Book contents
- Inventing Languages
- Inventing Languages
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Glossing Conventions
- IPA Alphabet
- 1 What Are Constructed Languages?
- 2 World Building
- 3 Designing Vowel Inventories
- 4 Designing Consonant Inventories
- 5 From Sounds to Syllables
- 6 Stress and Tone
- 7 The Lexicon
- 8 The Morphology of Nouns
- 9 The Morphology of Verbs
- 10 Word Order
- 11 Statements, Questions and Commands
- 12 Negation and Evidentials
- 13 Complex Sentences
- 14 Writing Systems
- 15 Semantics and Pragmatics
- 16 Variation in Space and Time
- 17 Language Channels and Modalities
- 18 Wrapping Up and Moving Forward
- Appendix A Natlangs Mentioned
- Appendix B Conlangs Mentioned
- References
- Index
14 - Writing Systems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 November 2025
Book contents
- Inventing Languages
- Inventing Languages
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Glossing Conventions
- IPA Alphabet
- 1 What Are Constructed Languages?
- 2 World Building
- 3 Designing Vowel Inventories
- 4 Designing Consonant Inventories
- 5 From Sounds to Syllables
- 6 Stress and Tone
- 7 The Lexicon
- 8 The Morphology of Nouns
- 9 The Morphology of Verbs
- 10 Word Order
- 11 Statements, Questions and Commands
- 12 Negation and Evidentials
- 13 Complex Sentences
- 14 Writing Systems
- 15 Semantics and Pragmatics
- 16 Variation in Space and Time
- 17 Language Channels and Modalities
- 18 Wrapping Up and Moving Forward
- Appendix A Natlangs Mentioned
- Appendix B Conlangs Mentioned
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on written systems. It introduces logographic, semiographic and phonographic scripts, including alphabets, abjads, abugidas, and syllabaries, and provides a short account of the origin of writing. This chapter also exemplifies noteworthy conscripts and discusses the connection between writing, the fictional world, and the phonological and morphological structure of a language. In addition, it provides conlanging practice, provides you with a blueprint that will facilitate the design of an original conscript for a conlang, and introduces the writing system of the Salt language.
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- Inventing LanguagesA Practical Introduction, pp. 256 - 279Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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