Modern Føtisk Orthography (is fun, but long and on-topic :)

Being impatient and all, I've skipped finishing Ancient Føtisk and doing
Old and Middle Føtisk before getting to the orthography of Modern Føtisk,
though this is about the only thing I can do yet (because I need to have
Old Føtisk before I can make a grammar of Modern!) and may change.

Old Føtisk was written in both runes and the roman alphabets of the time
(1000ish--1500ish). The change from Old to Middle Føtisk is not anything
linguistic but simply the total absence of any writing during that period.
Though obviously there were linguistic changes too. During the nationalism
of the 19th century, Føtisk came to be written once more, and Modern
Føtisk is generally dated from 1800. Although it had changed much during
the 300ish years it remained unwritten, the new orthography was very
similar to the old one. Now, 120-odd years after the new orthography was
standardised upon, a few of the modern Føts are unhappy with the
complexities, but many appreciate some of its uniquenesses. (Some of it is
a bit too unique; the only fonts I know of with an (ao) ligature are the
TIPA ones (an IPA thing for LaTeX), and I've only ever seen one use of a
(ue) ligature in an appendix of the Macquarie Dictionary transliterating
German ü.)

As with the other languages in its region (in Ill Bethisad), it's
typically printed in Fraktur.

The Old Føtisk roman orthography was mostly an evolution of the Ancient
Føtisk one, though sometimes influenced by phonetics.

The vowel phonemes of Old Føtisk were:
 i i: y  y:      u u:
 e e: 2  2:      o o:
 a a: &\ &\:     Q Q:
Ancient Føtisk &(:) merged with e(:) and A(:) was fronted. Or vice versa,
it makes little difference.

Similar to the Scandinavian languages, a re-analysis of length occurred
such that all syllables were long, and none were over-long. Because of the
orthography, it is generally accepted that it was vowel length that was
phonemic, though it could just as well have been consonant.

The vowels were spelt thus:
 /i, i:/   {i}
 /y/       {y-with-dot} (originally a ligature of uj)
 /y:/      {ue-ligature-with-dot} (originally a lig. of uie)
 /e, e:/   {e}
 /2/       {ø-with-dot} (originally a ligature of oi influenced by ø)
 /2:/      {oe-lig-with-dot}
 /a/       {a}
 /a:/      {æ-with-dot}
 /&\, &\:/ {ö} (originally a ligature of oe)
 /Q/       {å} (originally a ligature of ao, and asciified thus, NOT aa)
 /Q:/      {ao-ligature) (originally a lig. of auo, influenced by æ etc.)
 /o, o:/   {o}
 /u, u:/   {u}
{y}, {ø}, {a}, {å} were sometimes followed by a double letter, sometimes
not. In Modern Føtisk, they are unless made clear by c/k (see below).
Because they are not 'phonemic', the dots above the letters with them
(esp. {y}) are often dropped in MnF.  In the best typography, however,
they are retained (except in caps where they never appear). If someone is
taking care to be absolutely perfect, {ä} might be used instead of {a} and
a capital {Y} looks more like a cyrillic capital {U}. In handwriting and
many typefaces, the ring in {å} is indentical to the dot in an {i}. Until
the 1990s, the extra characters were alphabetised as their historical
forms, but this was changed. For the new alphabetical order, see below.

And consonants:
 p t k, b d g, f x, s, h, l, r, m, n, dZ.
A distinct phoneme /N/ was emerging.

/k/ is spelt as <c> when terminating a syllable except at the end of a
word (kæp, bæk, back, bactel, bækrin). {Ck} is used instead of {kk} or
{cc}; when hyphenated (see below for more details), it becomes {k-k} or
{c-c} as appropriate (usually {k-k}).

/x/ is spelt {ch}.
/dZ/ is spelt {gj}, though {gh}, {i} and {g(e)} made appearences in OF

Old Føtisk made use of ligatures and abbreviations aplenty because paper
cost lots of money then. There are some very nice fonts out there on the
Internet that I'd like to buy with ligatures aplenty.

The phonetic values for Modern Føtisk are *not* discussed here. Many
mergers and separations have happened from the list for Old Føtisk.
Attempting to pronounce Modern Føtisk words as Old F. ones will be about
as reliable as attempting to pronounce Modern English as the IPA. This
goes doubly for the consonants and trebly for the vowels.

Everything below is currently limited exclusively to MnF.

Alphabet:
(equals signs represent insorting of the letters. In the old order, the
ligatures are sorted as their separated letters; in the new order, they're
treated as the same letter for alphabetic purposes).
Old:
a=æ=å=(ao) b c=ch d e f g=gj h i j k l m n o=ö=ø=(oe) p r s t u=y=(ue) v x
New:
a=æ b (ch) d e f g h i j k=c l m n o ö ø=(oe) p r s t u y=(ue) v x å=(ao)
Names:
skort a, lång æ, be, jech, de, e, ef, ge, ha, i, jod, ka, ke, jel, em, en,
o, ö, skort ø, lång (oe), pe, jer, jes, te, u, skort y, lång (ue), ve,
jex, skort å, lång (ao). (Technically, it should be _skort æ_, _skort
(oe)_ etc, but technically, schmechnically.)

Q (_ku_), W (_tvæve_), Z (_seta_) are only found in a un-re-spelt foreign
words. In the event that they are alphabetised, it is as K, V, S resp.

While its ligature still exists, gj is no longer considered a separate
letter. As it was sorted g-j, its identity as a separate letter in the old
order was rather tenuous anyway. While c became equivalent to k in most
cases, it retained its old order as (ch) and has hence been promoted to
full letterhood.

Foreign terms of the like that we Englishers would spell in italics are
spelt in antikva (aka antiqua and spelt in antiqua), the kinds of scripts
that we use, and sometimes in italics. Emphasis is done b y s p a c i n g
out the words or using a different typeface (ocasionally by antikva in
italics, but generally just a similar albeit darker fraktur). Web
addresses and other similar things are also set in antikva.

Orthographic Ligatures & long s (=S):
- The typical fraktur things: ck, ff, fl, fi, fS, ft, Sf, Sl, Si,
  SS, St, ß, as well as gj. X is considered a ligature of ks, relevant
  mostly to hyphenation. (A (ch) ligature exists, but it's graphemic, not
  just graphetic like the rest here.)
- ß is used when Ss would come up and to close syllables; SS is used
  elsewhen.
- Never used across morpheme boundaries.
- s is used at the ends of words, otherwise, S is used.

Hyphenation (examples are english or nonce words):
- The preferred hyphenation point is at the individual words of a
  compound. If this can't be achieved, a middle dot is inserted at the
  individual words of a compound (grand.fa-ther). This rule is ignored if
  the compound is phonetically distinct from its component parts, yet not
  respelt (so a word like forehead would be hyphenated as fo-rehead, not
  fore-head). (Indeed, compound words that are phonetically distinct
  should be respelt into their phonetic form, hyphenated, then unrespelt.)
  Note also that when compounding, tripple letters become double (standard
  fare for that neck of the woods), but if you hyphenated then, you get
  something like tt-t. Ck+k -> ck, but when you hyphenate it, it becomes
  cc-k, and the only time cc comes up except in borrowings. (This also
  applies to prefixes and suffixes.)
- Next preferred is pre- and suffixes (that form complete syllables). This
  applies even if the affix is phonetically distinct from its simplest
  form.
- Beyond that:
  - Before a single consonant ((ch), gj are considered single): ita-lics
  - Between two vowels: re-ality
  - In general, unless it gets unweidly, before an S: cre-Scent, aSk-tra
  - Between two consonants (x is considered two: k-s; ck -> kk, c -> k):
    ak-sel, rek-kon, ak-tion
  - If three or more consonants, at least one on each side. Then move the
    last ones to the nearest side, where {j S} are the shortest distance,
    then {r l h}, {m n}, {f s v (ch) gj}, {b d g}, {p t k, c}. Consider
    {x} as {ks} and hyphenate at will, even if it becomes {k-s}.
  - Never ever ever ever ever ever ever have a bit of two letters unless
    it's a prefix or a compound or a five-letter word (when I'm in a good
    mood) or I'll kill you. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever
    ever ever have a bit of one letter or I'll leave you alive (Føtisk is
    neither Danish nor Norwegian). You can only imagine what I'll do if
    you somehow make a bit of zero letters. Though I would be interested
    if you found a use for that (but something like pre- or suffixes
    doesn't count, because it's a different kind of hyphen).
- Borrowings should be hyphenated in ways that are more reasonable to the
  language of origin, though not necessarily identical (because frex.
  hyphenations of one or two letters are to be avoided). If you have any
  example words, which I'm ever so sure you do, knowing all the MnF
  borrowings as you do, ask, ask. But you might want to provide the
  original hyphenation points too.

Punctuation is generally your standard german style, so with quotes ,,like
this`` and random commas and capitalised Nouns. I'd probably better remind
myself how the german random commas work. Apostrophes, though, are used in
some contractions, similar to English.

Example alphabetisation (using nonce words):
Old Order       New Order
aden            aden
äbos            agil
ävos            alom
agil            atek
ædos            avel
alom            äbos
åful            ædos
atek            ävos
(ao)(ch)im      badtil
avel            bactil
bactil          dolip
badtil          erin
dolip           fogy
erin            gitap
fogy            hipe
gitap           inande
hipe            jot
inande          kärigj
jot             lemon
kärigj          ocka
lemon           ofnisk
ocka            onnisk
öpe(ch)e        öpe(ch)e
öpefe           öpefe
öpen            öpen
ofninsk         ødim
ødim            (oe)fel
(oe)fel         ørsken
ørsken          patrigj
onninsk         risk
patrigj         totollagji
risk            uft
totollagji      usta
uft             (ue)ctra
ydel            ydel
(ue)ctra        yvim
yvim            vickip
usta            vixip
vickip          (ao)(ch)im
vixip           åful

If anyone doesn't think this is realist^Wcomplicated enough, tell me and
I'll see what I can do :)

How many others of you have created hyphenation rules for your own
conlangs? I want to know them :)

How a minority language manages to keep things like (ue) and (ao) when
English has to give up þ, I don't know.

--
Tristan

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