Sino-Mini (小舌)
Sino-Mini or 小舌 (xiǎo shé) is a minimalistic constructed language based on Mini using Chinese vocabulary.
About 1,000 words, each written with one Simplified Chinese character: an idealized vision of Chinese in which word and character correspond exactly. A regular, purely analytic grammar uses simple particles and strict word order, with no tense, inflection, or conjugation.
The vocabulary comes from modern Mandarin, but the more explicit grammar, including marked participles, may feel alien to Chinese speakers. Much should remain intelligible in writing. Think of Chinese smelted down and refined into a language of its own.
Its simplicity makes it a possible auxiliary language, though learning the characters remains a hurdle. Strict word order might even allow toneless speech despite the homophones; that remains untested. Above all, it is a thought experiment: how simple can a language become while staying close to one spoken by over a billion people?
A quatrain by Du Fu
杜甫 · Second of Two Quatrains (绝句二首·其二)
河 诶 绿。鸟 诶 更 白。
hé ēi lǜ。niǎo ēi gèng bái。
The river is green; the birds, whiter still.
山 诶 绿。花 咿 像 啊 火。
shān ēi lǜ。huā yī xiàng ā huǒ。
The mountains are green; the flowers are like fire.
我 咿 再 视 可 这 春 诶 近 终。
wǒ yī zài shì kě zhè chūn ēi jìn zhōng。
Once more, I watch this spring nearing its end.
在 可 年，我 咿 再 到 啊 家？
zài kě nián，wǒ yī zài dào ā jiā？
In what year will I return home?
A spring landscape gives way to the question of returning home. Translated from the Classical Chinese into Sino-Mini, with pinyin and English renderings.
Read & learn
- Reference grammar
- The complete rules, from writing and word order to verb stacking and clauses. 155 numbered examples.
- Vocabulary
- The 984 official words, with pinyin and meanings. Phrase examples illustrate ordinary grammar without adding words.
- Reading samples
- The Tortoise and the Hare, the Tower of Babel, and an abridged adaptation of Meditations on Moloch.
- Vocabulary notes
- Consolidations, deliberate meaning shifts, and the separate list of poor matches.
Take a copy
Wordlist (CSV) · Grammar (Markdown)
Reference 1.6.2 · Vocabulary revision 8 · 9 September 2026