>From: taliesin the storyteller <taliesin@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Fun with orthography
>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 21:13:53 +0200
>
>[Scroll down to the line looking like this:
>------------------------------------------
>for the fun stuff]
>
>The orthography, or actually the _transliteration_ of my conlang târuven
>into a more or less latin-looking alphabet, has changed quite a few
>times, and no doubt it'll change even more.
>
>At first, long vowels and consonants were capitalized, and I wondered
>how to write diphthongs. (Yep, I was inspired by klingon, see
>
http://www.kli.org/):
>
>tAruven
>
>Then, I showed length with a colon, and used diacritics on the second
>member of a diphthong. (The length-marking wasn't original either but
>I don't know where I got that from.):
>
>ta:ruven sa?yár:a (târuven, river, fire)
>
>Now, I show length with an acute on the vowels, and doubling the
>consonants:
>
>târuven sa?yárra
>
>The latest change is that aspiration and breathiness is shown by an <h>
>and not an apostrophe:
>
>'reged' > hregedh (evolution, gradual change)
>
>Furthermore, getting rid of the comma (which shows palatalization) would
>be nice, to say the least.
>
>I'd say the look has improved, wouldn't you agree? (Not to mention that
>searching for words has become easier; search-engines tend to croak on
>non-alphabetic signs.)
>
>Now to the point: as Mark Rosenfelder shows in the Language Construction
>Kit (at
http://www.zompist.com/kitlong.html#alphabets):
>
> "In my fantasy world, for instance, Verdurian D^arcaln and
> Barakhinei Dhârkalen are not pronounced that much differently, but
> the differing orthographies give each a different feeling. Surely
> you'd rather visit civilized D^arcaln than dark and brooding
> Dhârkalen? (Tricked you. It's the same place.)"
>
>the orthography chosen affects the mood and feel of a language. So, one
>wants to experiment with that look and feel.
>
>------------------------------------------
>
>The best way for _me_ to get the feel of a language's visual properties
>is by looking at lots and lots of text in it (trying not to read
>it). However, testing changes in such a text by manually changing, say,
>all h'es after unvoiced consonants but not the ones anywhere else can
>be quite a chore. (A further problem is that there aren't lots and lots
>of things written in târuven yet, for several reasons.) Therefore, I've
>been looking for a mechanized solution, and I think I have it:
>
>I use the before mentioned M. Rosenfelder's [*] sounds-program (at
>
http://www.zompist.com/sounds.htm) to change _English_ text into his
>mock-phonemic orthography (see
http://www.zompist.com/spell.html), and
>then doctor that a little, and then I use sounds again, to produce an
>"English as written in târuven"-version, and hey presto! lots and lots
>of text! Now it becomes possible to use sounds again, to adjust the
>orthography further. Here's an examplei, using the paragraph above:
>
> ðe best we?f?_mî_ ta get þe fîl av a laqguídjes viz,ull prapatîs
> is ba?lukiqg at lats and lats av tekst in it (tcaìiqg nat ta
> oîd it). Haòeve, testiqg tceìndjes in satc a tekst ba?men,ulli
> tceìndjiqg, se? al eìdjes afte anv?sed kânsnants bat nat þe oáns
> anio?els kan bi koáìt a tc? (A fâþe poáblm is þat þê ânt lats and
> lats av þiqs oítnn in târuven ,et, f?seveoál oísâns.) Thêf? aìv
> bin lokiqg f?a mekhanaìzd salucan, and a?þiqk a?hev it:
>
>(Yes, it did take a bit of manual tuning). The paragraph above is now
>ready to be experimented with. Is this neat or what?
>
>[*] Anyone play "Traveller" here? :)
>
>
>t.