Re: Conscripts 101

Chris wrote:
<<
The common masses, without the benefit of education, started
simplifying and abbreviating the formal writing, so much so that the
abbreviated versions became ideographic representations of the
corresponding words, and the ideography stuck when the upper caste
was cast off.
 >>

A similar thing happens with my Kamakawi script.  I'm afraid I'll
just have to describe it, because I don't have the appropriate images
up.

I have two languages, Zhyler and Kamakawi, that aren't related,
but are supposedly in close proximity to one another.  Zhyler has
its own script:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/zhyler/orthography.html

As does Kamakawi (no page yet, but the Babel Text image is a
good sample):

http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/babel.html

Of course, the Zhyler speakers, with their alphabetic script, look
down their noses at the largely ideographic Kamakawi script.  As
a result, they've provided them with a "civilized" alphabetic script
which is described here:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/zorthography.html

Naturally, no one uses that script (except for Zhyler speakers),
but there has been a lot of borrowing between the two languages.
One item that was borrowed was a noun class suffix from Zhyler
which Kamakawi speakers use to make native words for functional
objects borrowed from Zhyler speakers.  In Zhyler, it's /-Sa/
(and can change, depending on the preceding coda consonant
and the vowel prior), which becomes /-tia/ in Kamakawi.  The
Kamakawi took the way you write /-Sa/ in Zhyler and turned it
into a glyph which now stands for that suffix.  It's exactly the
way you would write the Zhyler letters for /S/ followed by /a/,
but written in a style that fits in with (or as nearly as possible)
the native Kamakawi script.

This is kind of a limited version of what you're describing in your
system (which would, rather than being a couple of suffixes, be
an entire writing system).  I think it could happen, but on such a
large scale, it's difficult to imagine.  It would certainly be
interesting
to see, though!

-David
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"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

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