First go at Kiran Calligraphy. I am working with a fan who wants to write up some source material for the Kirans. He would like some language info and I am starting with the akphabet and moving on to the language. Actually, I have a good idea of the language. Structure will be roughly Verb-Adj./Adv.-Noun-Modifier. It should be fun.

Input welcome.



Definitions
Krios-Kjet
Dictionary
Kiro = 1. Home; 2. Homeworld
Wassat = 1. War;2. Conflict
Obiri = 1. n. Sister race to the Kiran. 2. Adj. Inferior, lacking merit. 3. Adv. Cowardly
Osee = 1. The number 1. 2. A single strong warrior
Onee = 1. The number 2. 2. A loyal companion
Obea = 1. The number 3. 2. A truested third
Oree = 1. The number 4. 2. The last in a line
Okee = 1. The number 5. 2. A person left behind during war. 3. An unlucky number

Quote from: HinterWeltInput welcome.

Most writing systems, when you reduce them down to their basic components, are generally made up of a handful of line or stroke types.  For example:

Chinese here, here, and here, which has 8 basic strokes and an additional 29 complex strokes.

Cuneiform here, which is made up of 5 basic marks.

Runic here, which is primarily horizontal and diagonal strokes.

Thai here, which contains a lot of little loops.

This is what gives various lettering systems their distinctive looks (see also Hebrew, Arabic, Gurmukhi, Inuktitut, etc.). Your numbers seem to have that flavor but the more complex characters seem hard to follow.  Each of the complex character seems to have distinctive elements (e.g., the diamond in the middle and "y" shape at the bottom of the first character, the smaller "sub-character" inside the left and dots on the second character, the central line and the boxes in the third character).  I'd suggest picking one of those three and build on that look.  ADDED:  The middle top character looks like it belongs with the numbers more than the other two do.

That's not to say that you can't have a set of characters that are more complex without a clear pattern of strokes.  The earliest Chinese characters were originally much more complex, like little pictures and Linear B have less of a pattern to how they are drawn.  So you could make all of your characters look very different if you want.

The meanings of the words are interesting, particularly the numbers.

As for "Structure will be roughly Verb-Adj./Adv.-Noun-Modifier.", languages generally have a Subject, Object, and Verb.  English is an SVO language (though some apparently think it has characteristics of a VSO language).  From here:

   There are six types of language syntax: subject-verb-object, subject-object-verb, object-subject-verb, object-verb-subject, verb-subject-object, and verb-object-subject (abbreviated SVO, SOV, OSV, OVS, VSO, and VOS), with the most frequent being SVO, VSO, and SOV. Examples of each are English (SVO), Irish (VSO), Japanese (SOV), Panare from Venezuela (OVS), Xavante from Brazil (OSV), and Huave from Mexico (VOS). In VO languages (SVO, VSO, or VOS), auxiliary verbs ("to be," etc.) tend to precede the verb, adverbs tend to follow the verb, and prepositions tend to precede the noun. In OV languages (SOV, OSV, and OVS), most of which are SOV, like Japanese, auxiliary verbs tend to follow the verb, adverbs tend to precede the verb, and there are post-positions instead of prepositions. The VP phrase structure rule for an SVO language might be VP => V NP, whereas in Japanese, the VP phrase structure rule would be VP => NP V [Fromkin and Rodman, 110-111].

The overall structure in terms of S, O, and V often determine where adjectives, adverbs, and so on appear relative to Nouns and Verbs.  This page, this page, this page, this PDF, and this PDF might all be useful for you.

That might be more information than you want, but a lot of the structure of where and how things appear in a language flow from that basic word order, and you might be able to fill out a lot of details about your language automatically using this information.

And just in case you haven't seen it (or in case anyone else reading this thread who is interested in constructing languages hasn't see it), the excellent Language Construction Kit web pages can be found here.

Also, this and this.

John,

When my son, who is having his 7th birthday this weekend, complete with PotC-themed party for friends, comes to me in twenty years with all sorts of emotional problems that his mentat-therapist informs him stem from my lack of attention to his aforementioned 7th birthday party - I will be sending him to you.  So please keep in contact so I have a proper forwarding address.

Regards,
Jim

I'll be honest the first row of characters don't look related to the characters below it. They look more complex, formal, from a different structure altogether than the curved strokes of the numbers.

That may be the intent, but it looks almost done by a different set of cultures to my un-expert eye.

Quote from: SilverlionI'll be honest the first row of characters don't look related to the characters below it. They look more complex, formal, from a different structure altogether than the curved strokes of the numbers.

That may be the intent, but it looks almost done by a different set of cultures to my un-expert eye.

Numbering often is. Look at Mayan numerals compared to their alphabet. Same goes for Egyptian and Incan. Ideogarmatic languages often have this characteristic but you would have to ask a linguist why.

Part of my reasoning was to represent pictures within the character. So, Kiro is a stylized female, hands on hips with the simpler symbol for child underneath. This forms the concept of woman and child, a key concept to the Kirans that the pregnant women and children stay home from war.

And, well, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Bill

I know little or nothing about writing systems or linguistics but the Kiros system works for me.

Reworking of Kiro based on input from forums.



Thanks,
Bill

Quote from: HinterWeltReworking of Kiro based on input from forums.

FYI, I do think that's an improvement.

Went a whole new direction. More of a component approach looking at claw marks, left handed strokes and general emphasis on strokes and dots.

Bill

Hey Bill, that's a really nice idea. When I was learning Japanese, I found it really useful to learn how to write complex characters (in Kanji) by splitting them up into a series of operations. I had a book that had each character split up into "This stroke, then this stroke" and so on. That would make some interesting addition and help your players use the language!

Prefer the new Kiro, too.

Quote from: HinterWeltWent a whole new direction. More of a component approach looking at claw marks, left handed strokes and general emphasis on strokes and dots.

As a more specific response, the characters now look like they belong together as part of an integrated writing style.  I also think the choice to build off of the numbers was a good one, since it gives it a fairly unique and clean look.