Jutean

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jute
cuneiform
cuneiform
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Joined: 22 Aug 2015 11:48
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Re: Jutean

Post by jute »

Thanks for the comment! Sorry, I don't check this here often, so I didn't notice it earlier.

What do you think is confusing about the script? I tried to make the glyphs distinct enough so they couldn't easily be mixed up, do you think they are still to similar? Other than that, it's largely a simple syllabary with some diacritics so that I don't need as many characters. (Though I don't have <ca>, did you mean <ka> or <ja> ?

And yeah, I wanted a simple vowel system, but I didn't like the idea of just using the default five, so I moved things around a bit, heh.

Yes, the inanimate pronouns correspond to the respective demonstrative ones. The animate ones use mostly the common ones, especially when talking about individuals or groups, but when talking about some larger group or species in general, the abstract/immaterial might be used instead. Another exception are all 'wild' animals/plants that would use the wilderness-gender pronouns.

As for how the split developed, it happened when the population first settled down after a long journey over the ocean. That was when it became handy to easily differentiate between 'wild' beings, things and places and those that you are familiar with and that you know are safe. This of course would usually include the things you made yourself.

Thanks for the compliment! As for inspiration, I provided a paragraph in the first post:
Since it's a tropical island and I had gotten interested in Hawaii and Hawaiian, the compact phonology is inspired by it, though of course with some changes. For example, it lacks the glottal stop, but has a /j/ and a /ʋ/.
[Aside from the] Hawaiian-reminiscent phonology and typology [it has] a sentence structure inspired by Tagalog and some ergative-absolutive languages, and some influences from a few other languages, like Mandarin and Japanese. Piraha and Tongan also provided some inspirations, as well as English and some more.
As for noun lists, you can look them up in the dictionary here.
Jutean: Hawaiian phonology meets Tagalog, with English ergativity and Mandarin tenselessness added.
Also on CWS.
Information on Juteans and their homeland
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