'Eleta Senin

[justin]

So, my latest project is a vaguely Polynesianish thing which I have called (for the moment, possibly) Senin.
I have some words and some grammar lined out, but nothing I'm proud enough to show in public yet.

That being said, here's the syllabary, 'eleta Senin ('eleta "writing; to write"):

I don't have access to a scanner, so I have to deal with taking a picture of the piece of paper.

Couple notes:

• There's a final nasal (usually spelled n but sometimes m depending on environment), which is indicated in native orthography by an underline.
• There are long vowels, which are indicated with something vaguely resembling an acute accent, in both the native orthography and the romanization.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Praise? Rocks to throw?

[Matrix]

That syllabary looks like you took the Latin Alphabet and Hangeul, sprinkled a bit of Katakana on top, and put it in a blender.

That's not any sort of value judgement on it. Just what the inspirational components look like to me.

[justin]

There's also a slightly more angular, ornamental-type version that I didn't bother posting. The major difference is that fa, wa, sa, & la look like they're on an LED display, and then it builds from that. I figured that would be either the carved-on-walls/typeset version, and the one I posted is what it looks like handwritten.

[clawgrip]

I think it is a nice starting point, but visually, it's a little dull and regular as-is. You say there is an ornamental version; I would be interested in seeing it, to see how you elaborated on this basic design. Later on perhaps I can give you some examples on how you can evolve or stylize it if you're interested.

[justin]

I shouldn't have said "ornamental." It's actually more basic. It's more angular. One might use it for carvings, or (eventually) printed type, as in books.

[WeepingElf]

Nice script. A text sample would be good.

[justin]

I will do that when I have more words to write for you.

[Linguist Wannabe]

That syllabary looks like you took the Latin Alphabet and Hangeul, sprinkled a bit of Katakana on top, and put it in a blender.

I somewhat agree. Is the script meant to have evolved in isolation or been influenced by any others (and if so, what)?

[justin]

I sort of imagined it came about as a result of "All these people we've been trading with have this. We should come up with one."

[Linguist Wannabe]

I sort of imagined it came about as a result of "All these people we've been trading with have this. We should come up with one."

Ah, so like Sequoyah's "talking leaves"? You can read about them here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah#C ... _syllabary).

[clawgrip]

I hope you'll forgive the presumptuousness but I went ahead and made a font of your script for you. I added a bit of Latin-style serifs and thick-thin alternations to make it a bit more interesting and to differentiate the vowel marks for /o/ and /u/. I also had to guess about the long vowel mark. You said it looked like an acute accent so I went with that.

[2+3 clusivity]

Oh, that's pretty cool Clawgrip. What programs did you use?

Overall, pretty good system. The Vertical bars remind me alot of North Indian scripts.

[clawgrip]

Oh, that's pretty cool Clawgrip. What programs did you use?

Same as I do for my fonts in general: I design the letter forms in Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and import them into High-Logic Font Creator 6.0.

Overall, pretty good system. The Vertical bars remind me alot of North Indian scripts.

The vertical bars are actually the one major problem with this script. I didn't notice until I started making the font, but it becomes unclear if the bar belongs to the letter before it or the letter after it. For example, if you write <la + vertical bar + sa>, it's unclear if that is meant to be /laso/ or /lusa/. I solved this problem in the font subtly using serifs and spacing, but I figure the handwriting would probably need something more obvious. Perhaps the serifs could be written out in handwriting much like the numeral 1 often is.

Also, I realized just now that <po> needs to have its own independent glyph because the serif is too close to the vowel mark (cf. <mo, ti, tu, etc.>). I will update the font later on.

[justin]

Ah, so like Sequoyah's "talking leaves"? You can read about them here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah#C ... _syllabary).

Exactly. I may make that the word for a sheet of paper now...

I hope you'll forgive the presumptuousness but I went ahead and made a font of your script for you. I added a bit of Latin-style serifs and thick-thin alternations to make it a bit more interesting and to differentiate the vowel marks for /o/ and /u/. I also had to guess about the long vowel mark. You said it looked like an acute accent so I went with that.

You're my new favorite.

[justin]

Although, one thing: HU did not make its way into the font. Could you please fix that?

[clawgrip]

Sorry, I put several small fixes into the font (including <hu>), but it seems I neglected to upload the new version. I thought I had done this but I guess not. Anyway I will upload the new version fairly soon.

[clawgrip]

The font file has been updated. That chart maps to the following keys:

a e i o u t T d Ot tU
h H x X Y n N r On nU
p P b D pU s S z Os Z
m M j J mU l L R Ol lU
f F v Of fU k K g G c
w W V Ow wU q Q C y qU

progressively longer underlines:
;-_

acute accent:
,

[justin]

Since you've all been good little boys and girls, I have a present for you:
Hé 'alímo "the numbers" (1-10)


Also, clawgrip: I can't get the new font from that link. I don't know if it's just me, or what.

[clawgrip]

Also, clawgrip: I can't get the new font from that link. I don't know if it's just me, or what.

fixed

Do you want me to alter <mi> to be connected at the bottom and to have a descender? It looks like that's how you're writing it.

[justin]

Nah, that's just the result of what happens when I try to write quickly. Not a tendency of the script itself, just of the conlanger.