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Creating a Language [P1: Alphabets]
- 1. Creating a Language Part One: Alphabets
- 2. Alphabets An Alphabet, also known as a phonemic alphabet, is the writing system Europeans and Americans probably know best. In Alphabets, letters can represent vowels (a, e, i, o, u) or consonants (k, l, p,) In different alphabets, sounds can be achieved using different letters. For example, the sh sound is created using the letters SI in Welsh, SJ in Afrikaans, CH in French, S in Irish, etc. The most widely used alphabets are the Latin/Roman alphabet: the one youre reading right now; or the Cyrillic alphabet: found in Slavic countries like Russia. Alphabets can use diacritics to change the sounds of vowels. Bonjour! Hello! Ahoj! 亟舒于亠亶!
- 3. Wait What the hell is a diacritic? A diacritic is an accent or symbol that is used to signify a vowel, or a change to a vowel. For example! In French, Cafe would be pronounced KAF, whereas Caf辿 with the added diacritic on the E signifies that the silent E has now changed to a sounded e, making the pronunciation KAF-AY Its used in a bunch of other types of writing systems, too. It can mean a lotta different things, and that changes depending on the language: changing a vowel, removing the vowel sound, representing the vowel itself Okay- Lets continue with the alphabet types!
- 4. Abjads An Abjad, also known as a Consonant Alphabet, is the writing system used in Arabic and Hebrew (among others) In Abjads, letters represent consonants only, and vowels are expressed through an added diacritic. In Semitic Abjads, most words have roots made of three consonants. For example! K-T-B is the root for words related to inscribing or writing in Arabic. By adding vowels and other consonants around these three root consonants, you create different words within the same field of writing; such as kat樽b (writer), kutub (books), maktab (school), and kutub樽 (book seller).
- 5. Abugidas An Abugida, also known as a Syllabic Alphabet, is a syllable-based writing system. In Abugidas, letters signify whole syllables as opposed to specific letters; for example, letters would represent ka, sho or tu instead of k, s or t Diacritics are used in Abugidas to modify the vowel. For example, for a letter signifying the syllable MA, a diacritic may be added to signify the pronunciation has changed to MO/MI/MU/ME. However! A diacritic may also symbolise a removal of the vowel entirely, making the letter simply M.
- 6. Syllabary A Syllabary is a phonetic writing system that is very similar to an Abugida in the way it uses letters to signify syllables instead of specific letters. The difference lies in the fact that diacritics are not used to signify different syllables instead, entirely different symbols are used. For example, in Japanese Hiragana, the symbols for ka/ki/ku/ke/ko are all separate symbols on their own, instead of a modified version of one of them.
- 7. Semanto-Phonetic Semanto-phonetic writing systems use symbols that represent both the sounds of the symbol, but also the meaning of the symbol. As a result of this, Semanto-phonetic alphabets often include a very large number of symbols, generally from several hundred to tens of thousands. Semanto-phonetic symbols can be classified under either: Pictograms, Ideograms, and compound characters.
- 8. More Semanto-Phonetic PICTOGRAMS: Symbols that resemble the thing(s) they represent. IDEOGRAMS: Symbols that graphically represent abstract ideas, such as numbers or abstract nouns. COMPOUND CHARACTERS: Symbols that include a semantic element, which represents the meaning, and a phonetic element, which hints at the pronunciation. The below example shows Chinese compound characters that all share are a semantic element meaning horse.