NATHAN CENTRAL The Personal Homepage of Nathan Richardson

▪ Home ▪ Links ▪ LDS Stuff ▪ Iconic Alphabet ▪ The Legend of Zelda		My Iconic Alphabet » 2 Rationale for Choices Iconic Alphabet » Rationale To understand the system I've made, it's necessary to understand a little bit about linguistics. Instead of typing my own brief survey of linguistics, I'll refer you to a better-prepared page: . From here on, I'll assume you have a basic working knowledge of linguistics (I myself have only had one class: English 223, from David Bowie, at Brigham Young University). Vowels As you know, vowels are classified by how high or low the tongue is, and how far forward or back the opening is. Vowels can be described by their position on a U curve, with /i/ being high and forward, /a/ being low and central, and /u/ being high and back. In addition to these positions, vowels are also defined by whether they the tongue is tense or lax, and whether the lips are rounded or not. In my alphabet, every vowel has the same basic U shape, with a line extending from the point at which that vowel is found on the vowel curve (see graphic below). Vowels Consonants Consonants are generally defined by three characteristics: state of the glottis (vocal cords), manner of articulation, and place of articulation. State of the Glottis State of the Glottis Voiced Unvoiced v f This first characteristic has two values: voiced and unvoiced. The state of the glottis is indicated by the presence or absence of a dot (I suppose individual preference can place the dot below, within, or above the letter, though I use the first option here). Since most phonemes are voiced, I chose to use a dot to indicate unvoiced consonants (see graphic). To justify the readability of this choice, I had to ask, "Is a dot ever used to distinguish between two sounds in writing?" In English, the answer is no, but in some languages, such as Hebrew, a single dot can change the meaning of a letter. Therefore, I feel using a dot as a distinctive mark is a safe choice. Interestingly, adding dots under every letter could be a way of representing whispering, in this alphabet. Manner of Articulation Manner of Articulation Stop Affricate Fricative Nasal Glide None for bilabials b bh m w The characteristic of manner of articulation has seven main values: stop, affricate, fricative, nasal, glide, lateral, and retroflex (I've left out flap and trill for the moment, mostly because I don't know much about them). Following are the notations for the first five manners of articulation. See the graphic for an example of the different notations. Stop. Indicated by an ascender. Affricate. Indicated by a normal leg. Fricative. Indicated by a descender. Nasal. Indicated by an ascender that curves inward. Glide. Indicated by a descender that curves inward. Justifying the readability of these choices was easy. Ascenders and descenders are used to distinguish between 'd' 'a' and 'q', and a curved descender is used to distinguish between 'q' and 'g'. Liquids (laterals and retroflexes) are indicated by the basic shape: < for lateral and > for retroflex. They can be written with or without a short leg (as some people write 'u' without a leg). I did this because I couldn't think of a practical way to represent two more manners of articulation that didn't clutter the characters or render them indistinguishable. Place of Articulation The last characteristic is indicated by the basic shape which forms the center of the character. Dentals have a strait basic shape: =. Labials and linguals have curvy basic shapes: u o n. Labials and linguals are further distinguished by the side the ascender or descender goes on: the left side for labials, the right side for linguals (see graphic). Place of Articulation Velar Palatal Alveolar Interdental Labiodental Labial gh zh z dh v bh The specific choices of basic shape for the linguals and labials are not arbitrary. If you'll notice, the bilabial and palatal basic shapes are the 'u': the same basic shape as the vowels. That is because both semi-vowels occur in these two places of articulation. If you look back at the vowel graphic, you'll see how the vowel characters progress upward to appear very similar to the semi-vowels. I find this to be a charming strength of this iconic alphabet, because it provides a link between the vowel characters and the consonant characters. The choice of basic shape for alveolar versus velar was made on less logical grounds. I just thought that of the three basic places of articulation (velar, alveolar, and bilabial), the circle should be the middle one. « Prev | Next »