Re: writing system

Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>:

> Interesting that you mention that.  In the Old Albic alphabet, there
> is a single vowel letter (resembling the Roman letter "o") to the
> right of which up to three diacritics are placed that indicate
> vowel features: a vertical stroke for [+open], a horseshoe-like
> squiggle for [+front] and a curl opening to the upper right
> (a bit like a little capital "G") for [+round].
Seven kinds of elfin cheese!

In what was probably the first conscript I ever developed, for a naming language
called "Mersan"*, vowels were indicated by a sign looking like a Roman 'o' with
some diacritic to indicate exact quality. /a/ was the unmarked default vowel,
/i/ was indicated by a little horizontal bar going left from the top of the
circle, and /u/, IIRC, by a dot in the middle of the circle. I can no longer
recall how other vowels were indicated, nor what the precise vocalic inventory
was. I suppose it must've included /e/, given the name of the language! About
the only other thing I can recall about the script is that /j/ was indicated by
a gamma-like sign.

Now, this lacks the featural aspect of the Albic scheme, but I nonetheless find
the coincidence remarkable.

* This was in my preteens, long before I had hit on the idea that an invented
language might be something more than a naming language.


                                                     Andreas