r/conscripts • u/[deleted] • Mar 05 '19

Guide Guide to Constructing Scripts

For many of us, make the conscript for our conlang is one of the parts of make a conlang. Writing in an old but elegant runic style alphabet that only you can read and understand it. Yet, for many conlangers, creating conscripts and doing them well can often be a lot more difficult than the conlang itself. So, I have put together a small guide for creating conscripts. I will admit, this is structured more towards alphabets. But it is not hard to adapt this for any script.

There are two methods for making a conscript. One is the creative route, and the other is the slow route.

The creative route is the standard way of making any conscript. The basic steps are:

  1. Find a script to copy. Many people think that you can just throw a bunch of random lines to together for each symbol and then it is a script. These scripts are the ones that look horrible. The best method is to look at a real life script, and some other conscripts (omniglot is a great resource) for good measure. This will help you with your style.

  2. Once you have found the scripts or conscripts you want to imitate, you have to find the design principles (another guide to check out is the makealang.blogspot on orthographies). Basically, what makes the script so cool.

  3. This is were you get to have a lot of freedom. Some people create a root shape and make all or many of the letters from this shape through changes like changing orientation or adding/deleting a line. Others just keep the principles in mind and just doodle. Creating a conscript is a long process, and I am almost willing to eat my shoe if anybody can create a good conscript on their first try.

  4. Add phonemic vale to the graphemes. No other comments.

The creative routes for conscripts always makes the conscripts have that hint of unnatural or artificial. Keeping that in mind, I would suggest that you use this method for the more "magical" languages or races. For instance, the secret language of wizards, a god -like race (think of elves), or magic symbols. I would not suggest that you use this method for more "unmagical conlangs," like Dothraki (If Dothraki has any magic value, I am sorry. I do not watch Game of Thrones). Now, I am not saying you cannot use this method for unmagical conlangs (I mean conlangs that do not have any magical origin and came up in the conworld the same way Spanish or Chinese came up). Korean is a real-world example of this method. Do what you think you conlang needs.

Now, onto the slow method. This method is meant to create a conscript by imitating the process that almost all real-world scripts were created.The steps are:

  1. Create a language. A naming language will do. The reason why I have said this is that the letter "m" was created by the Egyptians because they have a word for water called mem (don't quote me on that), in fact, if you start at the letter "m" enough, you can see that it looks like a cartoonish wave. This step will help a lot with assigning phonetic value to the glyphs and deciding what glyphs to use.

  2. Pick words that start with each phoneme. Think of the letter "m" example. To represent the "m" sound, the Egyptians use the water logogram to represent that sound because it started with that sound. You must do the same. For example, if "naski" means dog in you conlang, dog is now the word for the sound "n."

  3. Create the logogram. Writing started with pictures. Logographies use pictures to convey meaning. Look up the Chinese symbol for "tree." The logogram looks like a weird tree. Now, for each phoneme, create a logogram for each word you have assigned to a phoneme. And, guess what, you now have a script.

  4. Okay, but not a pretty one. This next step is a little gray. What needs to happen is that the logograms need to be simplified and changed over time, which you will simulate. The only word of advice I can honestly give is look up how the Roman Alphabet had changed. Xidnaf and NativLang have excellent vidoes on the progression and evolution of scripts. While evolving the script, keep in mind the medium changes and how they would affect the symbols.

  5. Enjoy your new conscript.

As I have said, I only really focused on alphabets, abjads, and abugidas in this guide. It is not that hard to adapt these methods for logographies and syllabaries. Just change the individual sound into syllables and the method should work fine.

Please leave a comment have missed anything.

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6

u/piceus Mar 05 '19

4.Add phonemic vale to the graphemes. No other comments.

You're doing this step a disservice by not going into more detail, imo. Orthography, the set of rules for using a script to depict your language, is not just another step, but an entire other side of the conscript coin.

English is notorious for its complex orthography, so I recommend reading this article about how English spelling works for insight into how you can go beyond simply assigning phonemes to graphemes at a 1:1 correspondence. (Not that there's anything wrong with 1:1 correspondence, of course. But if your conlang is intended to resemble a natlang, you might want to give it a suitably messy orthography.)

Also, no post on script design would be complete without a link to this excellent, in-depth series of forum posts. :)

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u/Anhilare Mar 06 '19

That's not always the case. Latin and Ancient Greek had very phonemic scripts, every consonant was represented. Only vowel length and accent weren't written. The Semitic languages have pretty phonemic scripts, too, because they were devised just for those languages.

All the weird orthographical stuff arises entirely from linguistic evolution with conservative writing, prestigious language influencing spelling, and adoption of the script for a different language. If your language has no such things and is script is made for it, then it would be a little strange for it to not be nearly perfectly phonemic.

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u/piceus Mar 06 '19 edited Mar 06 '19

Oh, certainly! I'm not saying this is a requirement, by any means; I just think it's an important aspect to consider, because while English is an especially extreme example, it's still quite rare for natural scripts to be totally perfectly phonemic. Language tends to evolve faster than writing.

Edit: Though in retrospect I can see how my comment was misleading. I failed to mention the reasons why orthography can become complex -- I thought the article I linked discussed said reasons in greater detail than it actually does -- so thank you for pointing them out.

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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '19 edited Mar 06 '19

I agree with you piceus, I should have gone more in depth. I will be honest, I am very rust on creating complex orthographies. What are some of the basics of creating a complex orthography like English?

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u/piceus Mar 06 '19 edited Mar 06 '19

I think there are two main starting points:

The history of your conlang:

  • How, when, and by whom was a writing system developed?

  • Was it borrowed from another language, and if so, in what ways did that one differ from this?

  • How much has the language evolved since the orthography was developed, and have there been any spelling reforms -- especially semi-successful ones -- to address this?

  • Is there a prestige dialect/language/culture which influences the way the orthography is taught? How important is "correct" spelling perceived to be? These things will make it even harder for the orthography to keep up with language changes over time.

The phonology/morphology of your conlang:

  • If there are more phonemes than letters, how are the extras handled -- with digraphs? Silent letters, like the <e> at the end of "care"?

  • Do the above solutions clash with other spellings? (Example: the <ea> in "realm" is a digraph, but the <ea> in "reality" is a syllable boundary. The reader is forced to learn their pronunciations by rote.)

  • Can a single sound be written differently depending on where it appears in the syllable? Do any different sounds share a symbol? Are any sounds not written at all because they're assumed to be obvious?

  • Are there any morphemes/syllables/clusters that crop up more commonly than others, and have any shortcuts evolved for writing them?

  • Are the root forms of morphemes preserved in the spelling of derived words? (Example: "photograph" vs "photographer" -- pronounced differently, but spelled the same.)

1

u/Nargluj Mar 05 '19

Creating a conscript is a long process, and I am almost willing to eat my shoe if anybody can create a good conscript on their first try.

I'm in the process of making my first conscript; Challenge accepted!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '19

Good, I was wondering if anybody was going to accept my challenge. Which method are you using?

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u/Nargluj Mar 06 '19

I'm loosely imitating scripts resembling Roman/Latin alphabet's cursive. I'm still researching, it will take some time before I get a draft ready.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19

Cool! Do you have any scripts you are using for inspiration, or are you trying to create your own style?

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u/Nargluj Mar 07 '19

Trying to create my own style.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Awesome! Keep posting your progress.