Script
We are now squarely outside of auxlang territory. I would like to devise a unique script, but mostly for stylistic and worldbuilding reasons.
This is the way I envision it: a script that conveys both sound and meaning, and where each concept is exactly three letters long, and has only 21 unique letters.
How is that possible? You may wonder... Oravia's unique structure makes it possible!
The structure
I envision it like this:
First letter -> the domain
Second letter -> the cluster and subcluster
Third letter -> sound clue
So essentially the first two "letters" are giving you the position of the word within the system, and the third letter gives you a sound clue. Instead of reading aloud the sounds, it's kind of like finding a word in a library catalog organized by topic.
I will give examples with latin letters, but imagine they are other letters or symbols instead!
Before you proceed, a note: this explanation will make much more sense if you already know some Oravia!
Example: first two letters
Okay, let's suppose you want to write moaria, or apple.
The first letter is the domain. The letter m (imagine some symbol here) is the domain of biology, with the clusters mo, ma, mu, and mi. So you write down m.
Next, you have to indicate the cluster, which is mo. If you think about the order mo, ma, mi, mu (say, the order they are presented in the course), mo is cluster 1. Domains have between 1-4 clusters, so we need 4 letters here that indicate the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Say, in a latin-like script, the domain is a consonant and the cluster would be a vowel like o, a, i, e, or something.
Next, you indicate the moa subcluster, which is the subcluster 1. Each cluster has between 0-3 subclusters, so we would need here 4 accessories that indicate 0, 1, 2, 3. Say, in a latin-like script, it might be something like one dot above, two dots below, an umlaut, a tilde, or something. This accessory goes on the second letter (like the vowel) to show the subcluster.
Example: third letter
So, it would work something like this:
mö (imagine m is a symbol for the domain, o is another symbol that indicates cluster 1, and the umlaut is the accessory that indicates subcluster 1). This means moa. But now we need to know which moa word (moanih, moale, moaria?).
We give it a sound clue! Recall each domain has an associated sound, because that's how Oravia works. For example, the biology domain symbol has an m sound because that's what these clusters sound like. For the third letter, we would use just the sound, not the meaning.
For moaria, we want an r sound clue, so the third letter/symbol is the same as the r / institutions domain (ro, ra, rai).
So moaria would be like:
These might be the other moa words:
möl = moa + l = moalen / banana (third letter *nature* domain le, li, lu)
mön = moa + n = moanih / berry (third letter *function words* domain no, ne)
möw = moa + w = moawena / lemon (third letter *geography* domain wi, wa)
Then the prepositions, pronouns, etc, can be expressed with only one letter, based on domain sound, as in:
n = nim, r = run, d = de, s = su, etc
This is an example of what this would be like:
And this is vertical style. This has the advantage of making the sentence structure super clear and easy to parse:
Vertical style could also be a full symbol for each word, kinda like Maya script. In this option, instead of having three letters/symbols following each other vertically or horizontally, they would be integrated into one symbol with three components.
Conclusion
These examples are a test I made to see how this would work. I like that I based the letters on logographic symbols from around the world (proto-brahmi, chinese bone oracle, and egyptian hieratic) with clear derivation (for example, the nature/l domain letter looks like a tree). But, I am not sure the letters I created are the right aesthetic. We need someone to create actual letters/symbols for Oravia if they so feel called :)
To sum it up, words would be composed of three letters (or one symbol with three components): domain, cluster + subcluster, sound.
I promise it just seems more confusing now because we don't have the actual letters/symbols. I think merging meaning and sound, and having each word be only three letters long, would be an interesting, unique design for a script. And a perfect fit for Oravia!
Get Involved
Interested in contributing to Oravia's development? I'm always looking for beta testers and feedback!
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