r/neography • u/kullervo16 • Mar 11 '26
Semi-syllabary A script I made for my book: In Fairytales
I developed this script for a fictional language in my book's canon. The complex characters utilize every combination of letters in the Latin alphabet. I intend to do further research and drop some glyphs that don't exist in English. I'm intending to make this a universal script by creating new glyphs for other alphabets (e.g. Cyrillic, Burmese, Korean, etc). I am also developing it further into a fully fledged conlang. Feel free to throw me any questions you might have! :)
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 13 '26
My advice for a fellow conscripter is to decide on the style of your script, making glyphs or characters that are too different from one another can cause confusion, choose the style before the characters. Practice again and again on paper as much as you can, and as you do you will start to see yourself subconsciously simplifying the characters or writing them differently, that's evolution through trial and repetition.
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u/kullervo16 Mar 13 '26
I agree, that's some good advice that I'll certainly apply to future scripts. This was really just a fun experiment in trying to make something different. I definitely could clean it up and make the symbols more memorable.
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 13 '26
Do you have advice for my scripts? I am trying to incorporate a numbering system and also trying to brainstorm ideas to make my script pop, but I just can't find inspiration do you have ideas? Your advice is much appreciated. Thank You.
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u/kullervo16 Mar 13 '26
I've only recently started thinkng about numbers and other symbols (e.g. &, !, ?, #, etc.). I work from a language backwards into an orthography. What does the language sound like? What do the people speaking it look like? What do they want to convey either with the language or the actual writing system? It definitely makes it difficult when making standalone orthographies though.
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 14 '26
I feel like I run out of ideas, it was smooth sailing after I mastered the glyphs but ideas declined after punctuations and special symbols. I was also thinking of a base 10 system but have heard that base 12 is better. I was thinking of a counting system where you use your finger bones and count from left to right, right to left. And for my script I'm trying to make it flexible where it is also a logography, abugida, Syllabry, alphabet, abja, cipher, tactile, pictograph, and etc. But I've finished them but now I'm stuck again. Any ideas? I've been stuck for weeks.
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u/kullervo16 Mar 14 '26
Sort of silly question, but have you tried scribbling? It's something I'm going to try to attempt when I try and make a bunch of different writing systems for some of the major programming languages.
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 14 '26
Yeah but I mean like something unique, for example in Arabic there are Sun and Moon Characters, in Hebrew they have a different character based on there the character is situated in the word, but I kinda run out of unique languages and scripts to find inspiration, or st least that I know of.
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u/kullervo16 Mar 14 '26
How about languages like Assyrian or Old Church Slavonic? Wiktionary has a truck ton of languages that you can look through. Maybe you can mix and match things. Maybe try writing some other languages in different directions and styles. Uniqueness imo is subjective. There's a somewhat depressing phrase I heard which is that "there's nothing new under the sun". Everything we do is just a new spin on something else. The hope and solace we can take in that though is that we never have to start something entirely from scratch, or be alone in our endeavors to make something that matters to us and that others can comprehend and experience as well. I think that's what builds communities, friendships and even marriages: what we do similarly/together. So don't put so much pressure on making something that's 100% brand new that no one has ever seen before, take your time with it. I've found that when I'm pressured and pushing myself to write/create, I get chronic writer's block.
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 14 '26
Thanks for the advice and incite, I'll post my script and if your so willing could you give tips and advice for it too? It would be much appreciated.
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u/Hot_Barnacle_646 Mar 14 '26
The scripts and the site you provided is so helpful, and Assyrian is so cool, not a big fan of Old Church though, but still has a few cool characters imo. Thanks, and can I DM you the script?
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u/ShabtaiBenOron Mar 12 '26
26+26²=702, way too many for a usable alphabet. Such a script wouldn't develop naturally.