Re: Mixed writing systems

Steg Belsky wrote:
> Unfortunately i can't remember what the conlang or the
> manga was called... i do remember that the conlang used a very
> non-Japanese phonology, though.
The manga was called (in English) Crest of Stars, I forget the Japanese
name.  I can't remember the name of hte language, but I do remember that
it was said to be derived from Japanese.

Ah, a quick Google reveals that the Japanese name was Seikai no
monshou.  The people are called the Abh, and they use an *alphabet* to
write their language.  From the site:

The Abh were created by a nationalistic minority group of Japanese who
tried to exclude all foreign influence on their culture.  Because the
Japanese language developed under the strong influence of other
languages (e.g. Chinese) from its early days, they had to recreate a new
language from ancient Japanese to achieve their purpose. Obviously this
process was too artificial; how can you fit the language of 2000 years
ago into the modern life? Inevitably the new language was rather
complicated and strained.

Such was the first language that the Abh were given. Inevitably the
language changed quickly soon after they left Earth. As one can guess, a
language used in a small closed society drifts away from its original
form very fast. The drift was accelerated further by the fact that the
Abh didn't have an alphabet. The creators of the Abh did not want them,
mere slaves, to develop their own culture and thought that giving an
alphabet (a written language) would only encourage it. Later, when they
declared their independence, the Abh created their own alphabet.

Anyway the deviation was so large the current Abh language hardly bears
any resemblance to Japanese. Let's take the Clan name of the Imperial
Family, Ablïarsec, pronounced roughly [abliar]. This was originally the
name of the star where the Abh decided to settle down and was taken from
a Japanese Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu. As you can see, it is very
hard to find a link between the two words unless you are told how.

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