How did you create this script typographically??!! I love it :)
Understanding the Naduta script
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An outline of how the Naduta script functions
This public article was written by [Deactivated User] on 8 Nov 2016, 14:11.
[comments] ndtscript
1. Applicative
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2. Grammar temp
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3. Modals in Naduta
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11. Naduta Phonology
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13. Naduta Pronouns
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14. Naduta Verb Root Forms
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15. Naduta Verbal Aspect
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18. Transitivity
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?FYI...
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
in order to understand Naduta script, it is necessary to understand the very basics of the language: namely, that Naduta is an inflectional/agglutinating language, and that all nouns and verbs take mandatory suffixes. Both the roots and suffixes are written out explicitly. The script itself is composed of logograms (gankhi-phahasan), which, in the context of Naduta, means a sign or collection of signs that represent a root and any inflections it may carry.
Logograms comprise two types of glyphs: untu-phahasan, or base signs, and nuugar-phahasan, or subordinate signs. The vast majority of signs are of the first category, but a number of commonly occurring signs belong to the second catgory.
Base signs are any signs that may stand as the only semantic element of a logogram. Many can occur independently, but some do not. Examples include:
目 nur- "eye"
穂 yir- "corn/maize"
操 apan- "to manipulate; to operate; to use; to control"
思 "knowledge; thought" in 知 yus- "to know"
Base signs can be used in three different ways:
1. unkhi-phahasan "logographic base signs"
2. trekhekhi-phahasan "phonetic base signs"
3. rutrekheebuun-phahasan "ideographic base signs"
Unkhi-phahasan - Logographic base signs
This is when a base sign is used to represent the base stem of a word. The first three of the four examples above are all logographic base signs. Typically, other signs will be added to logographic base signs to create logograms. As mentioned above, despite similar terminology, it is important to remember that logographic base signs (unkhi-phahasan: roots/stems) are different from logograms (gankhi-phahasan: complete words). We'll use some simple examples to outline the difference:
Logographic base signs:
目 nur- "eye"
走 u- "to locomote; to move/travel on foot"
These two examples represent both the phonetic and semantic values of the stem, but they do not constitute complete words.
Logograms employing the above logographic base signs:
目斧 nurta "eye (ANIM.NOM.SG)"
了走nJ tah-ura-buru-san "Did you not locomote?"
These are logograms. They represent complete words. Thus, as you can see, the logogram is a combination of the sign(s) for the stem and the sign(s) for the inflection.
Trekhekhi-phahasan - Phonetic base signs
These are base signs that are used for their sound value only; their meaning is ignored. All phonetic base signs are used for their V or CV sequences only; any coda consonants in the original root are ignored. The inventory of phonetic base signs is limited. These are generally easy to identify, because they appear last in a logogram, and they are typically (but not always) raised above the writing line.
歯 thu- "tooth" in 何 sithu- "what"
葉 ri- "leaf" in 変 rin- "to change"
君 na- "wall; fence" in 壁 na- "wall"
叢 wes- "bush; shrub" in 去 wer- "to leave; to go away"
星 yhu- "star" in 思星 yhun- "to think; thought"
You can see that the phonetic base sign tends to be raised above the writing line. Also note the rather unique logogram 壁 na-, in which both the semantic and phonetic signs are the same base sign (the base sign alone has been reappropriated as the second person pronoun na; see the article on pronouns).
Rutrekheebuun-phahasan - Ideographic base signs
This is the most common type of sign in Naduta, and the one that contributes most to the difficulty in reading it. Ideographic base signs are base signs that are used for their meaning alone, while their pronunciations are ignored. They may appear in groups of two, three, or more, and they may or may not occur with phonetic base signs. Generally, there is no overt differentiation between ideographic and logographic base signs, meaning it can be unclear whether a sign is to be pronounced or not.
Examples:
操 apan- "to manipulate; to operate; to use; to control" in 変 rin- "to change"
脛 tu- "leg" in 去 wer- "to leave; to go away"
目 nur- "eye" and 操 apan- "manipulate" in 見 ku- "to look at"
腕 mhir- "arm" and 造 gehme- "structure" in 作 tru- "to make"
Such characters are called guguphasdan phahasan, or compound glyphs. What makes them most confusing is that compound glyphs may themselves be juxtaposed into compound morphemes, e.g.:
蠢 dephu- "to crawl; to squirm"
去 wer- "to leave; to go away"
蠢去 dephuwer- "to crawl away"
進 pun- "to move forward; to proceed"
勢 then- "tendency; energy"
進勢 punthen- "tendency; proclivity; disposition; inclination"
Subordinate signs are a subclass of signs (obviously) that are essentially supplements to base signs. There are two types of subordinate signs:
1. trekhe-phahasan, or phonetic signs
2. kimi-phahasan, or support signs
Trekhe-phahasan - Phonetic signs
There are seven signs that are entirely devoid of semantic content, and exist only to indicate pronunciation. They may serve the same role as phonetic base signs, or they may mark certain affixes. These seven signs are all abbreviations of base signs. The full list is as follows:
m mu
O ma
o ru
i sa
j yi, yhi, -ey, -y
3 e
P -h
Of these, only P -h is is in free variation with the character from which it derives (皮 uh-), but only when it serves as a phonetic sign (e.g. 乃l yah and 乃P yah (a declined genitive particle) are both acceptable, but only 皮紐 uhanta (objective form of "skin") is acceptable). it cannot serve as a phonetic complement in a logogram, only as the objective suffix of known and unknown nouns. Thus, it may in fact be a derived base sign that can only be used logographonetically.
Notice also that 皮, the logogram for uh-, frequently but not necessarily has an added dot to differentiate it from the case ending l, which never does.
3 e may similarly be considered a derived base sign, in that it is used to write the word e(y) "sometimes; occasionally", without an accompanying logographic base sign.
Kimi-phahasan - Support signs
Support signs are mainly lines and dots that are more supplements to existing characters than characters in their own right. Some examples include:
The vertical line in 掴 pemuu- "to hold; to grasp" added to 腕 mhir- "arm" to show that the arms/hands are grasping something.
The two dots in 蠢 dephu- "to crawl; to squirm; to creep" added between Image 足 de(n)- "foot" and 虫 mhis- "insect; bug" to indicate footsteps.
The downward stroke in 雨 ge- "rain" added to 水 ye- "water" to indicate downward motion.
The horizontal bar in 説 anumenu- "to explain; to show" to differentiate it from 話告 memenu- "to be reported; to be told", the passive form of 告 menu- "to report; to tell".
Eventually I will add more to this article, about adpositions, glyph positioning, foreign names, and so on. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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