File:Kesh aiha LeGuin Always Coming Home alphabet.svg

A basic chart of the aiha ("new") alphabet for the fictional Kesh language in Ursula K. Le Guin's book Always Coming Home (ISBN 0-06-015456-X). The Kesh letters are listed in the order of the Kesh alphabet. In each row of the chart, the conventional Latin-alphabet transliteration used by Le Guin is shown beneath the corresponding Kesh letter. In cases where an International Phonetic Alphabet "broad transcription" of the main sound written by the Kesh letter is different from this conventional transliteration, the IPA is shown beneath the transliteration (however, the special shape of "[g]" in IPA is not considered sufficiently different here). (The transliteration is shown in a serif font, while the IPA is in a sans-serif font.) Other allophones which can be written by Kesh letters are ignored. (Note that a [ð] sound can be written by the Kesh "d" letter or the Kesh "r" letter in various contexts.)

The letters transliterated "y" and "w" can be used to write parts of diphthongs (other than [ai] and [ou]). Alternative letter-forms shown in the Le Guin book (i.e. variants of the letters transliterated "g" and "hw" with a central cross-bar, small variants of some of the vowel letters, and a doubled form of the circumflex gemination diacritic) are not included in this chart.

The special suffix "-z" is used in the spoken Kesh language in positive present-tense factual sentences about real living people, and places which are not considered remote. It is not used in sentences about speculative, hypothetical, or fictional situations, or which refer to dead people, or which have negative or future-tense or past-tense verbs. It is also not used in making abstract or general statements. The two symbols indicating the -z suffix and the absence of the -z suffix are not considered part of the ordinary alphabet, and are not commonly used in most types of writing, but are connected to aspects of Kesh philosophy.

In the chart (where a brief description is needed), the -z suffix is called the "here and now" suffix, since some grammarians or linguists would likely use that terminology (hic et nunc in Latin). However, the suffix is not restricted to things immediately happening right here and now -- it can be used to describe events which the speaker is confident are happening in "local places", and at a time which does not require the use of past, future, conditional, or subjunctive verb forms...