History
The alphabets of the Katuronaka (Forest People) and the Kakorjinaat (Human Northerners) (often collectively referred to as the "Luraesaka s'Atalinna", or "Script of the Unlikely Partners", a common collective term for the long-lasting partnership of the mountain-dwelling north humans and the Forest People) are two twin alphabets nearly identical in look and function.
The set of twenty-two letters is descended from Corican characters. These complex pictograms were mainly used to demonstrate ideas in the Aentoui language. The Corican scribes writing in the Aentoui language began using a short-form of the pictograms in a sort of syllabary, and then as an alphabet.
With the ending of the Second Corican-Atalinna Wars, the use of these syllabic/alphabetical characters gradually spread eastward. The Katuronaka were the first to see and attempt to implement the system for themselves, and the alphabet was shared with their mountain neighbours. Eventually they adapted a select set of the glyphs for exclusive phonetic use. The pictograms were greatly simplified, and eventually were whittled down to their current forms. Meanwhile, in Corica, the use of the alphabet was outlawed. (But that's another story.)
While the Atalinna have never waged war on the each other in the course of their shared history, they are not closely bonded either. A ridge of imposing mountains divides them, and as such transport and trade is not regular; not to mention the difference in language and thus needs for the script.
This led to a slight split of the two scripts. The Katuronaka favored softer, curved lines that they either painted on or carved into strips of wood; the Kakorjinaat preferred straight lines that were easy to carve into rock. The majority of the letters remain unchanged, and most other deviations are easy to spot and understand if one is fluent in reading either script. Only several characters look completely different then their counterparts in the other species, and then the change is often obvious after looking at each letter harder. All in all, however, a Katuronaka should be able to read a Kakorjinaat inscription without much difficulty, and vice versa. The Katuronaka style predates the Kakorjinaat style by around 20 years or so.
While the Atalinna alphabet has enjoyed predominance in the Atalinna region, it has since experienced a revival of sorts in Corica after the Talaka Rebellion, where it is once again being used to write in Aentoui.
*I'm sorry if I've obliviously left some points above unclear, I essentially copied and pasted this from my own notes, with a couple added clarifying sentences here and there. Feel free to ask about a certain part of history if you're confused/curious. ^_^
Brief Description
The Atalinna alphabet is a set of twenty-two letters that are able to represent most of the phonemes in the language. There are two styles, named for the people who use them: Kakturonaka and Kakorjinaat. The two styles differ in that one favors straight lines while the other retains curves. The letters are directly descended from pictographs - I'll post the evolution from pictograph to letter soon.
Both read left-to-right, up-to-down. Punctuation is as of yet undecided, except for a full stop or pause, which uses a hyphen-like character. Numbers are also undecided. There is one diacritic, a horizontal line placed over (or sometimes under) a vowel to lengthen it.
Also, note: I originally created this for my conlang Aentoui, but I decided to give it to two of my conpeople, whose languages I have not yet developed. As such, I know the script will probably change heavily once I've decided on the phonology, etc. of the language. There will probably be some phonemes in Aentoui that don't exist in their languages, and some new phonemes that I'll need to create letters for. But for now, I'll just post this in Aentoui spelling for the sake of critique.
Letters
*Consonants that are doubled in the romanization indicate palatalization.
And the long vowels:
Samples
Here's a sample sentence in both styles. It reads the first line of the Tower of Babel passage in Aentoui.
Nun jaigu namaonaannir nauuaka mahal io al atuimunnir akuraka io.
In the beginning, man had one language and one speech.
The full text, in both styles, is here:
Katuronaka
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
That's it for now. I'll try and get the pictogram to letter evolution history up soon, but I have to go now. Thanks in advance for your critiques!