https://github.com/quarterback/kels
Written Neloxian Rules
https://github.com/quarterback/kels
Last synced: 12 days ago
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Written Neloxian Rules
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/quarterback/kels
- Owner: quarterback
- Created: 2026-07-08T04:16:22.000Z (17 days ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-07-08T04:23:07.000Z (17 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-07-08T06:09:26.509Z (17 days ago)
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 56.6 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
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README
# Nelô kēļ — the Nelôxi language
The working repository of the Nelôxi language (*nelô kēļ*): reference grammar, course, dictionary, worldbuilding, and the governance materials of the Kēļs Kolēgi (College of Language).
**Current canon: v5.77 · 2,003 headwords · ruling log through §146.**
The live figure always lives in `data/version.json` and the charter's §7 header; the website shows it in the sidebar and footer. If a number here ever lags, those are the source of truth.
## Website
Browse the whole repository as a site: **https://quarterback.github.io/kels/**
It reads the canonical files directly (never a stale copy) — the coursebook and verb reference as formatted pages, a live-searchable dictionary (Nelôxi → English) and the English → Nelôxi reverse index, the grammar modules, the reader texts, the world layer, the dialect overlays, and the College's charter, doctrine, and briefs. A version stamp (from `data/version.json`) and the repository's last-commit time show, on every page, that you are seeing the latest. Static, no build step: `index.html` plus `assets/`. To serve it, point GitHub Pages at the branch root (Settings → Pages). To preview locally, run `python3 -m http.server` in the repo root — opening `index.html` as a `file://` path blocks the fetches the site relies on.
## Repository structure
```
coursebook/nelo-kel-coursebook.md ← CANON. The single source of truth (grammar + master dictionary).
coursebook/VERB-REFERENCE.md ← the verb system, digested
grammar/ ← foundation teaching modules (01 partitive … 12 numbers; no 05)
college/kels-kolegi-charter.md ← contributor protocol + full ruling log + collision list (§7)
college/CREOLE-PRINCIPLE.md ← THE standing vocabulary doctrine (§79): borrow first, five co-primary quarries
college/FUNCTION-WORDS.md ← high-frequency glue already in canon (anti-leak cheat-sheet)
college/*-BRIEF.md ← briefs for the delegate, corpus, and daily-life agents
bundles/ ← self-contained agent kits (domain / corpus / grammar / translation)
world/ ← the settled world: geography, boundaries, gazetteer, toponymy, exonyms
reader/ ← finished corpus texts (recipe, dialogue, register showcase)
dialects/ ← regional overlays on the standard (metrolect, inland)
data/dictionary.tsv ← machine-readable headword → gloss (generated)
data/headwords.txt ← flat headword list (generated)
data/reverse-index.md ← English → Nelôxi index (generated)
data/version.json ← canon version, headword count, last ruling (generated)
tools/regen_data.py, regen_reverse.py, build_bundles.py ← the regenerators
index.html, assets/ ← the website (fetches the repo files live)
archive/ ← design archive (internal; not reference material)
```
## The one rule that matters
**The coursebook is the single merge target.** All canonized vocabulary and grammar lives there and only there. The charter's collision list (§7), the `data/` files, the grammar-module and brief snapshots, and the bundles are *generated from* the coursebook after each merge — derived artifacts, never edited by hand. If any file disagrees with the coursebook, the coursebook wins and the other file gets regenerated (`tools/regen_data.py && tools/regen_reverse.py && tools/build_bundles.py`).
## How the language grows
Nelôxi is a multi-agent conlang. Grammar is Livonian-Karelian Baltic-Finnic; vocabulary is a **five-way maritime creole** — the governing doctrine is `college/CREOLE-PRINCIPLE.md` (§79): when a gap opens, borrow from whichever of the five co-primary quarries (Low German, Slavic, Scandinavian, Romance-Latin, Finnic-core) owns the domain, rather than defaulting to a Finnic derivation.
1. A delegate agent takes a domain batch, a corpus text, or a live translation, working from one self-contained bundle in `bundles/`.
2. The batch is submitted with collision notes in the charter's format.
3. The Rector reviews against canon, rules on gaps, reshapes collisions and source-language leaks, and merges accepted words into the coursebook.
4. The charter's ruling log records the decision; §7, `data/`, and the bundles are regenerated.
Nothing is canon until merged.
## Reference grammar, in brief
Finnic grammar under four-way loan contact: agglutinative cases, vowel harmony, no verb agreement, pre-verbal negation *äb*, a bare-stem imperative and hortative *-m*. Base-12 (dozenal) numbers with Slavic digits, a 24-hour clock, and a Low German merchant calendar. The productive derivational affixes are **-ji, -õr/-ôr, -in, -mus/-mys, -ū, -stā, -ldā, -ām/-äm, -tū/-ty** (plus causative -tā and the comparative -mi). Orthography uses **ô** [ɤ] (not õ, retired v4.0); x = [ʃ], or [ks] in proper nouns (§47). Two dialects: the metroplex metrolect (standard) and the conservative inland.
The language is also **pluricentric**: alongside the Metropolitan standard (the coursebook) stands **Saharannaise** (`saharannaise/`), the co-standard of **Atlanta** — Nelôxia's sovereign sister state on the Atlantic Saharan coast (see `world/atlanta-lore.md`) — which keeps the identical Nelôxi grammar but reroots its domestic lexicon in Hassaniya Arabic and Zenaga Berber. It is self-contained in its own section (own seat, own separately-counted lexicon) and links back to core canon rather than editing it — see `saharannaise/saharannaise.md`.
## Register
Reference materials treat Nelôxi as a language, full stop. Design history and source discussion live only in `archive/` and the charter's backstage sections, never in the coursebook.