Re: CHAT: ConScripts

Hi all,

Michael Adams wrote, on Friday, July 07:
> Anyone here do any work in conscripts and like? Such as the
> script that was devised for the Cree Indians and then later
> adapted for Inuits (Eskimos).
>
> Myself got into paleographics and it got me in linguistics via
> that way.
------------------------------

Sally Caves replied:
...
> A sample of mine can be found at
> http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/alphabet.html
Lovely site, Sally!  Your explanations would make
sense, even to a noncon[langer], I think.  I find
your script samples a little indistinct, perhaps
because of the "parchment" background - or is
it a palimpsest? ;-)

I've started to follow a few of your links; some
are (ineveitably, I think) broken, but others do
yield up some treasures.


> You'll find that a great number of us have invented scripts for our
> conlangs.  One of the most astonishing is Sylvia Sotomayor's at
> http://www.terjemar.net/saying.php.
Must look at that.


> I've seen some equally spectacular scripts over at ZBB.
Hmmm, haven't visited there in ages ...
So much creativity, so little time!

------------------------------

Gary Shannon replied:
> I have long had an interest in what I called
> "cyberglyphics" or the art and science of computer
> generated symbols. I have a couple of glyph design
> programs I wrote on my website at:
> http://www.fiziwig.com/glyph/glyphs.html
I've renewed my acquaintance with these
today.  Gary, I really enjoy using version 2.0
of GlyphMaker.  I won't begin to suggest
improvements (altho I do have some wishes!)
because I know how precious time is.  But if
you should ever want some input on how the
program could be even more useful, just ask.
Today, I was focussing on cursive letterforms,
and was amazed at just how many different
forms one can create using a small set of
elements.


> Plus the partial reconstruction of my ancient
> pictographic language at
> http://www.fiziwig.com/glyph/piktok.html
>
> The original was very well developed with a vocabulary
> of around 2200 words, but I lost it years ago (pre
> computer age) in a fire and haven't gotten around to
> reconstructing it yet.
And haven't touched it since 2003, I see ...
That's a pity, because I suspect that if ever
an IAL stood a reasonable chance of being
really useful, something along these lines might
be it (perhaps supplemented by spoken Ilomi?)

I recommend GlyphMaker 2.0 to anyone who
hasn't got a font design tool on computer - and
even those who have, but want to have some fun
with an interactive tool for designing characters.

Alright, Gary, I guess I lied: I *do* have one
suggestion for improvement: _macros!_  Let the
user define #<name># as any legal command
string, where <name> is any string of ASCII char-
acters; then the glyph command would substitute
the macro string for every occurrence of the
macro #<name>#.  You could hold the macro
definitions, just like the glyph command strings,
in a text file.  Heck, it could be the *same* file -
just restrict legal macro names to [previously
defined (hence smaller)] glyph code numbers.

"I'd like to see that!"

Regards,
Yahya


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