Re: writing system

Thomas R. Wier wrote at 2005-01-02 06:24:27 (-0600)
>
 > IMHO, the most beautiful script is Tengwar; second thereto being
 > only Georgian mkhedruli. I don't know where Tolkien got his
 > inspiration, but there are eery resemblances in shape and sometimes
 > in value to mkhedruli: Sindarin <s> is almost identical to
 > mkhedruli _sani_, and the whole feel of the alphabet is similar.
 >

As others have said, the style of the script is largely influenced by
uncial.  It has occurred to me before that the primary letters (the
featural grid) might have resulted from playing about with Latin
miniscules.  If you look at

b d p q h n u (and in some styles a)

in all cases you've got a vertical stem, possibly continued into an
ascender or descender, with a loop which may be on either side and
closed or open at the top or the bottom.  In m the loop of n is
doubled.  If one were to try regularising and extending the characters
defined by this set of paramaters, having in mind to associate them
with phonological features, it's easy to see how something like the
primary Tengwar might emerge.  This is pure speculation on my part,
though - I don't know if Tolkien ever mentioned doing anything of the
kind.