Kilikili (fictitious language)

Kilikili - also referred to as Kiliki - is a fictitious language created by Madhan Karky for the blockbuster Baahubali. It was used in the movie as the language of the Kalakeyas - a ferocious warrior tribe. It is said to be the first fictitious language to be created for an Indian film character. ^[1]

Origins

While Karky was pursuing PhD in Australia, he took up a part-time job of teaching and baby-sitting kids.During one such interaction, he thought it would be fun to create a new language that could be easily grasped. Basic words were first made up and opposites were represented by word reversals - me was'min' and you was 'nim'.The language which introduced 100 new words was called Click to highlight its simplicity. This formed the foundation for Kiliki.^[2]

Characteristics

• Kilikili consists of at least 750 words and more than 40 concrete grammar rules
• It was designed to be an intuitive language - Karky said he used hard consonants and soft consonants depending on the nature of the word's meaning.
• The language was created keeping in mind that the Kalakeya warriors had to be portrayed as terrifying brutes.
• The language sounds the same in all the versions - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam - of Baahubali^[3]

References