Evolution of the alphabet at the time of Ancient Naastnaat
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Alphabet list at different historical points
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 6 Dec 2023, 09:26.
[comments] naatorthographyhistory BACKGROUND
This liturgical script was an outstanding achievement for its time – a featural alphabet of vowels and consonants for the Nása language. Each letter essentially started life as a schematic diagram of either mouth and lip shaping (for vowels) or throat voicing, relative articulation position and nostril output (nasality) for producing a consonant sound, so that foreign-born missionaries could teach correct pronunciation of sacred texts once they were distant from the seminary. These diagrams were streamlined over decades of teaching practice into schematics and then just symbols.
This alphabet was later used for royal business, in exchange for royal patronage and establishment of a state religion. Nobles trained their children in this essential skill to prepare for life in the royal court or in religious, military or educational institutions. Traders and missionaries caused the alphabet to spread across multiple kingdoms and multiple languages. The name Naastnaat ("trade language") was given to the evolving Nása language as it spread across the continent.
Symbols were written left to right and some simple punctuation supplemented the sound symbols: a pause symbol (-) and a sentence break symbol (|). There were never any capital letter forms.
Non-religious use caused further simplification, similarity reduction and streamlining in the alphabet. New letters were invented because languages evolved new sounds or newly adopting languages needed to represent extra sounds.
ANCIENT NAASTNAAT ALPHABET
| Ancient Naastnaat | ᴝ | ᴞ | O | ọ | ● | ᴥ | ☼ | Ϥ | y | ḟ | f | ᶂ | ɗ | ᶑ | ὒ | υ | ᶌ | ɻ | ᶘ | ᶋ | ἤ | η | ῃ |
|---|
SETHEN ALPHABET EVOLUTION: Nása TO MODERN EXTENDED
| Nása | ᴝ | o | ● | Ϥ | y | ḟ | f | ᶂ | ɗ | ᶑ | ὒ | υ | ᶌ | ᶘ | ᶋ | ἤ | η | ῃ | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient Naastnaat | ᴝ ᴞ | O ọ | ● ᴥ | ☼ | Ϥ | y | ḟ | f | ᶂ | ɗ | ᶑ | ὒ | υ | ᶌ | ɻ | ᶘ | ᶋ | ἤ | η | ῃ | ||||||||||
| Modern Extended | ᶗ ᶕ | O ọ | ɵ ɯ ϣ | ő ȫ | ᶙ | y | ḟ | f | ᶂ | ⱷ | d | ᶑ | ů | υ | ϫ | ε | ʎ | ҕ | ħ | ḥ | S ʂ | ł | ṅ | ŋ | ᶀ | Є | ḻ | Ṱ | ъ | փ |
Note: The letters in various alphabets have been grouped, where they share a common conceptual ancestor.
ALPHABET EVOLUTION NOTES
These notes discuss trends and changes in the alphabet of the Sethen, which in the period after Ancient Naastnaat was also used by peoples other than Naastnaat speakers.
A minimizing trend is observed in a number of Sethen characters (up to the modern day) where the original dual ‘nasal indicator’ over-strokes have become a single circle: ὒ to ů, ἤ to ṅ and for the later added ḧ a change to ḣ (and ultimately ḥ). Only the letter ḟ had achieved this simplification in Ancient Naastnaat.
NEW LETTERS
The letters ᴞ and ᴥ were developed to represent the new i and u sounds respectively, with side markings added to the original letters ᴝ and ●to indicate the wrinkling of the lips required for these more closed sounds. The letter ọ (representing the schwa sound) gained an under-dot, to distinguish it better from the identically shaped but now larger letter O which represented an open sound, ɑ, and hence was represented by a larger mouth opening.
The letters ☼ and ɻ initially represented semivowels used in transition between vowels, now both represented instead by the modern non-letter symbol ˛. However these letters in their original form gained use in the Sheeyiz language to represent sounds taken from the Talan language.
Note: The various alphabets (as presented in electronic form on this website) use Unicode symbols that most closely match the Sethen alphabet symbols, for convenience.
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