User:Firesong/Alethi language

Alethi is a language in the Vorin language family, whose speakers primarily inhabit Alethkar.

Alethi is the most spoken language in Alethkar.

Geographical distribution

Alethi is primarily spoken in Alethkar, though speakers of the language exist all across Roshar.

Orthography

Alethi is written in two primary writing systems, Glyphs and Women's script. Earlier texts made use of the Dawnchant writing system, which later evolved into proto-Thaylo-Vorin radicals, which evolved into modern Vorin glyphic orthography. The Women's script was made at an unknown time in the evolution of modern glyphs.

Glyphs

by Isaac Stewart

The first half of a letter and in-depth discussion of Alethi glyphs.

For more information, see Glyphs.

Glyphs are a pseudo-logographic script primarily used among Alethi men. They are made up of various phonetic glyphs descended from Dawnchant script, with the phonemes flipped or distorted to fit the shape of the glyph. Over time, glyphs change in shape and lose the phonetic information coded into them, leaving them as logographs. However, it is possible to still read the phonemes if one knows what one is looking for.

The creation of new glyphs makes use of these phonemes. It takes a trained calligrapher, with a deep knowledge of how how the glyph may be expressed without overly obscuring the meaning, in order to make new glyphs. Glyphs are made into bilaterally symmetric pictographs, so that they can be read by the illiterate, and ultimately act as a logography. For example, the glyph for zatalef is shaped like a zatalef, so that it can be understood even without reading the phonemic components.

Women's Script

For more information, see Women's script.

Women's script is an alphabetic script primarily used by women in Vorin nations, including Alethkar.

Notes

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