Kenmeca (translating roughly to "Life's Call for Meaning") is the written and spoken language of the Kendan people. Written as a partially hieroglyphic language to convey basic meanings in early days, it has evolved to suit the purpose of those who speak it well enough to get by, with little changes aside from additions based on what is needed for people to move onward.
Major Structural Notes:
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The glyphs listed above are all the absolute base syllables for the language. Anything more complex is made of these syllables in different orders and quantities as needed.
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They were made taking into account sounds that would be easiest for people with a certain kind of larynx to make without hurting their throats. Thus, certain sounds aren't factored into the language. When such a sound is encountered, one can try to approximate it, but there are some sounds that tend to be dropped entirely.
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Syllables are words all their own, and consist almost exclusively of two letters with little to no concept of silent characters. Reflecting this, each letter of a
word is represented as two strokes in the glyph, and are meant to illustrate the concept in some way. -
The exceptions, called simply Power Words, are given additional purpose as magic-imparting sigils due to being fragments of the names of gods themselves. These will have two extra strokes, with at least one of the strokes being curved. Power Words are rarely invoked outside the context of sigils, their place as syllables in the names of gods, and in mortal names as a sign of how deeply the parents value their child.
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Adding "ze" as a suffix to a descriptive word denotes that it is the opposite. "Te", for example, means soft. But "teze", literally "no soft", means "hard". Similarly, "De" indicates that it is especially so. "Tede", "Yes soft", means "Very soft"
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"Be" and "sh" function as past and future tense modifiers, respectively, when made part of a larger word. "Be" is a prefix to signify past tense, "sh" is a suffix to signify future tense.
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Nouns are primarily a per-item or per-creature basis; A name in Kenmeca is made up of words to describe it, either being a phrase or a list of visual details. The order of syllables in a description can denote the prominence of that word when referring to a noun. To this end, the names can sometimes be shortened down based on what is deemed most important.
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Proper Nouns, especially names, work the same way, but typically gain extra meaning based on the character of those who bear them previously. Emphasizing different syllables in a name is an important distinction to some, as people might want to focus on a particular aspect of their image. The syllables can be cute, but in the end a name is supposed to mean "This person who has the name and everything they are as a person"
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Transliterating names from other languages into Kenmeca is similar to Romaji; You use the syllables that sound closest to the name. Because names are meant to be "This person", the meaning of the syllables doesn't particularly matter to start with. "Donald", for example, would become "Donalede" (Do-na-le-de), and "Abigail" would become "Azbegela" (Az-be-ge-la)
To wrap this all into a sentence:
"Iz ti weze, nd yi ri, Tomase. Poti qu, nd nano. An po. Siyimebe, Suzero", would translate to "I am close, and moving fast, Thomas. Be calm, and good night. Love you. Signed, Mother."