Xebriken

Overview

Xebriken is used as a universal language in the Kepek Commonwealth, it is taught and spoken throughout the empire alongside the local language of the region.

phonemes

Xebriken words are constructed from 17 letters:

4 are vowels, A, E, I, U

and 13 are consonants, B, D, G, K, L, M, N, P, R, T, V, W, X

These letters make roughly the same sounds they do in English (though as the Kepek have a very different mouth shape/throat anatomy, it's not exactly one to one).

Language structure

Sentence Order

Sentences in Xebriken usually follow the basic syntax of:

Object, Subject, Verb (O, S, V).

E.g. The phrase: "I pet the dog" becomes "the dog I pet".

Quick Facts

Language spoken by:

Dialects and spin-off languages

Old Xebriken

Xebriken Fonts

Installation guide:

Tense

similar to English, a verb's “base” form is its future tense. To indicate past tense, “'bid” is added to the end of the word. to indicate present tense “'vad” is added to the end of the word.

e.g.

"runet" (walk) becomes "runet'bid" (walked) in past tense and "runet'vad" (walking) in present tense.

Pluralisation

Xebriken has 4 types of pluralisation depending on the number of subjects.

For two, the suffix “'ve” is added to a word.
For three, the suffix “'vek” is added.
For a group of 4 or more, the suffix “'uvek” is used.
When talking about a population as a whole, or a large group of unspecified quantity the suffix “'Avek” is used.

So 1 Kepek would be written as "kepek"

2 kepek would be "kepek've"
3 kepek would be "kepek'vek"
A group of 4 or more kepek would be "kepek'uvek"
And The Kepek (as in the species as a whole) would be "Kepek'avek"
Adjective and Adverb Order
Descriptor words (adjectives and Adverbs) come after the noun or verb. E.g. the phrase: I softly pet the brown dog” becomes “The dog brown I pet softly”.
Making Adjectives from nouns
Many nouns in Xebriken nouns can be converted into an adjective by adding "gat'" to the front of the word. In English, this would be equivalent to describing something as "noun"-like. for example, dog-like.

so in Xebriken, you could say something is kepek-like by calling it "gat'kepek"

Xebriken Alphabet

The verbal components of Xebriken can be written in the Xebriken alphabet. Their alphabet is blocky, utilising lots of square shapes as it was developed with the use of low-resolution displays in mind. It is written horizontally from left to right.

A table with english lowercase letters on top, and the Xebriken equivelent on the bottom

Capitalisation

Xebriken uses a capitalisation system similar to English where the first letter of a sentence and the first letter of names of places and things are all capitalised. These kinds of capital letters are shown by writing the letter out normally and then adding a dash above it.

A table with english uppercase letters on top, and the Xebriken equivelent on the bottom. The Xebriken letters are almost identical to the ones above, except they have a dash above them

However, there is a second type of letter capitalisation used exclusively for the names of people (both first names and surnames). Instead of a dash, the letter has a long T-shape above it. This second set of capital letters are often called "name-case" letters.

name-case letters came about to easily distinguish between a person, and the place or thing they were named for. For example, the Veri'ep family name came from one of the early interstellar colony fleet's flagships

Blue text shows how the different forms of capitalisation are used with the name "Veri'ep". When talking about the ship, the Veri'ep the version of the Xebriken V with a dash above is used. When talking about the name Veri'ep, the version of the Xebriken V with the T shape above it is used

Numbers

Numbers in Xebriken (and most Kepeki languages) are written in a base 14 system. In simple terms, this means that instead of having symbols for 0 through to 9, then using multiple digits for anything above 10 (with 10 being a combination of the symbol 1 and 0), Xebriken has symbols for 0 through to 13, and numbers 14 and above are constructed with multiple digits.

single diget numbers are written with the following symbols:

A table containing the numbers 1 through to 13, as well as 0 on the end. Underneath it shows the symbols used in Xebriken for those same numbers

For double digit numbers, three dots are placed above the symbol for the first digit, while the second digit is written as normal. In triple digit numbers, the first digit has a dash above it (similar to standard capital letters), the second has the three dots, and the third is left unaltered. This pattern repeats for larger numbers.

A table showing the same numbers and symbols as the previous one, but this time the Xebriken symbols have three dots along the top

A table showing the same numbers and symbols as the previous one, but this time the Xebriken symbols have a dash above them

This pattern is used any time there are multiple clusters of numbers, for example when telling time. A digital clock, for example might display 6:00am like so:

6:00am written in the symbols listed above. The 6 has a dash above it, the first 0 has the three dots above it

Dictionary

The following is a list of words and their Xebriken translations

-coming soon-

Dialects and spin-off languages

Old Xebriken

Old Xebriken is the predecessor to the Xebriken language, spoken by the Kepek prior to their departure from their home world Xebrik. It is not commonly spoken any more, as the very anatomy of the Kepek has changed, making some of the pronunciation very difficult for modern Kepek.

Xebriken Fonts

Want to be able to write in Xebriken on your PC or use it in artwork? You can download the Xebriken fonts here!

Unfortunately, since these fonts are designed to be used on an English keyboard, they have some limitations, with the biggest being the numbers which can only go up to 0-9, but the letters and punctuation all mostly work fine. As english doesn't have a way to write name-case letters, those are stored in their own font, so when writing names of people, use the "Xebriken names" font, and for everything else, use the standard "Xebriken" font!

Download Xebriken Regular Font

Download Xebriken Names Regular Font

Installation guide:

For Windows 10/11 PCs:

Click the buttons above to get taken to the download link and click the download icon.
Once downloaded, click the file. A window will open filled with text in the font (it will look a little broken, that's normal, this is due to there being more available letters in the english language than in the Xebriken font).
Click "install" at the top of the window
All done! if you already had anything open, simply restart the program and it should now appear in your font list for all programs on your computer

For Mac:

Click the buttons above to get taken to the download link and click the download icon
Once downloaded, double click on the .ttf file to bring open the font in Font Book.
Click "install" in the bottom of the Font book pop-up window.
All done! if you already had anything open, simply restart the program and it should now appear in your font list for all programs on your computer

For Ipad (Procreate):

click the buttons above to get taken to the download link. click the "..." in the top corner and select download.
Once downloaded, open procreate and open a new canvas (or old one, it doesn't matter).
tap the spanner (wrench) icon in the top left, click "add" then "add text"
double tap your text, then select the current font to bring up the font select window.
tap "import font"
navigate to where you saved your files then select one of the Xebriken fonts.
repeat for the other font.
All done!