-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathtahanohikamu.html
496 lines (434 loc) · 16.7 KB
/
tahanohikamu.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Tahano Hikamu</title>
<style type="text/css" media="screen, print">
@font-face {
font-family: tagati-book-g;
src: url("Tagati Book Regular G.ttf");
font-style: normal;
}
@font-face {
font-family: tagati-book-g;
src: url("Tagati Book Italic G.ttf");
font-style: italic;
}
html {
padding: 2em;
}
body {
max-width: 40em;
margin: 0 auto;
font-family: serif;
}
h2, h3 {
margin-top: 2em;
}
p, li {
line-height: 150%;
}
.header {
text-align: center;
}
.body p {
text-align: justify;
margin: 0;
}
.body p + p {
text-indent: 2em;
}
blockquote p + p {
text-indent: 0 !important;
}
table {
border: 0;
margin: 1.5em 0;
padding: 0;
width: 100%;
}
table th,
table td {
border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;
padding: 0 0.25em;
vertical-align: middle;
}
table tr:nth-child(2n+1) {
background: #e6e6e6;
}
table.letterlist td,
table.dialist td:nth-child(2n+1) {
text-align: center;
padding: 5px 0;
max-width: 8em;
min-width: 2em;
}
table.letterlist tr:nth-child(2n+1),
table.dialist td:nth-child(2n+1) {
font-family: tagati-book-g, "Tagati Book G";
font-size: 250%;
line-height: 250%;
}
blockquote.example {
margin: 1.5em 0;
}
blockquote.example * {
text-align: center;
}
blockquote.example .tagatibookg {
font-size: 200%;
line-height: 150%;
}
.tagatibookg {
font-family: tagati-book-g, "Tagati Book G";
font-size: 125%;
line-height: 0;
padding: 0 0.25em;
}
.x {
display: none;
color: #fff;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="header">
<h1>Tahano Hikamu</h1>
<p><strong>A fictional writing system</strong></p>
<p>Last modified: Carsten Becker, 21 August 2012<br />
<em>christianus<span class="x">_blah_</span>.<span class="x">_all_this_obfuscation_tsk_tsk_</span>pistorius<span class="x">_removethis_</span>@<span class="x">_and_this_too_</span>gmail<span class="x">_this_as_well_</span>.<span class="x">_removethis_</span>com</em><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" taget="_blank">CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 License</a></p>
</div>
<hr />
<div class="body">
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p><em>Tahano Hikamu</em> (<span class="tagatibookg">thno hikmu</span>) is a fictional script inspired in general by those of South-East Asia, and various people have consequently suggested a similarity to the likes of Thai, but also to J. R. R. Tolkien's <em>Tengwar</em> script, probably due to the use of diacritics to indicate vowels. However, in difference to <em>Tengwar</em>, <em>Tahano Hikamu</em> is not featural, so the shape of a character does not reflect the position of the tongue needed to make the sound it represents. <em>Tahano Hikamu</em> was born on an evening in 2004 when I was scribbling shapes of letters once again. It has been steadily varied and improved since then, but has been mostly stable for the past four or five years.</p>
<p>Note that in order to see all characters in this file correctly, you need to use a browser that supports <em>@font-face</em> and the <em>Tagāti Book G</em> TTF files need to be located in the same directory as this file; alternatively, you need to have the TTF files provided by this font package installed wherever your operating system normally keeps fonts. Furthermore, you need a browser that supports SIL Graphite (to date only Mozilla Firefox from version 11 on), which may need to be activated first – SIL International provides a <a href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=projects&item_id=graphite_firefox" target="_blank">description for how to do that</a> in Mozilla Firefox.</p>
<h2>Consonants</h2>
<p>As mentioned before, this script works similar to the ones found in India and elsewhere in South-East Asia – it is a syllabic alphabet, or <em>abugida</em>. This means that consonants serve as bases or matrices for vowels, which in turn are written as diacritics. In difference to the scripts of Semitic languages, writing out vowels is obligatory here, except for the vowel <em>a</em>, which is never written when it follows a consonant immediately, as it is inherent to every consonant letter. Letters do not have special names, but they are plainly called <em>pa, ba, ta, da</em> etc. This script is always written from left to right in lines from top to bottom. The following chart gives an overview of all basic consonant letters, with pronunciations in IPA:</p>
<table cellspacing="0" class="letterlist">
<tr>
<td>p</td>
<td>t</td>
<td>k</td>
<td>b</td>
<td>d</td>
<td>g</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>pa</td>
<td>ta</td>
<td>ka</td>
<td>ba</td>
<td>da</td>
<td>ga</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>m</td>
<td>n</td>
<td>N</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>s</td>
<td>h</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ma</td>
<td>na</td>
<td>ŋa</td>
<td>va</td>
<td>sa</td>
<td>ha</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>r</td>
<td>l</td>
<td>y</td>
<td>ʔ</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ra</td>
<td>la</td>
<td>ja</td>
<td>Ø (ʔa)</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>The place holder, or <em>ranyan</em>, is used when there is no consonant base that a vowel can be written on, which is, for example, the case for word-initial vowels. It has no sound value of its own in Ayeri. In languages with a phonemic glottal stop, it may also serve as a letter for that (sound value /ʔa/). Note that if another <em>na</em> follows a <em>na</em>, the first of them is slightly reduced and ligated with the second one:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">n‌n</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">nn</span></p>
<p>nana ligature</p></blockquote>
<p>To suit the needs of other languages that are also habitually written with this script, additional characters have been invented:</p>
<table class="letterlist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>f</td>
<td>w</td>
<td>z</td>
<td>S</td>
<td>Z</td>
<td>C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>fa</td>
<td>wa</td>
<td>za</td>
<td>ʃa</td>
<td>ʒa</td>
<td>ça</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>X</td>
<td>G</td>
<td>T</td>
<td>q</td>
<td>x</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>xa</td>
<td>ɣa</td>
<td>t͡sa</td>
<td>k͡wa, k͡va</td>
<td>ksa</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>The pronunciations given here are the most common ones, but individual languages may change things in order to adapt the script to their needs.</p>
<h2>Vowels</h2>
<p>It has already been mentioned above that vowels are written as diacritics. These can appear on top of or below a consonant and alter the pronunciation of the syllable. Every consonant has two vowel slots. The first one is above the consonant, the second one is below it. Since vowels are always understood to belong to the preceding consonant, the inherent /a/ is replaced by the vowel that is written above the consonant:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">p</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">pe</span></p>
<p>pa → pe</p></blockquote>
<p>The top diacritics for vowels are as follows:</p>
<table class="letterlist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>*i</td>
<td>*e</td>
<td>*a</td>
<td>*o</td>
<td>*u</td>
<td>*au</td>
<td>*ə</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>i</td>
<td>e</td>
<td>(a)</td>
<td>o</td>
<td>u</td>
<td>au</td>
<td>ə</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Of course, as an /a/ is inherent to all consonant letters, the <em>a</em> top-diacritic itself basically only occurs with <em>ranyan</em> at the beginning of words: <span class="tagatibookg">A</span>.</p>
<p>Two consecutive vowels do not occur much in English, but this may well be the case in other languages. For this purpose, another slot for a vowel is added below the consonant character, as mentioned above:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">p</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">pe</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">pe_a</span></p>
<p>pa → pe → pea</p></blockquote>
<p>The first slot of the consonant <em>pa</em> in the example above is already used for <em>e</em>, however, there is still an /a/ at the end of the syllable, which – if it was not indicated below the consonant – would be swallowed by the <em>e</em>. This works the same way with all other vowels as well. Vowels are written like this when placed underneath a consonant:</p>
<table class="letterlist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>*_i</td>
<td>*_e</td>
<td>*_a</td>
<td>*_o</td>
<td>*_u</td>
<td>*_au</td>
<td>*_ə</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>i</td>
<td>e</td>
<td>a</td>
<td>o</td>
<td>u</td>
<td>au</td>
<td>ə</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Note that very often, consonants with ascenders, such as <em>ka, da, ça</em> (<span class="tagatibookg">k d C</span>) will have vowels written <em>under</em> them also in the case of a monovocalic syllable, since crossing the ascender with a vowel is considered unesthetic, although necessary on occasion. The empty top-slot is indicated by a dot then:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">k</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">ke</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">ke_a</span></p>
<p>ka → ke → kea</p></blockquote>
<h2>Diacritics</h2>
<p><em>Tahano Hikamu</em> has a plethora of additional diacritics which serve the purpose of marking the alteration of vowels or consonants. The following ones are written under consonants:</p>
<table class="dialist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>*aa</td>
<td style="width: 14.5em"><em>tupasati:</em> long vowel</td>
<td>*J</td>
<td><em>ringaya:</em> palatalization of consonant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*Y</td>
<td><em>ya eyra:</em> consonant + /ja/</td>
<td>*H</td>
<td><em>ulangaya:</em> aspiration of consonant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*M</td>
<td><em>vināti:</em> homorganic nasal or nasalization</td>
<td>*F*</td>
<td><em>kusangisāti:</em> geminated consonant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*F</td>
<td><em>gondaya:</em> no inherent /a/</td>
<td>*ˀ</td>
<td><em>raypāya eyra:</em> vowel + /ʔ/ or glottalization</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Some of these – namely <em>tupasati</em> (‘long maker’), <em>ya eyra</em> (‘low <em>ya</em>’), <em>ringaya</em> (‘raiser’), and <em>ulangaya</em> (‘breather’) – can also precede the consonant under certain circumstances: This is the case</p>
<ol>
<li>with consonants without a right downstroke or bowl to attach to:
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">naa, Naa, vaa, waa, qaa</span></p>
<p>naː, ŋaː, vaː, waː, kwaː</p></blockquote>
</li>
<li>with consonants following <em>na</em>:
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">npaa</span> (*<span class="tagatibookg">n‌paa</span>)</p>
<p>napaː</p></blockquote>
</li>
<li>when there would be two bottom-attaching diacritics:
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">t</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">ti</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">tii</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">tYii</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">tYii_e</span></p>
<p>ta → ti → tiː → t͡ʃiː (*tjiː) → t͡ʃiːe (*tjiːe)</p></blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
<p>As can be observed in the example of (3) above, diacritic reordering can produce very complex results, as vowels and “small” diacritics like <em>gondaya</em> and <em>vināti</em> can still be put underneath “large” diacritics such as <em>tupasati, ya eyra, etc.</em> — in the t͡ʃiː step of (3), <em>tupasati</em> is drawn before the consonant <em>ta</em> so as to be able to attach the <em>ya eyra</em> under the consonant. Also note that <em>na</em> typically has <em>gondaya</em>, <em>vināti</em> and <em>kusangisāti</em> written over it rather than under it.</p>
<p>These are the diacritics that attach in front of consonants:</p>
<table class="dialist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>ː*</td>
<td style="width: 14.5em"><em>tupasati marin:</em> long vowel</td>
<td>*j</td>
<td><em>lentankusang:</em> rising diphthong, e.g. /aɪ, eɪ/ ‹<span class="tagatibookg">*j</span>, <span class="tagatibookg">*ej</span>›.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ʲ*</td>
<td><em>ringaya marin:</em> palatalization of consonant</td>
<td>*_:</td>
<td><em>tilamaya:</em> systematically changed vowel, e.g. “umlaut” vowels in German: /ø, y/ ‹<span class="tagatibookg">*o_:</span>, <span class="tagatibookg">*u_:</span>›.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ʲ*</td>
<td><em>ya marin:</em> consonant + /ja/</td>
<td>*R</td>
<td><em>hiyamaya:</em> retroflex consonant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ʰ*</td>
<td><em>ulangaya marin:</em> aspiration of consonant</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Note that it is correct here that <em>ringaya/ya marin</em> has the same shape. Also note that the diacritics on the right side of the table can only occur in this position, and that when stacking diacritics to the front of consonants, the stacking goes from right to left, beginning with those diacritics modifying the consonant, then those modifying the vowel, with the <em>lentankusang</em> diacritic following (from right to left) <em>tupasati marin</em>:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">n</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">nY</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">nYaa</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">nYaaj</span></p>
<p>na → nja → njaː → njaːɪ</p></blockquote>
<p>Also note that rule (2) above is overridden if <em>na</em> is followed by a consonant which has a diacritic attached to its front:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p><span class="tagatibookg">npYaa</span></p>
<p>napjaː</p></blockquote>
<p>Last but not least, there are diacritics that attach to the top of consonants. The bottom versions of these are preferred if there is a counterpart, however, the reordering to the top is convenient sometimes, e.g. in the special case of <em>na</em> having no space underneath it to attach diacritics.</p>
<table class="dialist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>*_F</td>
<td><em>gondaya ling:</em> no inherent /a/</td>
<td>*̔</td>
<td><em>kusangisāti ling:</em> geminated consonant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*_M</td>
<td><em>vināti ling:</em> homorganic nasal or nasalization</td>
<td>*Q</td>
<td><em>raypāya:</em> vowel + /ʔ/ or glottalization</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Note that it is also possible for <em>gondaya</em> to appear after a consonant at the end of a word: <span class="tagatibookg">*̒</span>.</p>
<h2>Numbers</h2>
<p><em>Tahano Hikamu</em> uses a duodecimal number-place system, so there are separate figures for 10 (A) and 11 (B) as well as from 0 to 9.</p>
<table class="letterlist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>¹</td>
<td>²</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>A</td>
<td>B</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2>Punctuation</h2>
<table class="letterlist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>.</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>!, ‼</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>¶</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>dan</em><br />
(full stop)</td>
<td><em>damprantan</em><br />
(question)</td>
<td><em>dambahān</em><br />
(exclamation)</td>
<td><em>puntān</em><br />
(dash)</td>
<td><em>adrumaya</em><br />
(line break)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>“*”</td>
<td>(*)</td>
<td>[*]</td>
<td>’</td>
<td>·</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>danarān</em><br />
(quotation)</td>
<td><em>dankayvo</em><br />
(brackets)</td>
<td><em>dangaran</em><br />
(name)</td>
<td><em>dandan</em><br />
(abbreviation)</td>
<td><em>dansinday</em><br />
(decimal point)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Note that instead of a comma, a wide word space is used. Clauses themselves are usually written as one string, or with only little space between individual words. The <em>puntān</em>, or dash, serves the function of both dashes and colons. The horizontal form of the <em>dambahān</em>, or exclamation mark is preferred at the end of paragraphs, and also for very strong exclamations. The <em>adrumaya</em> indicates a line break within a clause. The <em>dandan</em> is used to indicate abbreviated words or syllables, but it is also used to mark clitics, e.g. as in French:</p>
<blockquote class="example"><p>*<span class="tagatibookg">sə E</span> → <span class="tagatibookg">s’E</span></p>
<p><em>*ce est</em> → <em>c’est</em> ‘this is’</p></blockquote>
<h2>Abbreviations</h2>
<table class="dialist" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>&</td>
<td><em>nay</em> ‘and’</td>
<td>+</td>
<td><em>naynay</em> ‘also, too, furthermore’</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div><!-- body -->
</body>
</html>