world, often encoding information about direction, obliquity, or vantage point relative to a participant in the discourse.

Morphology and use: In typical fictional grammars, obliki is implemented as a paradigmatic set of markers that accompanies core tense, aspect, or case. They may interact with other markers, requiring concord with person, number, or spatial referenced points. Writers use obliki to compress spatial information and to convey how an action or state relates to the surrounding space from the narrator’s or participant’s frame.

See also: Oblique case, Morphology, Worldbuilding language design.