Re: Capitalizations (Was: Re: Capitals in Greek (was: Re: Workshops Review #4))

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 22:01:27 -0800 Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
writes:
> Emaelivpar Robert Hailman:
> > ObConlang: I've been tossing around ideas for a script for Ajuk,
> and am
> > looking for alternative ideas for systems of capitalization from
> those
> > used in the Roman alphabet, and alphabets with no capitals.
> The Asha'illen script, called the sarapin, has an "importance" glyph
> that
> attaches to the beginning of any word you want to make important.
> I
> haven't quite worked out how often native Asha'illens feel the need
> to
> explicity importantize a word, so I currently do the average
> between English and Spanish capitalizations.
> --
> AA
-

The Rokbeigalmki alphabet has no capitals either.  What it does to mark
names is to mark the stressed vowel of the name with an accent mark.  So
if you have a sentence |stíígiyus sudgoiyat oz| you know that it means
"Stygius is tall" and not "a stygius is tall".  This is also used to
distinguish in writing between regular common nouns and
personalized/anthropomorphized common nouns (which are treated as names).
 So you can have |mefihs-a uza-ghalub| "the moon is rising" or |méfihs
uza-ghalub| "Moon is rising", which both mean the same thing.
However, it doesn't seem to be used with names that are
(semi-)transparently derived from words, so you write |rokbeigalm-a| "the
Rokbeigalm (=Waveriders)" without marking an accent, but |numyénaur|
"Numenor" with one.  Also, the place-name |^itahhalo^sednun| "Island of
Peace" is accent-less, while its (Elvish-influenced) short form name
|tólosed| is marked.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "i don't want to be
  going through the motions, losing all my drive.
  i can't even see if this is really me;
  and i just want to be alive."
     ~ 'going through the motions', buffy musical episode