Words in q'ui'nlen' consist of one or more word segments. Most words consist of one segment. In q'ui'nlen', words alternate between primary consonants and vowels, not counting l, r, or consonant w, except between a secondary vowel and the next vowel. Thus when two primary consonants appear next to each other and the previous vowel was a primary vowel, it indicates division between words. Each word segment in q'ui'nlen' starts and ends in a primary consonant. The last consonant what type of word segment it is.
| Last letter | Purpose | Segment Type | Uses standard roots |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | Verbs | Terminal | Yes |
| d | Revert to standard roots | Prefix | Yes |
| f | Atomic nouns | Terminal | Yes |
| g | Subcategorizations of roots | Prefix | No |
| j | Adjectives and adverbs | Terminal | Yes |
| m | Letter pronouns | Terminal | No |
| n | Functional words | Terminal | No |
| n' | Special uses | Terminal | No |
| p | Thousand roots | Prefix | No |
| q | Numerical | Prefix | No |
| s | Proper nouns | Terminal | No |
| t | Variable nouns | Terminal | Yes |
| v | Conjunctions | Terminal | No |
| x | Proper nouns | Terminal | No |
| z | Proper nouns | Terminal | No |
Numerical Word Segments
There is a set of roots for numbers and letters separate from the standard roots. Word segments that use the set of roots for numbers and letters end in the letter q. The root for 1 is xw and the root for 4 is si so 14 is xwsiq. Since word segments ending in q cannot be the last segment of a word, we need to include a word segment that uses standard roots to end the word. This could be pab for amount or xub for number, which means 14 is xwsiqpab or xwsiqxub in q'ui'nlen'. These words consist of two word segments: xwsiq is one segment and the other is either pab or xub.
Subcategorization of Root Segments
Certain things are difficult to say with the standard roots, such as names of specific plants and animals. Syllables in g-segments follow the same format as the root words, but the syllables in g-segments do not have the meaning of the root words. For g-segments, what the segment means depends on the root immediately after the g-segment.
An example of a word with a g-segment is plegagqib which means "to be a rabbit". The first segment is plegag and the second segment is qib. In this case, the root that immediately follows the g-segment is qi, meaning animal. If the next root was something other than qi, then plegag could potentially mean something entirely different from "rabbit".
Thousand Root Word Segments
Word segments ending in p have syllables associated with numbers from 0 to 1026. There is also a formula to associate the same syllables with combinations of two letters. The p-segments are useful for representing things like countries or languages. Words for countries and languages are based on ISO-639 (for languages) and ISO-3166 (for countries).
For example, the ISO-639-1 code for the English language is "en" and the syllable associated with the letter combination "en" is v'wy and the root word for language is me, so v'wypmeb means "to be the English language."
Reverting to an Ordinary Word Segment
An example of a word with two segments is nylqmif which means "week". The two segments are nylq and mif. The segment nylq ends in the letter q so its syllables are roots representing numbers and letters instead of the standard roots. The root nyl means seven. The segment mif ends in f so it is a noun and its syllables come from standard roots. The root mi means "day" so nylqmif would literally translate "seven type of day".
Segments ending in the letter d use standard roots but are not the terminal segment of a word. These segments are used to revert back to standard roots when there is a segment in the word not using standard roots. For example, the root f'e means "religion", so f'ednylqmif can mean "holy week". This word has three segments: f'ed, nylq, and mif. If the word was f'enylqmif, then f'e would refer to a root in the numbers and letters category instead of standard roots. f'e is not defined in the numbers and letters roots, so the word would be nonsense.