Re: notelangs

En réponse à Sarah Marie Parker-Allen <lloannna@...>:

>
> I have a question about alphabets... it seems to me that there's nothing
> new
> under the sun when it comes to alphabets and even writing systems in
> general, and it's rather depressing.  I've given up temporarily on
> writing
> my own scripts because the best I can do is (apparently) reinvent
> either
> Arabic or Korean.  I suspect if I weren't so dead-set against using
> things
> that look like English or Latin, I'd have reinvented the Roman alphabet
> as
> well.  Does anyone have any suggestions for new or exotic ways of
> thinking
> about writing systems, beyond the poring over dictionary and
> encyclopedia
> entries that I've already done?
>
Maybe you would be interested in the Itakian script (curious that it comes back
as a subject these days). Written from right to left, the script basic letters
are *vowels*, *liquids*, and combination of those (ligatures). The onset
consonant (Itakian syllables are of the form CV, CL, CVV, CVL or CLV) is marked
(except for the glottal stop) as a diacritic, generally *around* the letter
(they are quite big diacritics :)) ), and has two different forms, one simple
one, and another which is used only to mark the first syllable of the trigger
noun, and/or the first syllable of the interrogative part of a question. Words
are written without spaces, but phrases (which are separated by a pause in
speech) are separated by a sign which looks like a card's diamond sign.
Sentences are supposed to run on only one line, but if you need to cut the
sentence over more than one, you mark it by a sign of continuation which looks
like the diamond sign with a tail.

If you're interested in the script, I have a 30Kb GIF file of it that I can
post to anyone's interested (or put it temporarily on the web if the demand is
too large ;)) ).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.