Re: Tolkien's elfish script (was: Re: demuan identifiers
| From: | Boudewijn Rempt <bsarempt@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, September 4, 1999, 20:06 |
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On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, BP Jonsson wrote:
>
> WRT Abjad scripts: I know of at least four more still in use beside Arabic
> and Hebrew, namely Syriac (two versions there), Samaritan, Mandaean and
> Pitman's shorthand(!) I don't know if Tifinagh is Abjad or alphabetic, nor
> if it is still in use, but being derived from Carthaginian Phoenician it is
> at least an Abjad candidate (altho late Carthaginian Phoenician wasn't
A few years ago Berber immigrants in the Netherlands put out a diary
in Tifinagh - so it's still in use, even though it is actively discouraged
in Morocco, and, I believe, Tunesia. I'm sure Daniels has a section on it
(fx - walking upstairs to get the tome, yes, he has. 112-116). He spells
it Tifinigh, It is related to southern Semitic, probably Punic. The
present-day Tuareg use it 'for playful purposes, for love letters,
family notes and domestic ornamentation' (115). The prefix ti- is a
feminine marker, while finigh is derived of the 'Punicus', Phoenician.
No doubt my copy of the diary will surface when we move house.
Boudewijn Rempt | http://denden.conlang.org/~bsarempt