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{{culture
|image=OB Endnote.jpg
|related=[[Vorinism]]
|world=Roshar
|universe=[[Cosmere]]
|books=[[The Stormlight Archive]]
}}
The '''women's script''' is an alphabetic writing system used in [[Vorin]] nations, such as [[Alethkar]], [[Jah Keved]], and [[Kharbranth]], on [[Roshar]]. The script is a phonetic alphabet, meaning each symbol, or "grapheme", denotes a particular sound, or "phoneme", and is written left to right starting in the top left hand corner of a page.{{book ref|sa1|28}} Each letter is determined by shape and size, and can be modified by the presence of one or two small lines after it. As is indicated by the name, it is almost exclusively used by women, as writing is considered a feminine pursuit. The women's script is distinctly different from [[glyphs]], which are a more logographic writing system (albeit with a phonetic component), which men are also allowed to learn.
== History ==
Women's script is known to date back to at least 1800 years before the True Desolation, as the protoscript. The protoscript was an old form of Women's script which eventually took on the modern form.{{book ref|sa2|77}} This script took shape before various sound changes, and thus preserved historical place of articulation.{{wob ref|11464}}
== Structure ==
=== Characters ===
The twenty-five known letters in the women's script can be arranged into five sets of five letters each. Each set is defined by the basic shape of the characters within it: the "vowel set" is a vertical line, the "T set" is a curved triangle pointing to the left, the "S set" is a curved triangle pointing to the right, the "P set" is a curved diamond, and the "K set" is a jagged triangle pointing to the left.
Within each set the characters are defined by height and the addition of shorter lines. The first character is the maximum height, the second is two-thirds the height of the first, and the third is one-third the height of the first. The fourth is the same height as the second with the addition of two short lines to the right, and the fifth is the same height as the third with the addition of one short line to the right.
=== Punctuation ===
Women's script has only one known character for punctuation. It is a single vertical line with two small, horizontal lines at the top and bottom. It is written at the beginning of a sentence and it defines the maximum character height. Questions are marked by adding “ha” at the end of the last word in the sentence. There is also a question mark present in Navani's sketch in ''Oathbringer'' on page 447, but judging by the handwriting this was added later by [[Nazh]] and is not part of the women's script. There is also a diacritic mark denoting if a letter in an otherwise symmetrical word is pronounced “h,” but it is currently unknown what this looks like,{{book ref|WoR|47}} only that it is present both above and below the letter. It is unknown what other punctuation exists, if any, as no other examples have been observed.
=== Women's Script Characters===
{| class="infobox" width=100%
|-
! Set !! Starting Punctuation !! First !! Second !! Third !! Fourth !! Fifth
|-
| rowspan=2 | Vowel set || [[File:Women's script ruler.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script E.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script A.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script O.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script U.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script I.svg|center]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| Height Marker || '''E''' || '''A''' || '''O''' || '''U or W''' || '''I'''
|-
| rowspan=2 | T set || [[File:Women's script ruler.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script T.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script D.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script R.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script TH.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script L.svg|center]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| Height Marker || '''T''' || '''D''' || '''R''' || '''Th''' || '''L'''
|-
| rowspan=2 | S set || [[File:Women's script ruler.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script S.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script Z.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script N.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script SH.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script H-letter.svg|center]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| Height Marker || '''S''' || '''Z''' || '''N''' || '''Sh''' || '''H'''
|-
| rowspan=2 | P set || [[File:Women's script ruler.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script P.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script B.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script M.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script F.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script V.svg|center]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| Height Marker || '''P''' || '''B''' || '''M''' || '''Ph''' || '''V'''
|-
| rowspan=2 | K set || [[File:Women's script ruler.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script K.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script G.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script Y.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script CH.svg|center]] || [[File:Women's script J.svg|center]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| Height Marker || '''K''' || '''G''' || '''Y''' || '''Ch''' || '''J'''
|}
== Examples of women's script ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights=300px>
Navani1.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - pain knife
Navani2.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - mood bracelet
Navani's Notebook p. 406.png | [[Navani's notebook]] - elevator
Ship Designs.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - airship designs
Vambrace.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - [[Stormclock]] and [[fabrial]] watch vambrace
Navani's Notebook - The Fourth Bridge.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - The ''[[Fourth Bridge]]''
Navani's Notebook - The Arnist Method.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - The Arnist Method for capturing [[spren]]
Navani's Notebook - The Crystal Pillar Room.jpg | [[Navani's notebook]] - The [[Sibling]]'s heart
Navani's Notebook - Experiments.jpg | ''[[Rhythm of War (in-world)|Rhythm of War]]'' - Experiments on [[Lights]]
Navani's Notebook - Dagger.jpg | ''[[Rhythm of War (in-world)|Rhythm of War]]'' - The [[Herald]]-killing dagger
Lait.jpeg | [[Shallan's sketchbook]] - [[lait]]
OB Endnote.jpg | [[Jasnah]]'s [[ketek]], written for [[Shallan]]'s wedding
</gallery>
== Trivia ==
* The only samples of the women's script currently available are eight excerpts from [[Navani's notebook]], two excerpts from ''[[Rhythm of War (in-world)|Rhythm of War]]'', some faded text on a sketch depicting a lait in [[Shallan's sketchbook]], and a [[ketek]] by Jasnah.
* It was designed by [[Isaac Stewart]], to look like waveforms.{{wob ref|9902}}
* Neither [[Brandon]] nor Isaac can read the women's script without reference.{{wob ref|9902}}
* The mapping between the women's script and the Latin script was first discovered by Harakeke on the [[Timewasters Guide]] forum.{{twg ref|7882|0|Navani's Notebook Translation|date=Sep 20th, 2010}}
== Notes ==
<references />
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{{Stormlight}}
[[Category: Culture]]
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