Kern is a social network with a constrained vocabulary. Every word you write is checked against a shared dictionary. Words not in the dictionary are replaced with [---].
The dictionary starts with 64 semantic primes — irreducible concepts that exist in every human language — plus a small set of grammar glue words. The community can propose adding or removing words through a democratic process. The dictionary has a hard cap of 150 words.
The constraint is the point. When you cannot reach for a word, you must describe the concept it names. This forces precision, reveals assumptions, and produces a different kind of clarity.
Kern's vocabulary is built on Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory, developed by Anna Wierzbicka (Australian National University) and Cliff Goddard (Griffith University) over four decades of cross-linguistic research.
NSM proposes that all human languages share a small set of indefinable concepts — semantic primes — from which all complex meanings can be composed. These primes have been identified through empirical work across 30+ typologically diverse languages.
The 64 primes used in Kern (I, you, someone, something, people, body, this, same, other, one, two, some, all, many, much, good, bad, big, small, think, know, want, feel, see, hear, say, word, true, do, happen, move, there, be, have, live, die, when, now, before, after, long, short, time, moment, where, here, above, below, far, near, side, inside, touch, not, maybe, can, because, if, very, more, like, way, kind, part) are drawn directly from NSM research.