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Hestia-Edwards — WIP: Nansha Uncial Script 2
#calligraphy #construction #language #script #scriptfonts
Published: 2017-12-12 16:09:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 1333; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 0
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Description
Here is the revised Nansha script in Uncial style.
After some thought and pondering, I decided have the Shas be mostly left-handed. With this in mind, real-life left-handers told me that if this is the case, then they would prefer a language that is written from right-to-left (like Hebrew and Arabic), as the typical left-to-right orientation only encourages ink smudges. So, I needed to make sure the letters were lefty-friendly. Some of them have been mirrored. You can see the original letters here: fav.me/d9y0b1f Now, the question is...Will I change the dialogue found on two pages of my comic (seen below?) My answer is: No. When the comic was drawn, that's the stage my constructed language was at, same with my drawing skills in general. I'll leave it as a relic, if you will, at least for now.
These letters represent the ones used in native Nansha words. There are letters for B, F, M, and P, but as some Minor Shas have a difficult time pronouncing bilabial letters, native words tend not to have these, but only foreign or loan words. A future diagram will include these letters.
fav.me/d9to15x
fav.me/d9xw7xd
Synopsis:
In the late 19th century, little Rosamond Grey sneaked into the woods one night, and was found unconsciousness the next day. For years afterwards she suffers from seizures from an unknown ailment. Dr. Glass is loosing hope for her cure, until a strange foreigner hints of a different cause…
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Comments: 12
I think it's interesting that Minor Shas would have a harder time with bilabial sounds, since for Humans these sounds are some of the very lowest-effort sounds - also influencing an infant's first words where "mama" and "baba" are common. I also think it's interesting that the F of the Shas is bilabial and not made with the teeth; what led you to choose this?
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Hey, thank you for the comment and the favorite.
For the F, you bring up a good point: I hadn't seriously considered the difference in production between [f] and [ɸ], at least with regards to the teeth. I had been thinking of the Japanese [ɸ] for the "F" sound.
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Really, the M sound can be produced just by holding a vowel sound and opening/closing the mouth so I think it's fascinating that somehow that would be more difficult. How different would you say a Sha is from a human, structurally/genetically? (Sorry I'm asking like this; I haven't been able to easily find information on them in your gallery and I'm so curious.)
That logic for F makes sense; that soft Japanese f/ふ would certainly be more similar to the listed P/B/M relatives.
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You bring up excellent points: perhaps the M would be something they can pronounce.
I confess that I'm juggling many world-building items at once, along with getting better at drawing human anatomy, so the language building has been kind of slow.
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If that's the case, I would think that the easiest sounds for the amphibian-reptilian type would be M and vowel sounds other than 'ee' while sounds TH, G/K, and R would be most difficult considering the precision needed from the tongue. "Lingual" sounds L, S, and T/D/N would be sub-optimal if they have snake tongues or the like, but if they usually have normal tongues then these may be some of the easier sounds.
Sorry for making this seem like a big deal; I'm just very interested in languages and sounds, and was wondering about your thoughts on such matters in your universe. There is so much involved in world building that one must deal with, so I respect you for getting so much done.
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No, thank you for the discussion! I like comments, and you're making me think. 
As with any world-building, there are two lines of thought: 1. would this make sense in the world I've made? and 2. all things being arbitrary, do I want to choose ___. You brought forth the concern with the [m] phoneme, and this might violate the first line of thought. I would have to consider the physiology of the lower Shas. In regards to other sounds, I would have to decide the anatomy: do the reptilian Shas have tongues like humans, or like reptiles? How reptilian are they? This relates to the second line of thought: what oral features do I want certain minor Shas to have? And this, too, relates to how I really need to figure out what all of the Minor Shas look like.
I saw on your profile that you can do conlanging for the asking: but do you have your own that you are working on?
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I'm glad to prompt when I can. The more thought is put into something, the more it can be brought to life (Of course, there is a certain limit. 
Any of my own? I've been building up small vocabularies in a couple different languages, but I usually ditch a language once I've created some core 200 words and get bored. At the moment I'm working on something more heavily English-based for a random race that I made up on the spot, which split off from English-speaking humans. I've got their number system and language style, with a writing system yet to be developed. I'm curious, why do you ask?
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I have to realize that there seems to be two camps for conlanging: those that do it for the thrill of linguistic exercise, and those that do it to make a conworld more complete. I was wondering if you had a project of your own that you were continuing, and possibly a world related to it, and I could ask questions about it.
I tend to be very perfectionist with my vocab: for simple expressions like "how are you?" I will sound out the entire sentence and see if I like how the words work together. I need to either move from this strict degree of perfectionism, or to work on it on a more regularly basis to make any sort of progress.
If you are interested, I will try to write up a quick grammar sketch and post it on here.
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Oh, I must be one of those weird double-agents that passes between camps depending on what is most exciting (it may be an ADD thing, but it's more fun to switch between projects than pour my soul into one and have reduced ability to branch out) and I wind up making a lot of stuff for a lot of different things at the same time - mostly scripts and languages, but I often am building a people in my mind who speak the language, and their homeland along with it.
//wheezes That was one sentence.
Yes, at any given time I will have something I am working on, but what it is tends to change. I will build up concepts and ideas, words and cultures; whether at home or at work, I'm usually doing something world-buildy. But I'm just so uninvolved with other people that I don't share anything I make, and then I stop caring about projects. I start something new practically every week.
So, do you feel like being such a perfectionist is a problem or roadblock? If you feel like it's working for you - but just a little slow - I think that's normal, and you don't need to change it. But if it brings you some stress and you feel stuck, I would certainly recommend stepping back from the minor details for a bit.
I'd like to see what kind of grammar you'd use with this. Can you show me?
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Perhaps you need to share you stuff so you can really develop something. 
The perfectionism does slow me down, but also the juggling of so many things I want to accomplish before my next comic. I really need to just focus on a couple things, get those down, and move onto the next project. I'm also, essentially, creating three languages at once: the protolanguage and the two daughter languages (Nansha and Nannisha). I like historical linguistics and sound changes.
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