Re: syllabary

"A. Ingram" wrote:
>
> I'm thinking of making a syllabary for my conlang.  Has anyone else used
> this method for scripting?  What are some of the drawbacks and advantages?
> Somehow I feel that I will have to define all the possible phonological
> possiblilities before I can actually begin using it.  This makes me think
> that it will be a limiting factor.  I know that the Cherokee Indian Nation
> uses one and I've even seen it.  I'm probably just missing something.
Syllabaries are great but as has already been pointed out they're
usually for very specific phonologies.  Even the Cherokee system
doesn't exactly work: final vowels are usually dropped in speech,
and there are a couple other irregularities.

You might split the difference and work with an idea similar to that
of Indic scripts: make each character have an inherent vowel (/a/
perhaps), the vowel can be changed by putting a mark over or below
it, and another mark gets rid of the vowel completely but keeps the
consonant.

Or you can use Hangul. :)  That's quite popular with East Asian
Conlangs, as its a very efficient script.

If you don't already know it, there's a good site about scripts that
might give you some ideas:

www.omniglot.com

Cheers,
Eamon

Replies