orthography
version 0.1.0
version 0.1.0
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orthography
version 0.1.0 |
| phonics | orthography | morphology | syntax & morpho-syntactics | lexicon | culture | artifacts |
| The Idrani Standard Metalinguistic Specification v 0.4.1 is the only official description of the Idrani language as created by Trent M. Pehrson. All information in this document is the sole property of Trent M. Pehrson unless otherwise specified. For information on terms of use use and copyright policies, click on the link labeled 'terms of use' in the navigation bar at the top of this page. |
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What is Orthography?
The aspect of language study concerned with written characters and their sequences in words. Also, the method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols1. Idrani orthography is very involved because many different types of writing systems have been developed for Idrani over many stages of its development. While many of the writing systems of Idrani are presented in this section of the specification, only a few of the orthographic systems developed for Idrani will be fully described to the systemic level in this section of the specification. This is because actual works and documents have been created in the varied systems of orthography (such as journals and essays) which are private, or because some systems have been used for cryptological purposes. In addition, the complexity of fully cataloging and describing more than 82 writing systems is too exhaustive for this work. Insofar as possible, samples in this section have been extracted from actual artifacts and/or documents from the period of each script respectively. Brief History of Idrani Orthography drani orthography is still (an likely will always be) in a state of flux. Dozens of writing systems have been developed for Idrani by its founder, Trent Pehrson. Many of Idrani’s early writing systems were simple alphabets. Later, experimentation with syllabifies and finally with multifaceted systems took place. The development of Idrani writing predates the development of the language. The first script originated as a one-to-one, literal code in which to write English. Tired of being humiliated each time his third grade teacher intercepted and read one of his notes, the designer of the Idrani language, Trent Pehrson, and his class mates began using the script to prevent their teacher’s encroachment. Unfortunately, Trent and his third grade coconspirators soon realized that their efforts had only encouraged their note-hating teacher. To him, they were nothing more than entertaining cryptograms– tantalizing him with the reward of embarrassing his clandestine pupils upon decryption. So, Trent countered his teacher, using graphical delimiters in his code instead of spaces, creating new characters for common digraphs and writing his coded notes phonetically. But these measures merely baited Trent’s teacher who found the increased challenge even more palatable. With unwavering determination, Trent decided that only the encryption of language itself would bring true victory. And so, in the tempest of this rivalry, the Idrani language was born. Eventually, Trent’s cohorts lost interest in the complexity of his cryptology. After all, it had begun to smack of study— growing dangerously near the realm of homework. But for Trent, the conlang hook was set. The dreaded, all consuming philology gene had been activated. From that time, Trent has continued to develop the scripts and language of Idrani. In this section of the ISMS, the scripts of Idrani will be touched upon. Please keep in mind that not all Idrani scripts will be included. Many writing systems have been designed for the Idrani language. Some of these scripts were inspired by existing scripts or cultural ideas. Others were completely original. Most of the scripts which drew on the ideas of others have dwindled and passed into the history of Idrani. Others have maintained prominence and continue to be used. The most prominent and important of all the systems designed for Idrani are the two original script families, Sipokhi and Ksatlai.
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Idrani Orthographic Classes
There are two primary classes of Idrani orthography. Native writing systems are those systems designed specifically for Idrani. Romanized systems are those designed for transliterating Idrani using the Roman character set common in western communications. Select one of the links below to review an orthographic class. |
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| A class of writing systems which are native to Idrani and which have been used to create artifacts at some point in the history of the Idranin language. | |
| A class of writing systems which are not Native to Idrani but which may be used for mapping Idrani writing into other systems. | |
| Native Writing Systems | |
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Overview of Native Writing Systems
Native writing systems are a class of writing systems which are native to Idrani and which have been used to create artifacts at some point in the history of the Idranin language. The native writing systems are divided into four categories, namely Sipokhi, Ksatlai, High Xulka, and Experimental. All the categories, except the Experimental category, represent critical stages in the development of one script family. The experimental category includes all scripts which were used briefly and in one form only. |
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| A family of writing systems which all descended from the original Idrani script called Psi. The Sipokhi family contains the longest used and most widely developed writing systems of the language. | |
| A family of writing systems which all originated from an orthographic movement in the Idrani language known as the dynamic movement which were inspired by the original experimental script called Ilkoin. | |
| A family of writing systems which were inspired by the Vulcan culture seen in the scenic artwork, literature, motion pictures and television productions of Star Trek. | |
| A family of writing systems which were inspired by the cultures seen in the scenic artwork, literature, motion pictures of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trillogy. | |
| A small family of writing systems which were inspired by the Klingon culture seen in the scenic artwork, literature, motion pictures and television productions of Star Trek. | |
| A group of original unrelated scripts which had only one generation of development and which were used only briefly for the actual creation of documents or artifacts. | |
| Romanized Writing Systems | |
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Overview of Romanized Writing Systems
Romanized writing systems are a class of writing systems which are not native to Idrani and which have been used as a typographic convention for describing and recording Idrani. There are two primary romanized writing systems, namely Mlajadi and Khijadi. |
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| The Mlajadi script is a romanized writing system for Idrani which uses only the Latin characters familiar to English speakers to represent Idrani orthography and phonology. | |
| The Khijadi script is a semi-romanized script which uses the standard Latin characters familiar to English speakers, but which also uses some Greek and Cyrillic characters. | |
| The Sipokhi Script Family | ||
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Overview of The Sipokhi Script Family
The Sipokhi script family contains dozens of writing systems-- all of which descended from the original Idrani script called Psi. The family includes scripts of the following types: abjadic, alphabetic, syllabic, logographic, polyfunctional. The main stages of development in the Sipokhi family are represented in the scripts listed below in chronological order. |
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Psi is an alphabetic script. It was the first idrani script and was designed circa 1980. Psi is a crude permutation of the Roman character set used in modern American English. The Psi script predates the Idrani language. It was used as a cypher for writing English and eventually led to the development of the Idrani language. | |
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Nuha is an alphabetic script and was designed circa 1981. Nuha is a retool of Psi, designed for the purpose of making the Roman equivalents of the Nuha characters harder to identify. Nuha was also used as an English cypher. | |
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Qechuwa is an alphabetic script consisting of a highly simplified and stylized reformation of Nuha. The alphabet still mapped to the Roman characters used in standard American English on a 1:1 basis. The Idrani language was beginning to form at this stage. | |
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Mahruwa is an alphabetic script. Mahruwa came into being as the Idrani language began to take formal shape. New characters were introduced to create a set which more closely resembled a map to the phonemes of the Idrani language. A stylistic reform was also undertaken. | |
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Dim is both alphabetic and abjadic, having been both at different points in its development. Dim is a simplification of Mahruwa based on several common formal elements present in Mahruwa. It is called Dim because it is a diminutive form of Mahruwa. | |
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Nusipokhi has taken both abjadic and alphabetic forms during its development. Nusipokhi rose from a calligraphic re-stylization and functional expansion of Dim which added several new characters for better expressing the systemics of Idrani. Several manuscripts were made using the script. | |
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Disipokhi is an abjadic script. Further developments in the grammar of Idrani and a newly emerging cultural schema prompted further stylization and systemic changes in the script which led to Disipokhi. | |
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Khisipokhi is a complex writing system which resembles Ancient Egyptian in its systemics. Khisipokhi contains polyliteral blocks which give prescriptions as to pronunciation. The polyliteral blocks contain all the characters of Disipokhi plus the re-introduced and re-stylized vowelar characters from Nusipokhi. In addition, 207 determinatives which classify and disambiguate words represented by polyliteral blocks and 102 gramatical graphemes were introduced. | |
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Shyesipokhi is a complex script which descends from Khisipokhi. Shyesipokhi was formalized and fontographically captured for computer-based typography. Several new grammatical graphemes were added to Shyesipokhi and determinative graphemes began to be used without polyliteral blocks to represent both the meaning and pronunciation of the word implied pictorially in their representation. | |
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Pachowi is a polifunctional script wherein each primary grapheme has multiple values based on diacritical graphemes associated with it. Pachowi primary graphemes are a re-stylized version of the determinatives found in Shyesipokhi. The diacritcal graphemes are original to the script. | |
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Sipotlai is a complex script which attempts to blend the systemics of Shyesipokhi and Ksatlai to create symbols which convey both mnemonic and phonemic prescriptions in a single, organic glyph with a Sipokhi-like style. | |
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| The Ksatlai Script Family | ||
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Overview of the Ksatlai Script Famyil
The Ksatlai script family contains several writing systems which all originated from an orthographic movement that came from experamentation with the Ilkoin script which was originally abjadic. The movement is known as the Dynamic movement. In the Dynamic movement, relationships between grapheme components prescribe pronunciation rather than the formal configuration of graphemic components. The Ksatlai scripts are complex writing systems having features of abjads, alphabets, synharmonic syllabaries and even logographs. The main stages of development in the Ksatlai family are represented in the scripts listed below in chronological order. |
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Ilkoin is an abjadic system. Ilkoin was originally developed during an orthographic period called the experamental period wherin various new orthographic ideas were explored by Trent M. Pehrson, the creator of Idrani. | |
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Bavi is a dynamic, alphabetic and syllabic script. Bavi is a direct descendant of Ilkoin. With Bavi, each complete character represents a pronunciation prescription and is composed of two to three sub graphemic components. The relationship of each component relative to the other two forms the prescription. Hence, there are many possible configurations (possibly infinite configurations) for each prescription. 'Bavi' is the Idrani borrowed word meaning cattle. The script was named Bavi because it reminded the author of spots seen on certain bovine species. | |
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Eikiyo is a largely revised version of Bavi. Unlike Bavi, each complete grapheme could represent the pronunciation prescription of an entire word or set of words. Ekiyo graphemes are composed of a larger set of sub graphemes. In fact, at its abandonment, there were as many as 15 sub graphemes. | |
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Ksatlai is a refinement of Ekiyo. Ksatlai took the idea of infinite permutation to its logical extreme allowing any pronunciation to be written in an infinite number of ways while keeping intelligibility intact. | |
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Suksatlai is a refinement of Ksatlai. Suksatlai (usually refered to as just Ksatlai) refined the subgraphemes of Ksatlai such that they could be logographically aranged-- producing a character capable of logographically representing meaning and characterally representing pronunciation simultaneously. As a result of its highly diverse and dynamic character, Suksatlai can be written in many different forms and remain intelligible. It also allows a a range of graphical expression which can paralell the range of lingual expression. | |
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| The Hai Ksulka Script Family | ||
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Overview of the Hai Ksulka Scripts
The Hai Ksulka family of writing systems consists of Idrani scripts inspired by scenic artwork and cultural ideas used in Star Trek liturature, motion pictures and television productions. Most of the Hai Ksulka scripts have alphabetic or abjadic sub graphemes which are framed into syllabic blocks which are functionally similar to HangeulN2, the Korean writing system. |
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Kha is an alphabetic script. Kha was designed during the experamental period. Even though the forms of Kha were not based upon any scenic artwork or other visual theme, the script was considered by the creator of Idrani to be 'Vulcan-like' in its appearance. | |
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Eiha: An alphabetic script similar to HangeulN3 in its systemics. Eiha was partially inspired by imagining a transitional script between Vulcan and RomulanN4. Eiha is a strictly calligraphic script and has never been fontographically captured. | |
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Iyai: is an alphabetic script which is a reformation of Eiha. Iyai involves strokes that are less Romulan in style and are more powerful in their movement. Systemically, Iyai is almost identical to Eiha. | |
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Lhai: is an alphabetic script designed to be Vulcan in appearance. Lhai takes its name from a Vulcan nation mentioned in Diane Duane's book Spock's WorldR3. Its inspiration is the inscription seen on the clothing of Vulcans in various Star Trek productions. Six of its characters are designed directly after the characters seen in such inscriptionsN5. The rest are unique and are based only on a similar aesthetic. While there are calligraphic versions of Lhai, the version represented here is fontographically captured. The original version of Lhai was designed for Trent Pehrson's version of the Vulcan language based on a gramatical and phonotactic analysis of words and phrases from various Star Trek productions and publications. It has since been adapted to Idrani. | |
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Irik: is an alphabetic script designed to be Vulcan in appearance. Irik takes its name from a Vulcan nation mentioned in Diane Duane's book Spock's WorldR4. Its inspiration is the sceneic artwork of Michael OkudaN6 seen on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine productions. The original version of Irik was designed for Trent Pehrson's version of the Vulcan language based on a gramatical and phonotactic analysis of words and phrases from various Star Trek productions and publications. It has since been adapted to Idrani. | |
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Zhiko: is a logographic script. Zhiko was developed during a period when the creator of Idrani was still interested in the concept of a Vulcan-like script and was simultaneously studying Mandarin and Chinese calligraphy at university. Zhiko is a strictly calligraphic script and is executed with an ink brush or with a reed pith quill. | |
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| The Hai Tolku Script Family | ||
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Overview of the Hai Tolku Scripts
The Hai Tolku family of writing systems consists of Idrani scripts inspired by scenic artwork and cultural ideas used in various productions based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trillogy and upon the trillogy itself. The primary source of inspiration is the general concept of Middle Earth and the cultures that might exist in such a place as well as Tolkien's QuenyaN7 script.. |
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Flavielvan is an alphabetic script. Flavielvan was developed early in the history of Idrani and was considered to be a rune-like script that might be used by some Middle Earth culture. Flavielvan was only used for one or two artifacts and was quickly abandoned being deemed culturally incompatible with the Idrani langauge. | |
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Hitali: is alphabetic script. Hitali is loosly based on strokes found in the Uncial and Majuscule scripts which existed primarily in Ireland c. AD 400. Hitali is also mildly reminiscent of Tolkien's Quenya in form. Hitali was used for several brief manuscripts and then abandoned. | |
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Neorunica: is an alphabetic script. Like some of Tolkien's scripts, neorunica is based on Runic scripts used by ancient Celtic and Saxon civilizations. Neorunica proved to be a delightful calligraphic script but was deemed as too unoriginal for Idrani and was abandoned after only a few artifacts were created. | |
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Orgbymme: is an alphabetic script. While Orgbymme is much more related to Anglo scripts than to any Tolkien script, it does have characteristics which give it a cosmetic similarity to some Tolkein scripts. Orgbymme was used moderately but was considered to be incompatible with the emerging technological aspect of Idrani culture at the time. | |
| Novus Insular Majuscule : is an alphabetic script. Novus Insular Majuscule was created and descended from Insular Majuscule, the uncial calligraphic script made famous by the Bishop Eadfrith of Irland in the Lindsfarne Gospels. Novus Insular Majuscule offers multiple versions of each character and has very fluid prescriptions for character execution and ligature. Artifacts are still made in Novus Insular Majuscule and a subset of the script can be used for creating calligraphic works in English or Latin. | ||
| Tolkienian Cactus : is an alphabetic script. like Tolkien's Quenya, Tolkienian Cactus resembles Tibetan and other Brahmi-derived scripts. However, the specific forms were only mildly inspired by Tolkien's work. Tolkienian Cactus was abandoned after only a few artifacts were made using it. | ||
| Tolkienien Ksatlai is a dynamic script and is simply a mode of Ksatlai which can be seen in the Ksatlai family of scripts. Tolkienian ksatlai is not based on any Tolkien script but is imagined to be capable of existing in Middle Earth-- perhaps as the writing system of the Ents. | ||
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| The Hai Tlinga Script Family | ||
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Overview of the Hai Tlinga Scripts
The Hai Tlinga family of writing systems consists of Idrani scripts inspired by scenic artwork and cultural ideas used in Star Trek liturature, motion pictures and television productions related to the Klingon culture and writing systemN8. The Hai Tlinga scripts are alphabetic or abjadic. |
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Hinji is an alphabetic script. Kha was designed during the experamental period. Hinji is based on the triangular forms of the Klingon script (piQod) and transposes such triangular forms onto alglo literal forms. Hinji was abandoned because it was deemed too unoriginal. | |
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Eihi: has been both alphabetic and abjadic in its development. Eihi is an original script but was inspired by the simple triangular forms of piQod. Eihi has remained unused for many years but is still considered as a viable albeit infantile Idrani script. | |
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| The Experamental Script Family | ||
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Overview of the Experamental Scripts
The Experimental family of scripts are a serries of scripts which were used only briefly and only had one generation of development. In this way, the Experamental script family is a catch-all category. There are many script types in the family and many formal variations. |
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Cactus has been both alphabetic and abjadic. Cactus was given its name based on its appearance. Cactus was developed early in the history of the Idrani language and was only briefly used because it was deemed as being too one-dimensional for Idrani since it uses only a very few strokes in only a very few ways to create its set of static characters. | |
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Eigihano: is a complex script very similar to Ancient Egiptian in its systemics. Formaly, Eigihano was also influenced by Ancient Egyptian. The cultural aspects of Ancient Egypt were very appealing to the creator of the Idrani language at the time that Eigihano was developed. The script was used only briefly however because it was deemed too Egyptian-like and not original enough to Idrani. | |
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Gevrit: is an abjadic script which was obviously inspired by Hebrew. Gevrit was designed and used during a time when the creator of Idrani was learning about and in which he gained a deep respect for the Jewish faith and culture. Notwithstanding this respect and love for the Jewish faith and culture, Gevrit was quickly abandoned because it was deemed to unoriginal and to bound to an existing cultural schema. | |
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Glurg: has been both alphabetic and abjadic in its development. Glurg was inspired by various Hamo-semitic systems and was used only briefly because it was deemed too unoriginal and too related to incompatible cultural aspects. | |
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Klarti: has been both alphabetic and syllabic in its history. Clarti was inspired by a cloud formation the creator of Idrani viewed after a rain storm in 1987. Although Klarti if fully unique to Idrani, it was deemed to rigid and barcode-like to represent the rich metaphor present in the Idrani language and cultural schema. As a result, Klarti was abandoned after only a few artifacts were created. | |
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Krapi: is somewhat alphabetic but is unique because it is designed to represent pronunciation prescriptions for a non-human crab-like species. Krapi was inspired by a dream which the creator of Idrani had wherin he dreamed that he was a crab having conversation with fellow crabs. Because Krapi is not suited to Idrani (because Idrani is a human language) not much has been done with Krapi since its invention. | |
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Neototem: is an alphabetic script similar to HangeulN3 in its systemics. In Neototem syllabic sub-graphemes which prescribe certain phonemes and which resemble facial constituents are combined into blocks to form syllables which look like strange, hybrid creatures. In totem-like fasion, these creature heads are 'stacked up' and read in vertical columns. | |
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Nhipii: is somewhat alphabetic but is unique because it is designed to represent pronunciation prescriptions for a non-human species with tentacles. Nhipii is not an auditory language but a gestural one-- spoken by waving ones cranial tentacles in a particular way. Nhipii is written by simply applying ones manual tentacles to the writing medium while secreting ones tentacle ink. | |
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Selmi: is a partially abjadic script inspired by some of the basic principles behind several forms of shorthand. A brief journal was kept in Selmi until the script led to other experamental ideas that distracted the creator of Idrani from its use. Selmi is still considered a viable albeit infantile Idrani script. | |
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Trukal: is an alphabetic script. Trukal uses only four fundamental strokes to create all of its graphemes. Trukal was used only briefly to create a handfull of artifacts. This sample was extracted from one of them which has no title. | |
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| Orgbymme Script Sample | |||
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Classes | Native Writing Systems
| Hai Tolku Script Family | Previous
Script in Family | Next Script in Family |
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Overview of the Orgbymme Script
Orgbymme is an alphabetic script. While Orgbymme is much more related to Anglo scripts than to any Tolkienian script, it does have characteristics which give it a cosmetic similarity to some Tolkein scripts. Orgbymme was used moderately but was considered to be incompatible with the emerging technological aspect of Idrani culture at the time. |
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| Trukal Script Sample | |||
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Overview of the Trukal Script
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| Notes |
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Orthography Section Notes?
Following are the notes for this section of the ISMS. Notes are supplimental to information presented above. You may use the links below to browse through the notes. |
| Hangeul Writing System | ||
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The Hangeul Writing System Hangeul R2 is the writing system used to express modern Korean. In Hangeul, The alphabetic consonants and vowels shown below are arranged into poly-literal blocks which frame syllables. Directly following are the consonantal graphemes of Hanguel.
Following are the Hangeul vowelar graphemes.
The above consonantal and vowelar graphemes are combined into syllabic blocks and arranged into words.
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| Klingon piQod Writing System | ||
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The piQod Writing System The sample below shows the piQod writing system seen in various Star Trek productions.
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| Romulan Writing System | ||
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The Romulan Writing System he script below is the Romulan script used in various Star Trek productions. The roman mapping is a keyboard map and not a | ||
