jīlkena

jiilkena

jīlkena

jīlkena refers a letter of the alphabet. The collective form anīlkeni is thus the word for ‘alphabet’. There is an alphabet rhyme in Kēlen, but it doesn’t quite have all the letters. It does have all the letters of the interlace alphabet, though, so it must be an older rhyme. 🙂 It goes:

ā ē ō
ī iē ū
lā ñē tō
nā kā þō
mū cē sū
pāo wā jē
rā xō hē;

The syllables in the rhyme have become the names of the letters, so where the sentence says jīlkena cē, it means the letter ‘c’ or c.

temme ē jaþēλi ien jakā ānen ansāorīki ien jaxūna ānen anrūēli ī xiēn jē jāxīsse jīlke ī jāo ja la sūjatā ē jāo sūjōl ien jiēxa ānen jasēsi ī jōrrisi ē jatatēn ien ñi jīlkena cē jaþārre ōrra ē jawāññerāñi jīþi nā ī;

He said to him the ideas: the doings of consonants; the pattern of vowels, and also concerning the writing line and that which is beneath it and that above it; the usefulness of dots and end-marks; and the reason [something about the letter ‘c’] …