Chlouvānem: Difference between revisions

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==Writing system - Jīmalāṇa==

Chlouvānem has been written since the late First Era in an ~~alphabet~~ called ''Chlouvānaumi jīmalāṇa'' ("Chlouvānem ~~alphabet~~", the noun ''jīmalāṇa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''jīma'' "character"), developed with influence of the script used for the ancient Kūṣṛmāthi language~~, which, however, was an abugida~~. The orthography for Chlouvānem represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it's completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations.

[[File:Chlouvānem-script-parts.png|thumbnail|The word "Chlouvānem" in the native script, with the parts colour-coded according to function.]]

The Chlouvānem alphabet is ~~actually~~ a ~~defective script~~, ~~at least~~ in ~~normal writing, as~~ the ~~phoneme /a/ is usually not written~~. ~~It can be written with~~ a ~~diacritic sign~~, but ~~this is~~ only ~~done in books aimed at children or language learners~~, ~~in dictionaries, or in~~ some ~~rare cases where disambiguation is necessary~~, ~~as two following letters may represent either a consonant cluster or there could be an /a/ between them~~; ~~word-initial /~~a/ is however ~~written~~ with ~~the character~~ that ~~represents~~ the ~~glottal stop otherwise. To make some examples~~, ~~in the Chlouvānem script~~ a ~~word like~~ ''~~marta~~'' ~~"city" is~~ written ~~<mrt>~~, ~~while~~ ''~~avyāṣa~~'' ~~"time~~, ~~moment" is written <ʔvyāṣ>: Chlouvānem speakers are however able in the vast majority of cases to tell which word is meant~~ due to ~~context. Note that, however, the letter <a> is a proper letter of the alphabet, usually written as <ʔ> with the <a> diacritic~~.

Chlouvānem has been written since the late First Era in an abugida called ''Chlouvānaumi jīmalāṇa'' ("Chlouvānem script", the noun ''jīmalāṇa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''jīma'' "character"), developed with influence of the script used for the ancient Kūṣṛmāthi language. The orthography for Chlouvānem represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it's completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations.

The Chlouvānem alphabet is distinguished by a large number of curved letter forms, arising from the need of limiting vertical lines as much as possible in order to avoid tearing the leaves on which early writers wrote. Straight vertical or horizontal lines are in fact present in a few letters (mostly the rarer ones, such as independent vowels) but they have been written as straight lines only since typewriting was invented. Being an abugida, vowels (including diphthongs) are mainly represented by diacritics written by the consonant they come after (some vowel diacritics are actually written before the consonant they are tied to, however); '''a''' is however inherent in any consonant and therefore does not need a diacritic sign. Consonant clusters are usually representing by stacking the consonants on one another (with those that appear under the main consonant sometimes being simplified), but a few consonants such as '''r''' and '''l''' have simplified combining forms. The two consonants '''ṃ''' and '''ь''' are written with diacritics, as they can't appear alone. There are also special forms for final '''-m''', '''-s''', and '''-h''' due to their commonness.

The romanization used for Chlouvānem avoids this problem by giving each phoneme a single character or digraph, but it stays as close as possible to the native script. Aspirated stops and diphthongs are romanized as digraphs and not by single letters; geminate letters, which are represented with a diacritic in the native script, are romanized by writing the consonant twice - in the aspirated stops, only the first letter is written twice, so /ppʰ/ is <pph> and not *<phph>. The following table contains the whole Chlouvānem alphabet as it is romanized, following the native alphabetical order:

@@ Line 325: / Line 325: @@
 ==Writing system - Jīmalāṇa==
-Chlouvānem has been written since the late First Era in an alphabet called ''Chlouvānaumi jīmalāṇa'' ("Chlouvānem alphabet", the noun ''jīmalāṇa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''jīma'' "character"), developed with influence of the script used for the ancient Kūṣṛmāthi language, which, however, was an abugida. The orthography for Chlouvānem represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it's completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations.
+[[File:Chlouvānem-script-parts.png|thumbnail|The word "Chlouvānem" in the native script, with the parts colour-coded according to function.]]
-The Chlouvānem alphabet is actually a defective script, at least in normal writing, as the phoneme /a/ is usually not written. It can be written with a diacritic sign, but this is only done in books aimed at children or language learners, in dictionaries, or in some rare cases where disambiguation is necessary, as two following letters may represent either a consonant cluster or there could be an /a/ between them; word-initial /a/ is however written with the character that represents the glottal stop otherwise. To make some examples, in the Chlouvānem script a word like ''marta'' "city" is written <mrt>, while ''avyāṣa'' "time, moment" is written <ʔvyāṣ>: Chlouvānem speakers are however able in the vast majority of cases to tell which word is meant due to context. Note that, however, the letter <a> is a proper letter of the alphabet, usually written as <ʔ> with the <a> diacritic.
+Chlouvānem has been written since the late First Era in an abugida called ''Chlouvānaumi jīmalāṇa'' ("Chlouvānem script", the noun ''jīmalāṇa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''jīma'' "character"), developed with influence of the script used for the ancient Kūṣṛmāthi language. The orthography for Chlouvānem represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it's completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations.
+The Chlouvānem alphabet is distinguished by a large number of curved letter forms, arising from the need of limiting vertical lines as much as possible in order to avoid tearing the leaves on which early writers wrote. Straight vertical or horizontal lines are in fact present in a few letters (mostly the rarer ones, such as independent vowels) but they have been written as straight lines only since typewriting was invented. Being an abugida, vowels (including diphthongs) are mainly represented by diacritics written by the consonant they come after (some vowel diacritics are actually written before the consonant they are tied to, however); '''a''' is however inherent in any consonant and therefore does not need a diacritic sign. Consonant clusters are usually representing by stacking the consonants on one another (with those that appear under the main consonant sometimes being simplified), but a few consonants such as '''r''' and '''l''' have simplified combining forms. The two consonants '''ṃ''' and '''ь''' are written with diacritics, as they can't appear alone. There are also special forms for final '''-m''', '''-s''', and '''-h''' due to their commonness.
 The romanization used for Chlouvānem avoids this problem by giving each phoneme a single character or digraph, but it stays as close as possible to the native script. Aspirated stops and diphthongs are romanized as digraphs and not by single letters; geminate letters, which are represented with a diacritic in the native script, are romanized by writing the consonant twice - in the aspirated stops, only the first letter is written twice, so /ppʰ/ is <pph> and not *<phph>. The following table contains the whole Chlouvānem alphabet as it is romanized, following the native alphabetical order: