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Scriptorium
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Rik
Greek
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Posts: 78
Location: London, UK
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 Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:42 am Post subject: Akat alphabet |
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Gone a bit quiet in here ...?
Anyways, I've been reworking the Akat alphabet - adding in some ligatures and fixing the kerning stuff:
Basics:
Written horizontally, left to right, generally ink on parchment/paper.
6 vowels, each capable of taking one of three accents above the letter.
8 plosive/fricative voiceless consonants; each takes an accent to demonstrate voice
7 additional consonants
letterforms ending in a vertical stroke will generally combine with letterforms starting with a vertical stroke.
More details here.
Question:
I haven't developed any punctuation yet, and I'm keen to avoid the obvious punctuation marks (eg .,;:'). Given the polysynthetic nature of the conlang I'm debating whether any punctuation is in fact required. Anyone have opinions on this?
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Sano
Admin
Joined: 16 Jul 2007
Posts: 1229
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:30 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Gone a bit quiet in here ...? |
Sadly, yes, but I am pleased that you have honored us with a visit.
Very nice. It has a natscript feel without being a reworking of Latin or some other bland script.
| Quote: | Question:
I haven't developed any punctuation yet, and I'm keen to avoid the obvious punctuation marks (eg .,;:'). Given the polysynthetic nature of the conlang I'm debating whether any punctuation is in fact required. Anyone have opinions on this? |
I have always thought that punctuation was overdone by the average conscript. I didn't include it in any of my major works for Qatama. I have been toying with a few ideas for Kala but as yet have not set anything in stone.
Using Qatama as an example, one can completely disregard punctuation save for quotes and perhaps exclamations.
IMHO, punctuation is more aesthetic than anything.
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Rik
Greek
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Posts: 78
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Sano wrote: | | Quote: | Question:
I haven't developed any punctuation yet, and I'm keen to avoid the obvious punctuation marks (eg .,;:'). Given the polysynthetic nature of the conlang I'm debating whether any punctuation is in fact required. Anyone have opinions on this? |
I have always thought that punctuation was overdone by the average conscript. I didn't include it in any of my major works for Qatama. I have been toying with a few ideas for Kala but as yet have not set anything in stone.
Using Qatama as an example, one can completely disregard punctuation save for quotes and perhaps exclamations.
IMHO, punctuation is more aesthetic than anything. |
A couple of marks I was thinking of were a word separator (instead of a space, which doesn't show up well in this script) and maybe a clause separator - the grammar is usually good at showing new clauses, but there are situations where a subject at the start of one clause could be misinterpreted as an oblique at the end of a previous clause. A midline dot (word separator) and double dot (clause separator) might work with this script?
A short baseline vertical stroke (iow a straight comma) could work as a quote mark ...
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brank
Hangul
Joined: 12 Nov 2008
Posts: 110
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Sano wrote: | | Quote: | | I haven't developed any punctuation yet, and I'm keen to avoid the obvious punctuation marks (eg .,;:'). Given the polysynthetic nature of the conlang I'm debating whether any punctuation is in fact required. Anyone have opinions on this? |
I have always thought that punctuation was overdone by the average conscript. |
I'm of the opposite opinion, I find most conscripts don't go far enough and tend to stick to basic Western/English notions of punctuation when they consider it at all. I won't repeat myself, as we had a thread about this already. I will say, though, there is plenty of room for new paradigms in punctuation.
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oxlahun
Greek
Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Posts: 74
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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I love the shape of the 's' and 'z' glyphs.
Offhand, I can't think of a natscript where a word separator glyph has survived the centuries (someone prove me wrong!), so I'm usually wary of them in conscripts. I wonder if part of the reason you're not totally happy with word spacing is the 'o' glyph. Its shape really throws off the eye when scanning a line. I love that sort of variety in an alphabet, so I'm not suggesting you change it.
Also, the space you're using may be a hair too small for a fairly heavy alphabet with everything approximately the same height. I tried setting some English text in all caps in couple different fonts, at approximately the same weight as your sample poem, and every one of them had 2 or 3 more pixels between words.
I'm imagining what my handwriting would look like if this were my native script. I would probably add more flourish to the tail of the 'k' to distinguish it from the 'p', maybe even writing it more like ŋ. And I'd probably exaggerate the pointiness of the 'q', making it more like a copperplate script 1, to separate it from 'a' (which would likely develop a little more curve to its tail like a katakana フ). |
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Sano
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Joined: 16 Jul 2007
Posts: 1229
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Rik wrote: | A couple of marks I was thinking of were a word separator (instead of a space, which doesn't show up well in this script) and maybe a clause separator - the grammar is usually good at showing new clauses, but there are situations where a subject at the start of one clause could be misinterpreted as an oblique at the end of a previous clause. A midline dot (word separator) and double dot (clause separator) might work with this script?
A short baseline vertical stroke (iow a straight comma) could work as a quote mark ... |
I think your ideas are interesting enough that you should do some sketches, perhaps share them here and we can give better input.
| brank wrote: | | I will say, though, there is plenty of room for new paradigms in punctuation. |
I agree, which is why I say the least amount is one new way of looking at punctuation. I'd be happy to be done with it completely. Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean and Japanese are just a few of the langs that existed for centuries with no punctuation...it really is a "Western" concept.
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brank
Hangul
Joined: 12 Nov 2008
Posts: 110
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| Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Sano wrote: | | brank wrote: | | I will say, though, there is plenty of room for new paradigms in punctuation. |
I agree, which is why I say the least amount is one new way of looking at punctuation. I'd be happy to be done with it completely. Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean and Japanese are just a few of the langs that existed for centuries with no punctuation...it really is a "Western" concept. |
"The least amount" isn't new for conscripts; it's practically the default. None at all is hardly a "new paradigm" when, as you say, some languages have been doing it for thousands of years.
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Sano
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Joined: 16 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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| brank wrote: | | Sano wrote: | | brank wrote: | | I will say, though, there is plenty of room for new paradigms in punctuation. |
I agree, which is why I say the least amount is one new way of looking at punctuation. I'd be happy to be done with it completely. Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean and Japanese are just a few of the langs that existed for centuries with no punctuation...it really is a "Western" concept. |
"The least amount" isn't new for conscripts; it's practically the default. None at all is hardly a "new paradigm" when, as you say, some languages have been doing it for thousands of years. |
Poor wording on my part...perhaps, a tried and true "new" paradigm.
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