writing system for *eestaak

i've been somewhat mute lately, but i'm still here
<hears groans in the background>

anyway, you may remember i posted something about 'new
lang idea...' a while ago. i'm now considering a
script for it ( i think it'll end up with two scripts,
but one will be alphabetic, and i can't be bothered
with that at the moment . . . i'll continue using
roman but with a barred |h| ( which i'll just write as
plain |h| in this email ) )

<etymological digression>

anyway, the working name for the language is eestaak
/'e:sta:k/, which, believe it or not ( of course you
do, this is Conlang ) is derived from the root |tarak|
with the prefix |ged|. *|gedtarak| contains two closed
syllables, so the rules of consonant compression give
|e0edta0ak| ( they're zeros, and the initial |e| is
epenthetic ) > |eedtaak|. |d| devoices and compresses
to |s| and you have |eestaak|

</etymological digression>


anyway, eestaak's syllable structure is pretty fixed,
which makes it ideal for a syllabic writing system.
look-wise i think it's going to be a cross between
chinese, linear b and a bit of kana ( the shapes are
more linear b, but the analysis of them owes something
to chinese and the diacritics are kana ). i'm still
playing around coming up with shapes and haven't
assigned any yet, but i thought i'ld sketch out the
way it works.

eestaak has the following consonants :

k g h t d s z r p b f v w
( h is actually pharyngial, all others are as in sampa
)

and the following vowels :

a e o
( e and o are realised as [e] and [o] in a stressed
syllable or the one immediately following a stress,
and as [i] and [u] elsewhere )

there were originally nasal vowels, but these become
homorganic nasals :

Nk Ng nt nd mp mb
( ie, all other letters assimilate )

in closed syllables consonants compress :

k g h t d s z r p b f v w
h 0 0 s z h 0 0 f v w w 0
( zeroes again )

Nk Ng nt nd mp mb
Ng NN nd nn mp mm

a word can start with a vowel, but two vowels can only
stand next to each other within a word if a consonant
has been compressed to 0

so : my proposed syllabary :

ka ga ha ta da sa za ra pa ba fa va wa
ke ge he te de se ze re pe be fe ve we
ko go ho to do so zo ro po be fo vo wo

all of these can be marked with one of two diacritics
:
` and ° ( raised circle )

` marks the consonant as compressed. the nature of the
consonant therefore changes, and the vowel of the
following syllable is dropped

° marks the syllable as nasal. as nasalised syllables
are also closed, the consonant compresses again, and
the following syllable's consonant is subject to
various changes

so :
eestaak would be written ege`setara`ka
annag would be a°da`ga
dihogga would be deso`goga
eezzes would be ege`dede`se



so : what do people think ? does this sound plausible
? workable ? confusing ?

later i'll post some images and see what people think
on them,

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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