Re: Scripts

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On Wednesday 20 February 2002 08:10 pm, Christopher B Wright wrote:
> Just wanted to ask a few questions
>
> How many of you have scripts?
        Ah, one of my favorite topics. I'd like to wave my hand in the air at this
point. Actually, I have two. One is of my own creation, and the other has
been borrowed from a fellow conlanger (who has mysteriously dropped off the
face of the earth) which is one of the most beautiful vertical scripts I have
seen. Although to actually write it would be a painful task, which is why it
has been relegated to an ornamental script, not for every day usage.

> How many of you use diacriticals as vowels in your scripts?
        My horizontal script (which is better suited for everyday usage) has the
following system: a line (think macron, except a little shorter) represents
/i/, an acute accent /E/, a dot /a/, a curved hachek /o/, and a curved
circumflex /M/ (unrounded /u/, in case you're not up on X-SAMPA). BTW, if
there are alternative names for "curved hackek" and "curved circumflex,"
please let me know. I'm sure there are, I just don't remember.
        Furthermore, diacritics can be placed either above or below the letter. If
above, the vowel is pronouced before the letter, if below, then after. Also
(just to make things fun), there's no general rule about whether a vowel
should be placed above or below in a certain sequence. Word-initial vowels,
of course, must be above the first consonant, and word-final vowels below the
last consonant. Anything else is stylistic. Certain letter shapes, however,
can force placement, because to place a mark above (or below) would result in
a mess of ink. Other than that, it's a free-for-all, with various vowels
jockeying for position. :)

> How many of you have null letters (letters that don't represent a sound)
> to deal with the problem of diphthongs / multiple vowels per consonant?
        Diphthongs aren't much of a problem. Since [y] /j/ is a full character, that
takes care of all the glides and a lot of the diphthongs. For the rest, the
above/below combination works fine, except in those cases where things might
get ugly. Haven't quite decided what to do about those cases...

> Perhaps the ancient Sturnan didn't have /h/ at all and inserted it
> recently. That's much more likely than a lot of /h/'s disappearing
> recently.
        Sound change can wreck havoc on an alphabet, let me tell you! :) Although
/h/ is statistically more likely to be dropped, especially if it is
inter-vocalic. But then again, I'm sure the addition of /h/ is not unheard
of, either. No examples come to mind, however.
        :Peter
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