Re: CHAT: Fonts (Re: CHAT: Constructed maps)

Ollock, something very bizarre happened to your message
when it was sent, so I'm not sure if all of it got through.  Here's
what came through on my end:

<<
<<<< Do you have ways to create fonts that can make character into
two or three different glyph types and arrange them into syllable
blocks? >>> I don't quite understand what you mean. If you use a
Windows computer, there's considerably less freedom in how many
glyphs you have, and where you can put them on the keyboard.>> I'll
give you a description i did for zompist forum to illustrate: Yeltax
has a really strange syllabic system called Kedeke (from an archaic
term for "scratch"). Each character stands for a single V or CV
syllable, which would be enough if Yeltax if it were like Japanese,
but it isn't. Yeltax syllable structure is roughly (C)(C)V(C), so to
write "complex" syllables, various characters are clustered into
blocks. To get an idea of how this works, I'll give a couple of word
examples. Gogo /gogo/ (= egg) is two simple syllables: "go" + "go" .
tya'ke. For example,in do'Kajex /do?kadZex/ (= "the Mind" -- the god
of the Xala):
 >>

I found your thread on the ZBB, though, so I see what you mean.

The first question I would have is, how did the language evolve
codas and complex consonant clusters?  If the current system
evolved from a previously (C)V system, then it would make
sense to have only (C)V characters.  It would also tell you how
each character was spelled already.  So, for example, you have
a word for crystal:

sgE (with some tones)

If the older proto form were...

*sigE

...then the word would be spelled "si" + "gE" (or "ke", or whatever
the original syllable was).  The vowel from "si" wouldn't be there
anymore, but one would expect the spelling system to be conservative.

Now, if over the years these vowels became redundant, you
might expect that something would happen to those characters.
So, if you had a rule that, for example, deleted all /i/'s in between
two consonants, then the "Ci" characters could be thought of as
consonant characters, and you might write them above the
writing line, or below, or smaller, like the little characters that
tell you the consonant is palatalized in Japanese (or a geminate).

Depending on how many of these types of consonants you had,
it'd be a relatively simple matter to do the font.  You'd have your
ordinary syllabary, and then a list of special characters that were
small, or whatever.  And, yes, it's relatively simple to create a
character that, if typed, appears over or under (or even to the
left of) the previous character.  This is what I did for the Proto-Drem
font.

I've also created a syllabary for a language with consonant
clusters, though it's not a font.  Essentially, what I did was I
created a glyph for every (C)(C)V possible.  In Gweydr (the
language it's for), a word may begin maximally with CrV, ClV,
CjV or CwV.  Thus, for each consonant, I created five different
sets of glyphs--e.g., for m, mrV, mlV, mjV, mwV and mV.
In addition to this, a word may also begin with an /s/, making
the max onset sC(r/l/w/j)V.  All I had to do was create a
modified /s/ glyph that could be attached to the front.  After
that, the codas were a simple matter.  I simply created a smaller
version of the basic shape of the ordinary onset glyphs for
each consonant, and they're stacked at the end.

Here's what that system looks like:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/gweydr/stone/

Paul:
<<
In Windows, you have the full set of around 4,000,000,000 unassigned
Unicode characters at your disposal (assuming you need to exceed the
6400-character Private Use Area), and with Microsoft's own Keyboard
Layout Creator (a free download), you have the full power of the
Windows IME system at your disposal for mapping from keystrokes to
glyphs.
 >>

Let me emend my statement, as you can, of course, do this with
Macs, too.  I haven't been able to figure out how to gain access
to all the Unicode blocks with my font program.  This is probably
because I've never read the manual.  Since you can automatically
map to the three shifts the Mac uses, and since I've never wanted
to be bothered to do anything else, this is what I know how to do.
I should one day figure out the Unicode, but thus far, I haven't
needed to.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

Reply