Re: Alphabet

On Fri, 2 Nov 2001 00:02:10 EST David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
writes:
> In a message dated 11/1/01 8:10:44 PM, fortytwo@GDN.NET writes:
> << Korean hangul is also based on phonetic principles, but I don't
> know
> much of the details.  Yoon Ha would probably know more. >>
>     From what I've seen, the [m] is a box, which kind of looks like
> a closed
> mouth, and then if you look at the rest as a side view with the
> mouth facing
> left, you see that t/d/n have a line touching the upper line that
> would
> correspond to the alveolar ridge.  It's really neat.  But yeah, I'm
> curious
> to hear Yoon Ha's explanation.
> -David
-

I designed the writing system for one of my conlangs, Tierean/Gabwe,
based on Korean principles, with similar basic shapes for different
points of articulation.  However, since i don't actually know Korean, i
was working from the Unicode chart which didn't really help me pin-point
exact differences.  And there were different sounds needed, so i just
made it "Korean-esque" instead of actually borrowing straight from Korean
like i had originally lazily planned :-) .

It ended up looking like:

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~bh11744/gabwe/Gabwe.gif

There are different styles of arranging the letters shown in this (old)
example.
The big black letters on top and the green letters in the boxes are
Korean-style 'one syllable per visual-unit box' style.
The blue is just a listing of the different letters in the alphabet:
(from left to right)
top: / p t k b d g w r j R h /
bottom: / a E i u a: E: i: u: /
/r/ = tap/flap ; /R/ = velar/uvular approximant
The bottom and right chains are in "beads on a string" style, where the
vowel nucleas of each syllable is arranged in a line with the consonants
around it in a line.

Now, of course, whenever i see Korean written i end up trying to read it
as if it were Tierean, which doesn't exactly work because the letters
aren't the same.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "save tonight, and fight the break of dawn."
     ~ eagle eye cherry