Guide:Writing system

So you've decieded you want to make a script for your conlang. You probably want to do it because you've seen other languages have their writings or maybe you just want to be artistic, or maybe even your sister is reading your private diary so you want to be able to write it without her reading about your adventures! Well whatever the reason is it is quite the undertaking and you'll need to ask yourself a few questions.

Why do you want to make a script/writing system? What is the purpose?

This is important because it determines alot of the work that needs to be put in.

Is the answer you simply want to hide what you write so no one can read it? For sake of simplicity let's assume that whomever you are hiding it from has no knowledge in cryptography, a simple ceasar cipher might suffice then but you still want to be extra sure no one reads it by making your own symbols. Sure, replace every alphabetical symbol with one of your own and you're probably safe, but it is a cipher not really a script but it works! A hint is that you give common words like "the" their own symbol, it is the quickest way to crack your cipher to look for those simple words! You don't need to read much more in this article.

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What? You're still reading? So you're not after a cipher but want a genuine writing system because other languages have it that does not match our writing? Then you have come to the right place! Keep on reading cause there is alot to learn.

Language structure

If you are doing a script for your own conlang or your own native tounge this one still matters. No no I am not talking about the long ass lists of conjugations, declensions and....wait what? you got more than just those!? Holy moly, well anyway that is not what I am talking about. The grammatical structure is the least important aspect of this but I am talking about the phonological and syllabic structure.

How many phonemes^[*] does your language have? How are they arranged?

You probably ask now, "why would it matter?", it is simple, the type of script a language uses is affected by how it is structured. English which has a CCCVCCCC structure, 24 phonemes, 20 vowels or diphthongs gives the english language a total of 159 252 480, almost 160 MILLION possible syllables. So writing with a syllabic writing system or logographic like chinese and or japanese is clearly out of the picture, while most syllables are not used the number still grows to a point where you need to know tens of thousands possible symbols. In chinese you only need between 2 and 5 thousand symbols to be literate and thats hard enough!

Chinese on the other than has the structure of CVC, where the last C can only be m or n, even with 30 consonants and 30 tonal vowels (not real numbers just to illustrate) thats 900 base symbols sych a system would demand, a much more feasable amount to memorize. So what syllabic structure and the phoneme inventory does play a huge role.

But even that is not alone, grammatical structure does play a role aswell. Languages like chinese can avoid a more phoneticly based writing system because they technicly lack conjugations, declensions and the like directly on the word add words around to change meaning. So the words needs no more marking once they have been written out. A language like japanese which do conjugate their verbs is a whole other story. they MUST mark it in writing to give the right information. "But japanese uses Kanji which is chinese!" you probably say, yes they do. That is a result due to history but japanese have Hirigana and Katakana also, those are syllabic in structure, a much better fit for japanese syllable structure, to mark just phoneticly the endings verbs take.