Uyendur alphabet (now with cursive version)

[clawgrip]

Here is the Uyendur alphabet. I created it based on the Elaw alphabet by zyxw59.




Unur unat turoḅakilut Uyēndurrun.

It was fun to make because the Elaw alphabet that I based this on was designed for a completely different language, so it is not perfectly suited to this language. Accordingly, there are some redundant characters as well as characters performing multiple functions. <x> performs triple duty as /x/ and /ʔ/ as well as a vowel lengthener, while /i , j/ and /u , w/ are represented with the same character. There are also two letters for /t/, and alternate forms of <p> and <k>. Some long vowels also have a couple different possible spellings.

[Thry]

Not a very constructive comment, but I think it's beautiful. I saw this on the fluency thread and I think I didn't get to tell you anything. There are many awesome scripts going on lately lol.

Just one remark, in that sentence, why is there no space between the last two words? Is it a typo or there's a reason?

[clawgrip]

Thanks. The script and language are a good match for each other, because both were originally made as just random throwaway examples, but I liked them enough to develop them.

There is no space between individual modifiers. Possessor and possessed arguments have no space, and neither do adjectives and nouns. But relative clauses have a space. I haven't figured out exactly how I want to do the spacing rules.

Unur unat turoḅakilut Uyēndurrun.
un-ur una-t turoḅak-ilut Uyēndur-dur
be-3SG.M.IPFV 3.M.NOM-DEF alphabet-ACC.M.DEF Uyendur-M.GEN

I might turn this thread into a language thread instead of a script thread if I develop the language enough. The language itself is nothing exciting or groundbreaking, just my attempt to create an inflecting language with partially unpredictable, partially predictable declensions and conjugations that arose mostly as a result of sound changes, some contractions, and some regularization.

[Xephyr]

I like this. I get kinda an Avestan/Pahlavi vibe from it.

[clawgrip]

I initially had no intention of making an Ancient Middle Eastern-inspired script, but once the similarity emerged I ran with it and ended up with what you see here.

[Jipí]

Since they mentioned wax tablets on Conlangery the other day, I think this looks just perfectly suited for them. Or well, rather the other way round, if this was IRL.

[Thry]

Since they mentioned wax tablets on Conlangery the other day, I think this looks just perfectly suited for them. Or well, rather the other way round, if this was IRL.

But maybe a bit adapted? I mean, for wax I'd prefer straight strokes, and this whole script looks like inherently italic to me.

[Imralu]

It looks like little hammers and sickles.
Chromosomes look like little dancing people having a party.

I like your script.

[clawgrip]

-Undŏ kutibĭntu kaduru tunu la dutudut yangot.
-Ungkidul pitar butun nadikidŏ atumo iya waxĭn yĭkidom ḍamum unano da kutimutu Tinarrun mo abungidŏ da denĭn.

- be-3.M.PL.PT world-M.DAT.DEF language-M.SG.NOM one-M.SG.NOM and word-F.PL.NOM few-F.PL.NOM
- be-PFV.3.M.SG.PT thus when travel-IMPF.3.M.PL man-M.PL.NOM from east-M.SG.DAT be.visible-3.F.SG.PT plain-F.SG.NOM 3.M.PL.DAT at land-M.SG.DAT Shinar-M.SG.GEN and dwell-3.M.PL.PT at there-M.DAT

Just a slightly longer sample of the language and script. Genesis 11:1-2.

[Aurora Rossa]

I also think it looks rather nice. It seems like the kind of script one would expect to find in ancient manuscripts, very naturalistic and convincing but also distinctive.

[Torco]

I think it would look even more awesome as cursive.

[clawgrip]

I was messing around with the Middle Eastern theme and ended up sort of Hebrewizing my script to create what I have decided is the imperial hand, a calligraphic style used only by the government.





I'll have to see about making a cursive variety next.

[Vuvuzela]

I was messing around with the Middle Eastern theme and ended up sort of Hebrewizing my script to create what I have decided is the imperial hand, a calligraphic style used only by the government.

It looks good. The Semitic inspiration is obvious, but at the same time, the script looks very distinctive. How did this evolve? Is the regular script a simplification of the Imperial Hand, was the Imperial Hand deliberately designed to remove ambiguity from the normal script, or did the disambiguations arise gradually in government writing, and stack up until the script looked completely different?
If it's the latter, then why have none of these changes been adopted by the people? Are there laws governing the use of Imperial Hand? If not, do satirists ever use the script facetiously to mock the government? How do people feel about the government not just writing normal?
The concept behind this is interesting. It's sort of like diglossia, but with scripts. Digraphia?
Looking forward to the cursive

[clawgrip]

I haven't come up with a clear outline yet, but I am guessing the imperial hand is simply a stylized form of the common hand (since that's how I designed it myself) though there are at least a couple letters that are vaguely closer to an earlier form of the script, which suggest that they may have been a parallel development that is simply influenced by the common hand.

My initial thought was that use of imperial hand is restricted and the general population is not generally allowed to use it. Sort of like an imperial seal, except extended throughout the whole writing system. I'm not sure how well the common people would be expected to be able to read it, or even how literate the general populace is anyway. I'm not sure how they would learn to read it without being able to write it, unless the government produces a whole lot of literature. I'm thinking this is a pre-printing-press culture, so they'd have to make all their documents by by hand. I also am thinking that documents from the government to the general public may use common hand for the body of the text while using imperial hand for titles and so on, while government-internal documents would be entirely in imperial hand.

Amazingly I entirely designed the script and produced a font within about 2 hours.

[Kereb]

pretty ... the original has a syriac look to it, and eeeeeever so slightly voynich-y. It's a neat mix of things without sticking overly to any ONE influence

the calligraphic one is pretty too but maybe a little too obviously hebrew-inspired?

[Moanaka]

This and that logography? Mad conscripting cred, man.

[Vuvuzela]

pretty ... the original has a syriac look to it, and eeeeeever so slightly voynich-y. It's a neat mix of things without sticking overly to any ONE influence

the calligraphic one is pretty too but maybe a little too obviously hebrew-inspired?

Well, to me it looks sort of like a mix of bolded עִבְרִי and Arabic if you ت ك ت ب like this. It's clearly Semitic inspired (if you remove the dots characteristic of certain Semitic scripts), but I don't see it tied too closely with Hebrew.

[Kereb]

well i'm not considering the letter shapes here, just the brush stroke shapes

[clawgrip]

pretty ... the original has a syriac look to it, and eeeeeever so slightly voynich-y. It's a neat mix of things without sticking overly to any ONE influence

the calligraphic one is pretty too but maybe a little too obviously hebrew-inspired?

Yeah, believe it or not I did not have Hebrew in mind initially, just a heavy contrast between thick strokes and a relatively squarish shape for each letter. But once I happened to add that sweeping top stroke there was no way to escape Hebrew so I just let it be what it was. But I didn't intentionally and consciously copy any element from Hebrew or Arabic. Unconsciously, however...that may be a different matter.

[clawgrip]

I'm getting some ideas for a cursive script, but at this point it's almost a given that it's going to look like an older Middle Eastern cursive script. I don't actually know the Ancient Middle Eastern Scripts especially well, so I'm making an effort not to look at them in order to avoid overtly copying anything. That said, I am generally familiar with the look of many of them, and so unintended influence is unavoidable, especially considering I'm trying to create for this already Semitic-looking script a cursive form, which is a characteristically Semitic development. But if I can make it look nice then I'll be happy.

[makvas]

What software/techniques do you use to make this?

[clawgrip]

The common hand Uyendur alphabet (the one in the OP) was written on paper with a thick-tipped gel pen (Pilot G-2 10). I then photographed it with a digital camera (because I don't have a scanner), vectorized it and refined it with a very old version of Adobe Illustrator (v8), and then copy-pasted into High Logic Font Creator, which I used to produce the font.

The imperial hand font was made entirely on the computer, using Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and written by hand with a Wacom Bamboo Create graphics tablet. I mixed and matched various hand-written elements in Photoshop to create the glyphs, and then again, copy-pasted into High Logic Font Creator to make the font.

While High Logic Font creator is a very powerful font creation program, its actual character design functions are pretty primitive, so I design my letterforms elsewhere, as you can see, and just import them.

Edit: One of the problems I'm having in creating the cursive script is determining what sort of pre-printing press writing nib would be closest in nature to a modern gel pen, so that I can simulate that in Photoshop to create the cursive script rather than doing it on paper, since it's much easier to get a refined result that way.

[Bob Johnson]

I then photographed it with a digital camera

Yay I'm not the only one. (well I have a scanner but the camera is better and easier. scanner is very old and very cheap)

Undoing the perspective distortion is an annoying extra step though.

[clawgrip]

I then photographed it with a digital camera

Yay I'm not the only one. (well I have a scanner but the camera is better and easier. scanner is very old and very cheap)

Undoing the perspective distortion is an annoying extra step though.

My camera is pretty high resolution (Canon EOS KISS X3 (don't know what the non-Japanese model name is, but I know it's not KISS)), so I just take the photo from slightly further back and use a bit of zoom in order to reduce perspective distortion as I'm taking the photo.

[clawgrip]

This and that logography? Mad conscripting cred, man.

I forgot to respond to you. Thanks!

I am actually very interested in writing systems and scripts, to the point where I have created a few less than fully-thought out languages just so I could create a script for them. I have another family of alphabets (7 so far) that are all related and descend from a single proto-script. I'm also eventually planning to make a syllabary out of my logographic script at some point, but I have yet to design the language that will be written with it (but it will be distantly related to Himmaswa).