Re: Alphabet

On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

> I heard it called the "plosive" mark in James Heisiger's book on learning
> hiragana.  :-p  I like this feature of Japanese a lot, though I haven't
> had an opportunity to steal it for a conscript yet.
I have, though in a not quite original way, since the old, syllabic
writing system of Nyenya'a ("Nyenyakana") is based on Hiragana, but
different in that there are characters for:

(note "e" is /E/; its just easier to write "e" than "E")

a       i       u       e       o
as Hiragana

ka      ki      ku      ke      ko
as Hiragana

sa      si      su      se      so
as Hiragana (N. /si/ is J. /Si/

ta      ti      tu      te      to
as Hiragana, but /ti/ is J. /tSi/ and /tu/ is J. /tsu/

na      ni      nu      ne      no
as Hiragana

xa      xi      xu      xe      xo
as Hiragana "h" series, /xu/ is J. /fu/

ma      mi      mu      me      mo
as Hiragana

ja      ji      ju      je      jo
as Hiragana, but /ji/ is from the character for "big", and /je/ is
backwards Hiragana "yo", with the horizontal line intersecting the
vertical.

ra      ri      ru      re      ro
as Hiragana

wa      wi      wu      we      wo
as Hiragana, but /wi/ is derived from the character that is the past
marker in Chinese /le/ (tone?), /we/ is the katakana "ra", and /wo/ is the
second Hiragana "o", the one that is in the "w" series, while "wu" is a
cool squiggle I invented that fits with the rest of the kana.

da      di      du      de      do
Nyenyakana "t" series with voice marker

tsa     tsi     tsu     tse     tso
Nyenyakana "t" series with little circle

ba      bi      bu      be      bo
Nyenyakana "x" series with voice marker

pa      pi      pu      pe      po
Nyenyakana "x" series with little circle

la      li      lu      le      lo
Nyenyakana "r" series with little circle

Na      Ni      Nu      Ne      No
Nyenyakana "n" series with voice marker

?a      ?i      ?u      ?e      ?o
Nyenyakana "k" series with voice marker

? = Hiragana "n"

Modern Nyenya'a is written in an alphabetic script derived from the
cursive form of Nyenyakana, and where

/a/ is from Nyenyakana "a"
/i/ - "i"
/u/ - "u"
/e/ - "e"
/o/ - "no"
/k/ - "ka"
/s/ - "si"
/t/ - "tu"
/n/ - "nu"
/x/ - "xi"
/m/ - "mu"
/j/ - "ja"
/r/ - "ri"
/w/ - "wu"
/d/ - "de"
/ts/ - "tso"
/b/ - "ba"
/p/ - "pu"
/l/ - "lo"
/N/ - "Na"
/?/ - "?"
/q/ - "?" with a bar through it.

The numbers are derived from the Arabic numbers, for example, 1 is a line,
2 looks like a 3 and 3 looks like a 3 with an extra belly.

> I think I'm probably overly biased with the fact that Korean's the only
> non-Roman alphabet system I'm really comfortable with (I only know some of
> the hiragana, a few of the katakana, and random Greek letters from physics/
> math).  Thus far my two conscripts have *both* been based somewhat on
> Korean, and look quite related to each other (which fact doesn't bother me)
>   if you allow for the different phonologies, the fact that Czevraqis is
> written vertically and Tasratal horizontally, and letter-arrangements.
Well I feel most at home with Roman and Cyrillic, though I can read Greek
slowly, I know the Runes well and know Hiragana quite thoroughly,
especially since I decided Nyenya'a uses/used Hiragana. This is the first
time I have ever invented a script, if you consider adding a few
characters to Hiragana and then simplifying the syllabary into an alphabet
to be inventing a script...

> I create conscripts but use romanization for my own convenience.  I do
> like to write out vocabulary in the conscript for my own practice, though,
>   and I can actually "read" and write Czevraqis pretty decently now.
> Tasratal will take time, but then, I just invented the script two days ago
> during Adolescent Development.  <squirm>  Perhaps this weekend I can get
> it up on the web for the perusal of the curious.
The Nyenya'a dictionary is written exclusively in Nyenya'a alphabetic (the
Nyenya'a words, anyway, not the Hungarian glosses), though at the
beginning of it there is a Nyenya'a alphabet to IPA chart. The bits of the
Quran I have translated are written in the square form of Nyenyakana,
which is normal Nyenyakana with influence from the Arabic square
script. BTW there are three forms of Nyenyakana: one is the "normal" or
"plain" form, which is like Hiragana in its formation; the second is the
"square" form; and the third is what I call "monoline cursive", in which
the characters are like the Hiragana forms but written with a single
continuous line - this is what the alphabetic is derived from.

>
> I am amazed by those who devise syllabaries and logographic conscripts.  I
> can't come up with that many shapes without looking at existing scripts.
> :-)
Hm, I wish I could do that; I had a hard enough time learning an already
existing one (hanzi).

---frank

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