Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

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Ilaeriu
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Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

Post by Ilaeriu »

I've been working on a set of sister (almost twin, if you will) conscripts, derived from a set of pictograms. I think it's at a point that I can share it with you guys for some feedback and constructive criticism :)

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
Image
*Consonants that are doubled in the romanization indicate palatalization.
And the long vowels:
Image

Samples
Here's a sample sentence in both styles. It reads the first line of the Tower of Babel passage in Aentoui.
Image

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 Kakorjinaat Romanization
Spoiler:
Nau Atos nun Babil

Nun jaigu namaonaannir nauuaka mahal io al atuimunnir akuraka io. Jaeio atujenttahullen kae nauu, arhaesen iairuta nun Jinar al atukaran iaakkar. Atuaento iaiollo, "Kuaeio, guuriuaiat taio kae raku al fiiraiat maehara ianiia." I'Atungaejun niia kkosa harutu raku, al uanot ni lujen niia. "Kuaeio, iikrag taio akiran ikae mismo'til, ija naa iaatos ija kkaoien nun laeta, lurag iiran kabal-yaizmo al ikaiarion ti nun kabal kkarguua'il."

Nnae Iahuaeh atuabaji lurag kuhaesen iaakiran atos'ir ija kae nauu atugarumien. Atuaento Iahuaeh, "Illaemt taioaka niia, al aita amlan mahal niaa. Arkauafiae niia i jaeio kani niia. Taakalnnae ot kaaua niia kahikaua ija aeriaelan niia. Kuaeio, aabajiat taio, al kuuloaru mahal niia, lurag kiaeiajunnae.

Al ikaatuiarion Iahuaeh niia kalim akkar nun kabal uilu kkarguua'il, al gariarumil iaarkiran. Ttuua Babil jaruun nil - aiil akkar atukuloaru Iahuaeh mahal kkarguua uilu'il. Kalim akkar, ikaatuiarion iaIahuaeh nun kabal uilu kkarguua'il.
For more information on the Aentoui language, visit this forum post.

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!
Image

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wakeagainstthefall
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Re: Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

Post by wakeagainstthefall »

Hmm. I see a Greek and some Japanese infuence, no? Reminds me of... was it the Cherokee writing system? Not sure. One of those Native American languages.
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Re: Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

Post by Yačay256 »

wakeagainstthefall wrote:Hmm. I see a Greek and some Japanese infuence, no? Reminds me of... was it the Cherokee writing system? Not sure. One of those Native American languages.
Too mundane to be Maya Script, though.
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Ilaeriu
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Re: Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

Post by Ilaeriu »

Yačay256 wrote:
wakeagainstthefall wrote:Hmm. I see a Greek and some Japanese infuence, no? Reminds me of... was it the Cherokee writing system? Not sure. One of those Native American languages.
Too mundane to be Maya Script, though.
There's a hint of Greek and perhaps Cyrillic influence - mainly in /t/, which looks a bit like pi. More of the Asian influence - not Japanese syllabaries but more like Asian calligraphy rules in general: like the characters for /o/ and /l/.

I think it's the simple shapes like the triangle that remind you of the Cherokee syllabics.


Yeah, the Maya Script was pictographic right? Or at least syllabic... which means each character had to be a lot more ornate...
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Re: Luraesaka s'Atalinna - Sister Conscripts

Post by Yačay256 »

The Maya script was logosyllabic; pictograms are not writing; I presume you meant "logograms" which are glyphs that stand for whole morphemes, as in Chinese Characters or in most of Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Logophonetic, with logograms, taxograms) and a few glyphs for individual consonants and one for any vowel, or Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform (Logosyllabic, with logograms, syllabograms and a few taxograms).
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