The Ancient Alphabet

[jadesfire]

After my fic/picture posts yesterday, a few people asked me about the alphabet I wrote in. Below the cut is:

- A scan of the alphabet I developed, based on the "Ancient" font.
- A paragraph of explanation
- The same paragraph written in 'Ancient' because it looks cool
(or click the links to see them in my Scrapbook)





The picture shows both upper and lower case. The upper case letters are based on the font used at the end of cesperanza's Written by the Victors, which is a form that it's actually possible to write. The lower case letters are basically curved versions of the upper case ones.

The original letters, as designed for the show (eg here) are too blocky to write, and it's obvious that look rather than function was the primary intention. Also, although alphabets do have a limited amount of duplication (eg 'O' and '0'), making 'f' and 'u' the same symbol is a little confusing. I've added a little bar to the back of 'u' to make them distinctive. The numbers were certainly not meant for anyone doing maths by hand!

There are various messages written on things around the set, and I've spent way too long trying to read them!

The same paragraph, written with the Ancient alphabet:

Comments

[roga.livejournal.com]

That is so cool!

You mentioned in the other post that you were trying to develop a way of writing in cursive. I don't know if you'll find one (Hebrew doesn't have cursive), but you can probably find a way to make the lower case letters simpler to write. For one, they don't all have to resemble the upper case letters that much (in English, similarities are fleeting). And second, you could adjust the way you write the letters - the letter C, for example, kind of looks like the Hebrew "chet (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Hebrew_cursive.png)" but we don't write it from the bottom right corner to the bottom left corner - we right it from top left to bottom right, and then top left to bottom left. So in English, you'd write it in the opposite direction - but I think that in general, if you write your letters top to bottom, they're both easier to write, and prettier.

But, you know, anyway :-) This is very very awesome.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Once I get going, the lower case letters flow quite nicely - as you say, I don't know if it's going to be possible to join them up and still have them readable. But I'm having fun trying!

Although you confused me utterly by saying that Hebrew doesn't have a cursive form, then linking me to a page called 'Hebrew cursive' ;D

Glad you liked it, though. Thanks!

[roga.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry for that :-) Wikipedia calls it cursive, but it's not really - it's just the equivalent of lower case letters. I'm not sure what the correct term is, since we don't have upper and lower case letters, no "capitalization" rules or anything - maybe block letters vs. script? In any case, the letters don't connect to one another, like in English cursive or in Arabic.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

You're such a geek. I love it *pets you*

*mems to study at later point*

*is also geek*

:D

Oh and you're right, cursive is the correct term btw, it just means 'curved'. It's got nothing to do with upper or lower case, it's to do with the style in which the letters are written, ie with curved lines instead of straight lines. It's been a while since I studied palaeography, but I'm 99% sure on this one...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*happy grin* I am determined to secure myself a place in the geek hall of fame.

Ah...that makes sense. Is there a term for 'joined up'? I figure if hieroglyphs can manage it (although hieratic is probably cheating), Ancient must be able to :)

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Oh I should imagine so - the scribes would have naturally started to join the minims (unattached down strokes) together after a while. The join between one letter and the next is called the ligature, but I'm not sure what the overall term for joined up writing is, or if there even is one (I probably missed that class, or fell asleep ;)). Certain letters lend themselves to ligatures, while others don't - think about writing present day English, and how certain letters then to get left unattached. It'd be the same for writers using Ancient.

Also, the point you make about some letters being similar - in practice, this isn't so unusual, and is why we have so much trouble with medieval texts now. Certain letters can look very alike, which is why scribes brought in marks and accents, to show what word was intended. In order to decide how much of a problem this was for the users of the language, you need to decide what percentage of the population were funtionally literate - ie able to read and write with some degree of competence. If it's a largely spoken language, with writing only being used for record keeping, and by the scientific/intellectual elite, it wouldn't matter if there was some ideographic confusion because everyone would know what they meant from the context of the word, without being too bothered by its actual structure.

*blinks*

I may be in the running for a place in that hall myself... *hangs head*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*blinks back* Woah. Um. I think I learnt more there than in 3 palaeography classes during my MA. Most of them I spent looking at the pictures of mss going 'ooh, pretty!' *hangs head also*

Since I think I'm probably the only one to be 'functionally literate' in this format, it's probably not going to be too big a problem...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hello, fandom resource! *bookmarks*

That is still so cool that you took the time to figure this out.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* cool/sad is a fine line... But I had fun, so I don't care :D

Enjoy!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oh WOW, very cool!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* Why thank you, my dear!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

This *is* very cool. I've printed off both versions so they're easier to compare. It's just so interesting! And I think it looks very pretty written. :) How long did it take you to learn the alphabet well enough to write on the bus?

I find it fascinating that the progression of numbers in the original looks like they were building an inverted ZPM. (Well, to me a AA battery, but essentially the same thing.)

[celtic-tigress.livejournal.com]

This is really really cool! Thanks so much for posting it, I am fascinated!

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is great. You put so much effort into it, and it's so cool! *goes to study the letters again*