Bayalora

Entering deeper into the clearing, he sees what looks to be a hut. The wood is rotten, the walls half-collapsed, the ceiling gone. Unsure as yet of poisonous fauna, he is reluctant to go into its overgrown shadows. He backs out into the light again. On the floor just inside the door he sees a book. He picks it up, but it falls apart in his hands. He tries to read a scrap on the floor and can just make out the book’s title printed at the top of the page and a few words in the middle:

A Bayalorian Primer
… contains the word “tayl”, signifying something that cannot by nature – that of the language or the ‘other’ – be described in the language. (Note:- it has a more familiar function signifying vagueness or unwillingness to be more precise, the use of which is becoming more common). The unique features of this word are further complicated by its indiscriminate use as verb, noun or adjective, offset slightly by the curious irregularity that it maintains its root form, regardless of the context, thus avoiding the complex conjugations that make this language so challenging.

He stands stiffly and moves on, trying to discern a path through the rotting metal figures.