Liotic writing

Geoff's homepage -> Artificial Languages -> Liotic -> Writing

Last update: 8 January 2007

Introduction

The contemporary Liotic languages are written in three separate scripts. One is the development of the script also used by Dekavurian, another is the distinctive but less suitable Alexa script normally used for Rachovian. The third, which is the one described here, was originally devised for Liotan and has subsequently been adapted to the contemporary languages. Along with the Rachovian script, it is also used to write Mossian.

The script has the following characteristics:

It may be written in either direction. Since, as on Earth, the majority of Liotic scribes are right-handed, it is more commonly written from left to right, and this is the direction adopted here. When written from right to left, the shapes of the letters are simply laterally reversed.
It is largely phonemic, in that each letter nominally represents one phoneme.
It is, in part, featural; relationships between many phonemes are indicated by relationships between the shapes of the letters which represent them.
As with Tolkien's tengwar, it is not an alphabet made up of individual letters arranged in largely arbitrary order. This aside, any perceived similarities to Tolkien's scripts exist purely in the reader's imagination and have absolutely no basis in fact. Really!

There are two main forms of the script, which are known as the muacharra aotóinh ("curved letters") and muacharra feólóinh ("straight letters"). The first is cursive, i.e. the individual letters may be joined together, and - being easier to write and more elegant - is preferred in most circumstances; it is thus the basis for the forms of the letters which are used in printing. The second is used for writing in a medium such as stone or wood which does not lend itself easily to curved strokes, a constraint which accounts for its resemblance to the various Germanic runic alphabet (all right then, and also to the Cirth).

The letters

The muacharra aotóinh originally consisted of thirty-nine muachóinh, a number later expanded to seventy. With some minor exceptions, each of these muacha n-aota has a corresponding muacha bhfeola which was originally derived from it, although the correspondences have become blurred over time. The two forms of the script are thus virtually interchangeable, and the same spelling conventions are applied to each as far as possible.

The grid below shows all of the muachóinh used by both forms of the script. Each muacha is identified in this webpage by its position in the grid shown below, with the letter coming first; thus the muacha n-aota which resembles lowercase "a" is referred to as T1. The muachóinh in rows A O AA OO represent vowels, and the rest are used for consonants.

the letters

It will be noticed that, in order that they may be written without lifting the pen from the paper, most muachóinh aotóinh (the exceptions all being in column 3) have "tails" which joined a muacha to the top left of the one following. The tail emerges from the bottom right, except in series N, in which it comes from the top right.

Liotan

The muachóinh highlighted in white in the grid were the original ones which were used to write Liotan.

Consonants

The fundamental muachóinh are T1 T2 T4, which were used for the voiceless stops /p t k/. From these were derived D1 D2 D4, which were used for the voiced stops /b d g/, and N1 N2 N4, for the nasals /m n N/. S1 S2 were used for the unlenited fricatives /f s/; S2, being the easier to write, was preferred for the much more common /s/. L1 L2 represented the unlenited liquids /K R/ respectively, except when next to another consonant, when they represented /l r/. In summary:

Vowels

The vowel letters were grouped by roundedness; thus A1 A2 A3 A4 represented short /a æ e i/, and O1 O3 (with occasional varints O2 O4) short /o u/. The doubled forms AA1 AA2 AA3 AA4 were correspondingly used for /a: ia e: i:/, and OO5 OO7 for /o: u:/. OO6 represented /ua/, and OO8 older /1:/ (the vowel written AO or AOI).

In the muachóinh aotóinh, the vowel letters were always written above one of the cualchóinh ("carriers") X1 X2 X3 X4, which were used to indicate the quality of the preceding consonant where necessary. X1 was used by default, and X2 X3 X4 were used indifferently to indicate that the preceding consonant was slender where this was not evident from the vowel (i.e. before /o u/ and long /a: o: u:/, or at the end of a word). Final /@/ was written with U2 above the appropriate cualach.

The vowel letters in the muachóinh feolóinh were separate letters, with X2 used to indicate a preceding slender consonant where necessary and A1 or A4 for /@/. Originally they had the same forms as their counterparts in the muachóinh aotóinh; in due course they were combined with X1 to look fuller and more like proper letters. These later forms are the ones used here.

Other letters

An eclipsed consonant was written in the muachóinh aotóinh with a doubled body, and in the muachóinh feolóinh with X1 next to the upright stroke. The resulting muachóinh were NT1 NT2 NT4 ND1 ND2 ND4 S3 S4, which respectively represented /b d g m n N v z/ resulting from eclipsis of /p t k b d g f s/.

Lenition was indicated in the muachóinh aotóinh by a horizontal stroke under the letter, and in the muachóinh feolóinh by X3 after the consonant; X2 and X3 together combined to make X4.

The only punctuation mark was a raised horizontal line, which indicated the end of a sentence. Aside from this, there were no conventions such as paragraphing for grouping words, and indeed it was not uncommon in earlier texts for words to be run together without spaces.

Sample

The following sample shows the aphorism from the main Liotic page in both the muacharra aotóinh and the muacharra feólóinh. The same aphorism is also used for the other samples.

Later developments

The subsequent developments of the script can be broadly grouped into western (used for Machren, Kadhrein, Ivrien) and eastern (Genistien, Chastuvien, Astarien, Lemyzon).

Consonants

Most of the original muachóinh in the T D N S L series have retained the same meanings throughout Liotic. The exceptions are S1, which has multiple values; N4, which is always used for /N/ even when it had become /n/ (an eastern trait); and L1 L2, which are used for /l r/.

The two most important developments in the muacharra aotóinh are the evolution of the lenition underline into a full-blown descender, giving rise to the muachóinh F1 F2 F4 F5 V1 V2 V4 V5 to represent fricatives, and the creation of the muachóinh T3 D3 F3 V3 N3 in the western scripts to represent the palatals /c J\ C j\ J/.

F5 V5 were the original forms for /x G/, and are retained in the eastern scripts; F4 V4 were created in the western scripts on the analogy of F3 V3. F1 V1 were natural for /f v/, and F1 soon supplanted S1 for /f/ altogether. F2 V2 were orginally used for the /s z/ which resulted from lenition of /t d/, but were soon allocated to /T D/, which developed from /K d/, instead.

The developments of the L S series are more complicated. Because F1 replaced S1 for /f/, S1 was the obvious choice for /z/ in the western scripts and /S/ in the eastern (the western scripts have F3 for /C/, the cognate of /S/). L3 L4, meanwhile, were created on the analogy of the F V series; they originally represented /L r_j/, and continue to do so in the western scripts, but were chosen for /Z z/ in the eastern when /L r_j/ merged with /l r/. As a result S3 S4, which were originally used for /v z/ which resulted from eclipsis of /f s/, have fallen out of use altogether.

The NT ND NF NV serieses are used to represent clusters of nasal + stop or fricative, for example NT1 NT2 for /mp nt/.

These developments have also been carried out in the muachóinh feoilóinh, with the exceptions that the shapes of the muachóinh in the F V series have developed somewhat differently, and there is only one form (F4 V4) for the letters representing /x G/.

Vowels

The representations of the vowels in contemporary Liotic vary so much that further discussion must be left to the individual languages. The only uses common to all languages are A1 A3 A4 O1 O3 for short /a e i o u/.

The diphthongs in Late Liotan were indicated with the long vowel muachóinh and X3 X4, which represented the glides to /u i/ respectively; thus /au ai/ were A1 + X3 and A1 + X4 respectively. /ie io/ were AA2 + X3 and AA2 + X4, and /ue uo/ were OO2 + X3 and OO2 + X4.

Individual languages

Machren

The conventions for writing Machren differ little from those of Liotan. Thus the F V series are not used; S1 S2 are used for /f s/ when they continue Liotan /f s/, otherwise /f s C x v z j\ G/ are still indicated by the T D series with the appropriate indication for lenition; and L1 L2 normally represent /l r/, but /L r_j/ when underlined.

The vowels are all written with the A O series. One muacha is used for each pair of vowel phonemes; thus A1 O1 O2 O3 represents /A O o u/ and /æ Ø ø y/, and A3 A4 O4 represent the pairs /E e/, /1 i/, and /1 e/ - respectively the continuations of older /e i 1/. In the muacharra aotóinh, the back and front vowel of each pair are indicated by writing the muacha over X1 X3 respectively; in the muacharra feólóinh, the muacha on its own indicates the back vowel, and a preceding X2 or X4 indicates the front vowel.

Kadhrein and Ivrien

The representations of the consonants in Ivrien are the same as in western late Liotan. The same was originally true of Kadhrein, but the meanings of some muachóinh have changed with the later developments of the consonants; thus S2 F2 V2 represent /h s z/ from older /s T D/, and S1 L2 L4 all represent /r/ from /z r r_j/ respectively. What this means in practice is that cognate words in the two languages are written with the same consonantal muachóinh.

Because neither Ivrien nor Kadhrein has phonemically long vowels, only the short vowel muachóinh in the A and O series are used. In Ivrien, /a e i o u/ are written with A1 A3 A4 O1 O3 as usual; the diphthongs are written with one of these and X3 or X4 as appropriate. /oi eu/ are written with O3 + X4 and A4 + X3 if they derived from /ui iu/.

Kadhrein uses A1 A2 A3 A4 for /a E e i/ and O1 O2 O3 for /O o u/. /Ø ø y/ are indicated by A2 A3 A4 + X3 if they originated from an /-u/ diphthong or affection, and with O1 O2 O3 + X4 if from one in /-i/. /E O/ from older /a/ are sometimes written with A1 + X4 and A1 + X3, especially if obviously related words have /a/.

Ivrien indicates lenition with either the underline or X2.

Genistien and Chastuvien

The only specific points to note about the writing of Genistien are the use of AA1 AA2 AA3 AA4 OO1 OO2 OO3 for /a: E: e: i: o: O: u:/ respectively; X2 for preceding /h/; X3 X4 with a vowel letter for a preceding /w j/; and X3 X4 doubled for a preceding /hw hj/.

Chastuvien follows the same conventions, except that AA2 OO2 are not used, and the affricates /ts dz tS dZ/ are represented in the muacharra aotóinh by an over-bar above S2 L4 S1 L3 respectively.

Astarien

Astarien does not use the V series, and writes /v/ idiosyncratically with X2. A1 A3 A4 are used for /a e i/, and O1 O2 O3 O4 for /o ø u y/; the corresponding muachóinh from the AA and OO series are used for the long vowels. The short vowel muachóinh are written with X4 for the diphthongs to /i/, and with X3 for those to /u/ or /y/.

Lemyzon

Lemyzon, when written at all, uses the same consonantal conventions as Astarien except for S1 S2 S3 S4 for /C s S s/ according to their origins. The same short vowel muachóinh are used as in Astarien, and are written with X1 X2 X3 X4 according to their tones, which typically represent level, rising, falling, and circumflex respectively.