Script for demon-summoning lang
Posted: Sun May 24, 2020 9:44 am
several years ago i wrote a short story where some characters summon "the spirits of the deep" aka demons from hell, and i threw together a little conlang to represent the language of hell, which i called the "language of the book". recently i've started reworking it, which has included finally coming up with a native script for it
the script is directly based on the sigils associated with the 72 demons found in the ars goetia. different elements were taken from different sigils, and there's no correspondence between the pronunciation of a glyph in my lang and the name of the associated demon for a given glyph in the ars goetia
the phonology consists of the following phonemes (listed here alongside their romanizations):
i'm not sure if there's a specific term for this but the script is essentially a combination between an alphabet and a syllabary. each glyph depicts a complete syllable, but its components indicate the different individual sounds. every glyph has at minimum a "base glyph" representing the nucleus; each monophthong and diphthong has its own glyph. onsets are represented by "onset glyphs" which attach to the top of the base glyph, while codas are represented by "coda glyphs" which attach to the bottom of the base glyph the first row in the above example is a set of base glyphs. the second is a set of onset glyphs, the third is a matching set of coda glyphs, and the fourth is some composed syllables (although of course the first row, with no onsets or codas, also consists of legal syllables)
however, remember that a number of consonant clusters are legal in the onset. any use of /j/ or /w/, whether in a cluster or by itself (remember that these sounds can only appear in onsets, not in codas), is indicated not by a separate glyph but by changing certain elements in the base glyph itself; an element (most commonly a circle or crescent) will change to a cross to indicate /j/ or a triangle to indicate /w/ all other clusters involve /l/, /r/, and/or /s/. to indicate a consonant followed by /l/, the glyph for that consonant is doubled; to indicate a following /r/, the consonant is tripled. an /s/ followed by a consonant is indicated with the /s/ glyph placed on top of the glyph for the following consonant (unless that consonant glyph is doubled to indicate a following /l/, in which case the /s/ glyph goes between the two consonant glyphs). the following examples should make this clearer: sorry this is such a long image, but i wanted to show that the doubled/tripled glyphs can be arranged radially (as in the /a/ examples) or in parallel (as in the /e/ examples) depending on the design of the base glyph. also, you can see that there are onset glyphs for /l/ and /r/, but they are only used if /l/ or /r/ appears by itself without any other consonant
the script is directly based on the sigils associated with the 72 demons found in the ars goetia. different elements were taken from different sigils, and there's no correspondence between the pronunciation of a glyph in my lang and the name of the associated demon for a given glyph in the ars goetia
the phonology consists of the following phonemes (listed here alongside their romanizations):
- stops: /p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
- affricates: /ts dz tʃ dʒ/ <ts dz ch jh>
- fricatives: /ɸ β θ ð s z ʃ ʒ x ɣ/ <f v th dh s z sh zh kh gh>
- nasals: /m n ŋ/ <m n nh>
- liquids: /l r j w/ <l r j w>
- monophthongs: /a ɛ e ɪ i ɔ o ʊ u/ <a e ê i î o ô u û>
- diphthongs: /ai ɛi ɔi ʊi au ɛu ɪu ɔu/ <ai ei oi ui au eu iu ou>
i'm not sure if there's a specific term for this but the script is essentially a combination between an alphabet and a syllabary. each glyph depicts a complete syllable, but its components indicate the different individual sounds. every glyph has at minimum a "base glyph" representing the nucleus; each monophthong and diphthong has its own glyph. onsets are represented by "onset glyphs" which attach to the top of the base glyph, while codas are represented by "coda glyphs" which attach to the bottom of the base glyph the first row in the above example is a set of base glyphs. the second is a set of onset glyphs, the third is a matching set of coda glyphs, and the fourth is some composed syllables (although of course the first row, with no onsets or codas, also consists of legal syllables)
however, remember that a number of consonant clusters are legal in the onset. any use of /j/ or /w/, whether in a cluster or by itself (remember that these sounds can only appear in onsets, not in codas), is indicated not by a separate glyph but by changing certain elements in the base glyph itself; an element (most commonly a circle or crescent) will change to a cross to indicate /j/ or a triangle to indicate /w/ all other clusters involve /l/, /r/, and/or /s/. to indicate a consonant followed by /l/, the glyph for that consonant is doubled; to indicate a following /r/, the consonant is tripled. an /s/ followed by a consonant is indicated with the /s/ glyph placed on top of the glyph for the following consonant (unless that consonant glyph is doubled to indicate a following /l/, in which case the /s/ glyph goes between the two consonant glyphs). the following examples should make this clearer: sorry this is such a long image, but i wanted to show that the doubled/tripled glyphs can be arranged radially (as in the /a/ examples) or in parallel (as in the /e/ examples) depending on the design of the base glyph. also, you can see that there are onset glyphs for /l/ and /r/, but they are only used if /l/ or /r/ appears by itself without any other consonant