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Chlouvānem: Difference between revisions
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[[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.]] | ||
Chlouvānem has been written since the early 5th millennium in an abugida called ''chlǣvānumi 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. | Chlouvānem has been written since the early 5th millennium in an abugida called ''chlǣvānumi 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 | The Chlouvānem 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. 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 consonant '''ṃ''' is written with diacritics and can't appear alone. There are also special forms for final '''-m''', '''-n''', '''-s''', and '''-h''' due to their commonness; other consonants without inherent vowels have to be written with a diacritic sign called ''priligis'' (deleter), which has the form of a dot above the letter, or as conjunct consonants.<br/> | ||
The combinations ''lā vā yā | The combinations ''lā vā yā ñā pā phā bhā'' are irregularly formed due to the normal diacritic ''ā''-sign being otherwise weirdly attached to the base glyph. There is, furthermore, a commonly used single-glyph abbreviation for the word ''lili'', the first-person singular pronoun. | ||
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: | 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: | ||
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* /n/ [ŋ] is written as '''l''' before '''k g kh gh n'''. Note that in many local varieties '''lk lkh lg lgh''' are actually [ɴq ɴqʰ ɴɢ ɴɢʱ], with the stop assimilating to '''l''' and not vice-versa, and thus analyzed as /ɴ̆k ɴ̆kʰ ɴ̆g ɴ̆gʱ/. | * /n/ [ŋ] is written as '''l''' before '''k g kh gh n'''. Note that in many local varieties '''lk lkh lg lgh''' are actually [ɴq ɴqʰ ɴɢ ɴɢʱ], with the stop assimilating to '''l''' and not vice-versa, and thus analyzed as /ɴ̆k ɴ̆kʰ ɴ̆g ɴ̆gʱ/. | ||
* /ɴ̆ː/ may be written as either '''ll''' or '''ṃl'''; the latter is used when compounding two morphemes, the first of which ends in any nasal consonant except for '''l''' itself. | * /ɴ̆ː/ may be written as either '''ll''' or '''ṃl'''; the latter is used when compounding two morphemes, the first of which ends in any nasal consonant except for '''l''' itself. | ||
* Vowels do not have non-diacritical forms; when word-initial, they are written on the glyph for '''ɂ'''. In Classical Chlouvānem and in many modern pronunciations, word-initial vowels are actually always preceded by an allophonic glottal stop. Such glyphs are, however, romanized simply as e.g. ''a'', not *ɂa. | |||
Letter names are formed with simple rules: | Letter names are formed with simple rules: | ||