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Dundulanyä: Difference between revisions
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==Writing system (''gūstyeṣa'')== | ==Writing system (''gūstyeṣa'')== | ||
<!-- [[File:Chlouvānem-script-parts.png|thumbnail|The word ''chlǣvānem'' in the language's native script, with the parts colour-coded according to function.]] --> | <!-- [[File:Chlouvānem-script-parts.png|thumbnail|The word ''chlǣvānem'' in the language's native script, with the parts colour-coded according to function.]] --> | ||
Dundulanyä has been written since the early 2nd millennium in an abugida called ''dundulanyä gūstyeṣafa'' or ''dundulanyä gūstyeṣarān'' ("Dundulanyä script", the noun ''gūstyeṣa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''gūṣtya'' "character", ultimately from the root ''√gos-'' "to cut"), developed with influence of the [[Lannä|Lannä script]]. Quite interestingly, while in the earliest forms of the Lannä script adapted for Dundulanyä there are diacritics and derived forms, some of those were later replaced by apparent ex nihilo new characters: as Dundulanyä has 43 consonant phonemes compared to the mere 19 of Lannä, it is clear by comparing different stages of the writing system that the disambiguation of different consonants through shapes and not just diacritics has been the main factor causing the script to change.<br/>The orthography for Dundulanyä represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it | Dundulanyä has been written since the early 2nd millennium in an abugida called ''dundulanyä gūstyeṣafa'' or ''dundulanyä gūstyeṣarān'' ("Dundulanyä script", the noun ''gūstyeṣa'' is actually a collective derivation from ''gūṣtya'' "character", ultimately from the root ''√gos-'' "to cut"), developed with influence of the [[Lannä|Lannä script]]. Quite interestingly, while in the earliest forms of the Lannä script adapted for Dundulanyä there are diacritics and derived forms, some of those were later replaced by apparent ex nihilo new characters: as Dundulanyä has 43 consonant phonemes compared to the mere 19 of Lannä, it is clear by comparing different stages of the writing system that the disambiguation of different consonants through shapes and not just diacritics has been the main factor causing the script to change.<br/>The orthography for Dundulanyä represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it is completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations, despite variations, especially for the letters '''ḍ, ḍh''' and '''q''' and the diphthongs '''ai''' and '''au'''. | ||
The Dundulanyä alphabet is distinguished by a large number of curved letter forms, arising from the need of limiting horizontal lines as much as possible in order to avoid tearing the leaves on which early writers wrote. A few glyphs have diagonal or vertical lines, but in pre-typewriting times there was a tendency to have them slightly curved; however, horizontal lines are today found in the exclamation and question marks (which are early modern inventions) and in mathematical symbols; the ''vikṣecūlte'', or inherent-vowel-cancelling sign, is also nowadays often represented as a horizontal stroke under the consonant, following the most common handwriting styles; however, formerly it was (and formally still is) written as a subscript circumflex. | The Dundulanyä alphabet is distinguished by a large number of curved letter forms, arising from the need of limiting horizontal lines as much as possible in order to avoid tearing the leaves on which early writers wrote. A few glyphs have diagonal or vertical lines, but in pre-typewriting times there was a tendency to have them slightly curved; however, horizontal lines are today found in the exclamation and question marks (which are early modern inventions) and in mathematical symbols; the ''vikṣecūlte'', or inherent-vowel-cancelling sign, is also nowadays often represented as a horizontal stroke under the consonant, following the most common handwriting styles; however, formerly it was (and formally still is) written as a subscript circumflex. | ||