Fek as a language was created organically through an online chat channel. The restrictions were that people were not allowed to speak any existing language, forcing them to communicate in a new language. The language that formed died sometime later, and I have gone and documented what I know of Fek here.
Introduction
Firstly, much of my knowledge comes from the chat where it all started, and due to the nature of the channel, most people reading this will not be able to access it. However, you can still find various resources through Fek’s online dictionary. The dictionary is, of course, also written in Fek, but there are images and sentence examples to help you understand without needing a complete knowledge of all the words.
Fek Proper
Greetings
The standard greeting in Fek is “Fek.” In online circles, “Pingu” is also used. “Pingu” appears to reference pings in online chats, specifically Discord, where the language originated. The term “Fek” itself, in Fek, has several different meanings. While it is a greeting, it also is the name of the language and is a suffix to indicate a language of a specific region (example: “murikaFek”).
To say bye, one can state “Bofek.” However, if you are checking the dictionary, you may notice that it also uses “Nifek.” I will explain the reason for this later, as it is one of the significant shifts in the evolution of the language itself.
Prefixes and Suffixes
Fek as a language has many different suffixes which change the meaning of words. There are some important prefixes, but there are many more suffixes.
Plurality, which is covered in the next section, uses suffixes. However, suffixes are commonly used to indicate the properties of a given noun. For example, the suffix “-ro” indicates that a noun is tall.
Prefixes also change the meaning of a noun; however, these appear to be more abstract. Take the example of the prefix “abe-,” which is used to increase the scope or size of an object. For example, the word “Babebe” means character or letter; when adding the prefix it becomes “Arebabebe,” which means word. The most commonly used prefix is “ni-“ or “bo-,” which gives the negative form of any word. An example is “Bofek,” as it is the opposite of “Fek.” It is important to note that “ni-“ is more often used as a prefix than “bo-“ is.
Plurality
Before we head into more complex territory, we must first discuss plurals. Plurality in Fek is shown using the suffices of “-(e)m” and “-(e)n.” I have looked for a while on what determines which suffix to use, yet I cannot come to a conclusion or set rule, and it appears that it is nearly random.
UPDATE: I was informed by an original speaker that my initial interpretation of plurality is incorrect. The suffix “-(e)m” indicates a place where something is. For example, “mekipa is tree, so [Mekipaem] means ‘tree-place (i.e. forest).’” The suffix “-(e)n” is used to indicate plurality, and it appears that the e is omitted when the word ends with a vowel.
Pronouns
Pronouns in Fek are relatively simple, as plural pronouns are merely conjugates of their singular counterparts, take, for example, the singular pronouns:
“Ki”: You
“Noi”1: I/Me
“Si”: It
“Ren”2: They (Singular)
Now we may look at the plural pronouns:
“Noien”: We
“Sien”: It (Plural)
“Renen”2: They (Plural)
Note that I could not find a pronoun that refers to a group of people you are speaking to (in English, “You all”). If it were to exist it would most likely be “Kien.” Aside from that, we can see how plural pronouns are formed based on their singular counterparts. Please note that Fek does not make any distinction between subject, object, and possessive pronouns.
Verb Conjugation
Before we can go into sentence structure, we must go over verb conjugation. Conjugation in Fek is very simple, as there are only three tenses a verb can be in: past, present, and future.
For past tense, you need to take the dictionary form of the verb and add “-t” to the end.
The present tense is already the dictionary form of the verb.
The future tense is the dictionary form of the verb with “-s” added to the end.
Sentence Structuring
General Sentence Structure
Sentences in Fek follow a [Subject] [Verb] [Object] format. For example:
“Noi e raqq”
In this sentence, “e” is the verb “is,” and “raqq” means good or happy. This allows us to translate this sentence as “I am happy.” We can use this general sentence structure to translate and create many sentences in Fek and note that if you wish to negate a verb, you need to add “bo”3 ahead of it.
Special Sentence Structuring
A language cannot be without inconsistency, and Fek is no exception. Many sentence structures must be addressed, as they are inconsistent with how Fek normally works.
Firstly, when introducing yourself you may first think that you must say:
“Noi sinke tailinsde e [Name]”
Note that “tailinsde” means name, and “sinke” indicates possession. However, the correct way to state your name is actually:
“Noi tailinsde [Name]”
This may be confusing, however, it gets worse. When introducing someone else’s name, you state:
“Tailinsde ki [Name]”
And when asking one’s name you state:
“Qua tailinsde ki”
There appears to be no good reason for why the words are switched in this situation.
Another important sentence structure is the usage of “no.” When using “no,” you must use an [Object] [Verb] [Subject] sentence structure instead.
Finally, when indicating time, the time should always be placed at the end of the sentence.
Question Words
Question words belong at the beginning of a sentence. Here is a list of the question words I have found:
“Qua”: What
“S’qua/Sami/Samo/Quy”4: Why
“Quo”: Where
“Quen”: When
Conditionals
Conditionals are the most complex aspect of Fek that I have discovered, and I think that there would be more interesting grammar if it had not died out. Here is how conditionals work:
“Washi [condition], [result].”
Numbering
Fek uses a base-5 numbering system. The numbering chart in the dictionary is incorrect, and a spreadsheet for numbering can be found here.
The evolution of the language
Fek evolved and grew, and many of the odd changes, especially in the dictionary, are a result of these growing pains.
For example, the use of “ni” instead of “bo” is because “bo” was a term later created as “ni” was too similar to the word “no,” and so as a compromise, many switched to using “bo” and “bofek” became the standard instead of “nifek.”
Another example of this is the pronoun “00,” which meant “noi” initially but fell out of fashion quickly.
These and many more are examples of how people work together to try and understand each other. And Fek is very interesting to observe and understand because one can see how words form from people attempting to work things out together.
Final Remarks
Ultimately I hope that I have given an adequate overview of Fek, and while I may have to make corrections to this for accuracy (I was not around when Fek was created, I am merely a person who is studying it after the fact) I hope that what I have done here not only interests people in Fek but in languages as a whole.
If you wish to learn more about Fek I have a document that is more of my rough thoughts when looking into it. You can find it here.
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Initially, “00” was a synonym for “Noi,” but it fell out of use quickly. ↩
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Both “Ren” and “Renen” are contested as pronouns because they could also be translated in all examples in the dictionary as “The person/people.” ↩ ↩2
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The dictionary uses “ni” instead of “bo.” ↩
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Note that these also mean “because.” ↩