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A description of the Moohsrong script as used for Daikhra

This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 5 Jan 2022, 13:52.

[comments] dkhashkorthographyconscript Daikhra (2 articles)

1. Daikhra Grammar

2. The Moohsrong Script

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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.

Menu 1. ---Introduction--- 2. ---Consonants--- 3. ---Vowels--- 4. ---Character table--- 5. ---Punctuation--- 6. ---Example texts---

[top]---Introduction---

The Moohsrong script (

Daikhra: ጘሮሦሟሞ moohsrong "pure script") is an abugida used to write the Daikhra and Ashkay languages, among others. It is written from right to left, though the alphabetical ordering of individual characters in tables will be given in left-to-right order in this article, and unfortunately the way CWS handles RTL text means that longer passages should be read bottom-to-top, though this would not be the intended reading direction in normal writing. As an abugida, consonants are primary/base glyphs, while vowels are secondarily marked as diacritics.

[top]---Consonants---

There are 38 basic consonant letters in Moohsrong; Daikhra makes use of 19 of these, while Ashkay uses 29. Without any vowel marking, the consonants as written carry a default inherent vowel <a> (/a/ in Daikhra, /o/ in Ashkay).

Character	Literal transcription	Daikhra romanisation	Daikhra IPA	Ashkay romanisation	Ashkay IPA	Numerical value
ኣ	<ʔa>	-	-	(null cons.)	/ä/	0
ሃ	<ha>	ha	/ha/	ha	/hä/	1
ቃ	<ɢa>	qa	/qa/	xa	/ɢä/	2
ኃ	<qa>	xa	/χa/	qa	/qä/	3
ዃ	<ʁa>	-	-	xha	/ʁä/	-
ቓ	<χa>	-	-	qha	/χä/	4
ጋ	<ga>	ga	/ka/	ga	/gä/	5
ካ	<ka>	ka	/kʰa/	ka	/kä/	6
ጛ	<ŋa>	nga	/ŋa/	nga	/ŋä/	7
ዓ	<ɣa>	-	-	gha	/ɣä/	-
ኻ	<xa>	-	-	kha	/xä/	8
ጃ	<ǰa>	-	-	ja	/d͡ʒä/	-
ቻ	<ča>	-	-	ca	/t͡ʃä/	-
ኛ	<ňa>	-	-	nya	/ɲä/	-
ዣ	<ža>	-	-	-	-	9
ሣ	<ša>	hsa	/ʃa/	-	-	10
ያ	<ya>	(null cons.), ia	/a~ja/¹	ya	/jä/	20
ቋ	<λa>	-	-	-	-	30
ጫ	<ƛa>	-	-	-	-	40
ጳ	<ɮa>	-	-	-	-	50
ፃ	<ła>	hla	/ɬa/	-	-	60
ላ	<la>	la	/la/	la	/lä/	70
ሻ	<ja>	-	-	-	-	-
ጻ	<ca>	-	-	-	-	-
ዛ	<za>	-	-	za	/zä/	80
ሳ	<sa>	sa	/sa/	sa	/sä/	90
ዳ	<da>	da	/ta/	da	/dä/	100
ታ	<ta>	ta	/tʰa/	ta	/tä/	200
ና	<na>	na	/na/	na	/nä/	300
ሓ	<ða>	-	-	-	-	-
ጣ	<θa>	-	-	rha	/r̥ä/	400
ራ	<ra>	ra	/ra/	ra	/rä/	500
ባ	<ba>	ba	/pa/	ba	/bä/	600
ፓ	<pa>	fa	/fa/	pa	/pä/	700
ማ	<ma>	ma	/ma/	ma	/mä/	800
ቫ	<va>	-	-	va	/vä/	900
ፋ	<fa>	-	-	fa	/fä/	1000
ዋ	<wa>	va	/ʋa/	wa	/wä/	1,000,000

¹ see the section below

Distinctions in Daikhra
While the consonant ያ has a literal transcription of ya in the context of the script, there is no <y> in Daikhra romanisation, and /j/ only exists in loanwords. There are three main ways in which Moohsrong <ya> is used:

As a null consonant, primarily in vowel-initial words (e.g. ቴረሟዮ oorte "two")

To mark offglide /i/ (e.g. የሟማዳ damaai "surface")

To mark /i/+vowel sequences when a diphthong with offglide /i/ and a succeeding vowel appear in hiatus. (e.g. ያፓ faia "to bring")
A word exhibiting uses one and three is ያሟያ aaia "to rule" (literal transcription: ya:ya).
Complicating matters is that in more recent loanwords, /j/ can occur word-initially, with Moohsrong <ya> being used to transcribe this too; consider the example ገታለያ ialtag "biscuit", a borrowing from

Formanian.

As for Moohsrong <wa>, in addition to being used to represent /ʋ/, it is also used to mark offglide /u/ (e.g. ወሟካዬ ekaau "to wait") and to mark /u/+vowel sequences when a diphthong with offglide /u/ and a succeeding vowel appear in hiatus [EXAMPLE TBD], in much the same way as <ya> is used to represent offglide /i/. This creates some ambiguity, as it is not immediately obvious whether a vowelless <v> represents /ʋ/ or offglide /u/. An example featuring both uses of vowelless <w> is ወታወኆ xovtau "fires (ERG)".

[top]---Vowels---

Vowels, including a lack thereof, are obligatorily marked using diacritics or other consonant modifications. Some of these diacritics are fused with their base consonant in recognisable but at times irregular ways, so the system is sometimes laid out as a syllabary. The exact way vowel diacritics can vary depends on the form of the consonant, e.g. whether it has ascenders or descenders. There is no overt vowel marking to represent the vowel /a/; without any diacritics, the base form of a consonant is used to represent a following /a/. In the following examples, three consonants are given to demonstrate the differences in form and position vowel diacritics generally exhibit when applied to consonants with no ascender or descender, an ascender, and a descender respectively. Of course there are some exceptions which can be easily noticed in the full character chart.

-a
ዳ da, ዋ wa, ላ la

-o
ዶ do, ዎ wo, ሎ lo

-e
ዴ de, ዌ we, ሌ le

-u
ዱ du, ዉ wu, ሉ lu

-i
ዲ di, ዊ wi, ሊ li

-y (Daikhra only)
ድ dy, ው wy, ል ly

-Ø (no vowel)
ደ d, ወ w, ለ l

Reduplication marker
The reduplication marker ሟ does not represent a sound of its own; rather it is placed after a word to indicate that it is reduplicated. However, in

Daikhra it can also be placed after a syllable character to indicate that the indicated vowel is long. Compare the examples የላ lai "to make" vs የሟላ laai "to be new".

[top]---Character table---

Below is a table containing all the possible consonant-vowel combinations in Daikhra Moohsrong.

Vowels → Consonants ↓	-a	-o	-e	u	i	y	-Ø
q-	ቃ	ቆ	ቄ	ቁ	ቂ	ቅ	ቀ
x-	ኃ	ኆ	ኄ	ኁ	ኂ	ኅ	ኀ
h-	ሃ	ሆ	ሄ	ሁ	ሂ	ህ	ሀ
g-	ጋ	ጎ	ጌ	ጉ	ጊ	ግ	ገ
k-	ካ	ኮ	ኬ	ኩ	ኪ	ክ	ከ
ng-	ጛ	ጞ	ጜ	ጙ	ጚ	ጝ	ጘ
hs-	ሣ	ሦ	ሤ	ሡ	ሢ	ሥ	ሠ
y-	ያ	ዮ	ዬ	ዩ	ዪ	ይ	የ
d-	ዳ	ዶ	ዴ	ዱ	ዲ	ድ	ደ
t-	ታ	ቶ	ቴ	ቱ	ቲ	ት	ተ
n-	ና	ኖ	ኔ	ኑ	ኒ	ን	ነ
r-	ራ	ሮ	ሬ	ሩ	ሪ	ር	ረ
l-	ላ	ሎ	ሌ	ሉ	ሊ	ል	ለ
hl-	ፃ	ፆ	ፄ	ፁ	ፂ	ፅ	ፀ
s-	ሳ	ሶ	ሴ	ሱ	ሲ	ስ	ሰ
b-	ባ	ቦ	ቤ	ቡ	ቢ	ብ	በ
f-	ፓ	ፖ	ፔ	ፑ	ፒ	ፕ	ፐ
m-	ማ	ሞ	ሜ	ሙ	ሚ	ም	መ
v-	ዋ	ዎ	ዌ	ዉ	ዊ	ው	ወ
Vowel length marker	ሟ

[top]---Punctuation---

The following punctuation marks are used in Moohsrong writing:

Comma (,) - used to separate items in lists. Can also be used in place of a full stop to mark two related sentences, e.g. in the place of English semicolons. Yes, Oxford commas are obligatory.

Full stop (.) - marks the end of a sentence.

Pilcrow (¶) - marks the beginning of a paragraph or verse.

Emphasis marks (! ¡) - used to place emphasis on the enclosed words. There is no distinct exclamation mark in Moohsrong writing.

Question mark (?) - only used in informal speech lacking the interrogative auxiliary ረሟቃ qaar. It cannot be used to finish a sentence on its own; a full stop must be placed afterwards for that.

Ellipsis (-) - when used to mark an omitted word it is surrounded using parentheses (i.e. )-(). When unbracketed it indicates an interruption or pause in speech. It is generally surrounded by spaces when bracketed, but not when unbracketed.

Quotation marks (: :) - used to enclose quotations.

Parentheses () () - used to enclose additional information within a text.

Correction mark (~) - used to denote a mistake, for example a mistake in transcribing speech. The corrected version of the text is written immediately after the correction mark. Also used in literature to mark someone correcting themselves in dialogue.

[top]---Example texts---

.የማቱለሟኬ ነዳወሟታሃ ነኃቁየጋጘሟድ ቃመሬሟታዶ ኔሴዪ የሴቁየሟታሃሟኬ የሴወቃየፃ ታረባዮ ,የዌኩፁሜ የሴጙየዌ የሴኑኀካ ቃመኔቢ ኔገጜኄ ለሟዩ ወሟቦ

Boou uul xengegne binemqa kaxnusei veingusei mehlukuvei, obarta hlaiqausei keehataaiqusei iisene dotaaremqa dyynggaiquxan hataaudan keeltumai.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Comments

[link] [quote] [move] [edit] [del] 03-Feb-23 20:09 [Deactivated User]

Awesome

[link] [quote] [move] [edit] [del] 16-May-22 21:46 [Deactivated User]

This is exquisite.