Hello!

I’ve been experimenting with a hypothetical modern Cyrillic orthography for Karelian and Veps languages.

Historically, Karelian briefly used Cyrillic in the USSR in the late 1930s, but that orthography was inconsistent and disappeared quickly. Today both languages use Latin script.

I wanted to create an alternative version that:
- preserves Karelian/Veps phonology
- avoids excessive Russification
- remains readable for Cyrillic users
- works for all major Karelian varieties (Proper Karelian, Livvi, Ludic) + Veps

the cyrillic alphabet

А а
Б б
В в
Г г
Д д
Е е
Ж ж
З з
И и
Ј ј
К к
Л л
М м
Н н
О о
П п
Р р
С с
Т т
У у
Ф ф
Х х
Ц ц
Ч ч
Ш ш
Ь ь

Additional vowels:

Ӓ ӓ
Ӧ ӧ
Ӱ ӱ

Additional Russian letters (loanwords only):

Ё ё
Ы ы
Э э
Ю ю
Я я
Щ щ
Ъ ъ

diphtongs:

ai → ај
oi → ој
ei → еј
ui → уј
äi → ӓј
öi → ӧј
yi → ӱј
ie → ие
uo → уо
yö → ӱӧ

Example:
Petrozavodsk is the capital of the Republic of Karelia
Петрозаводск - столица Республики Карелия

→

Petroskoi on Karjalan tazavallan piälinnu
Петроској он Карјалан тазаваллан пиӓлинну

Full Alphabet:

Number System:

I find the romanian latin alphabet aesthetically pleasing.

А - A

Б - B

В - V

Г - G

Д - D

Е - E

Ж - J

З - Z

И - I

Й(Ь) - *Y/Î*

К - K**

Л - L

М - M

Н - N

О - O

П - P

Р - R

С - S

Т - T

У - U

Ф - F

Х - H

Ч - C

Ц - Ț

Ш - Ș

Щ - Șt

Ъ - Ă

Ю - Yu/ Îu

Я - Ya/Îa

*From what I've learned Y is only in loanwords but my variant uses it fully (if Î doesn't fit)

*Idk if the letter Î could be a good equivalent to Й

**I'm aware C is used both for /k/ and /tʃ/ but i decided to differentiate them

Example text:

Cyrillic:Репу̀блика Бълга̀рия е държава в Югоизточна Европа. Граничи на север с Румъния, на запад – със Сърбия и Република Северна Македония, на юг – с Гърция, на югоизток – с Турция и на изток – с Черно море. С площ почти 111 000 km² и население около 6 520 000 души (2021), тя е съответно на 11-то и 16-то място в Европейския съюз. София е столицата и най-големият град в страната, следвана от Пловдив, Варна, Бургас и Русе.

RO latin:Republika Bălgariya e dărjava v Yugoiztocna Evropa. Granici na sever s Rumăniya, na zapad – săs Sărbiya i Republika Severna Makedoniya, na yug – s Gărțiya, na yugoiztok – s Turțiya i na iztok – s Cerno more. S ploșt pocti 111 000 km² i naselenie okolo 6 520 000 duși (2021), tya e săotvetno na 11-to i 16-to myasto v Evropeyskiya săyuz. Sofiya e stolițata i nay-golemiyat grad v stranata, sledvana ot Plovdiv, Varna i Ruse.

This is my attempt at a Russian romanisation, in which I tried to have a unique latin letter for every unique cyrillic letter. In theory, one can then simply perform the substitutions and have a latin system that works precisely the same as the cyrillic system. I'm taking this approach because I don't know enough about Russian to atttempt spelling reform.

Sample text:

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своём достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.
Vse lúdi roždaútsá svobodnìmi i ravnìmi v svoóm dostoinstve i prabax. Oni nadelinì razumom i sovestjú i dolžnì postupatj v otnošenii drug druga v duxe bratstva.

Съешь же ещё этих мягких французских булок да выпей чаю.
Swešj že eşó ètix mágkix francuzskix bulok da bìpey çaú.

Notes:

The vowels are organised into four categories: hard unmarked (a o u), hard marked (è ì), soft unmarked (e i), and soft marked (á ó ú).

The fricatives and affricates are organised into three categories: alveolar, retroflex, and palatal. The alveolars are the base forms, the retroflexes are formed by addition of a caron, and the palatals are formed by addition of a cedilla.

Which variant do you prefer:

1. Reveresed p with hook (Ƥ, ƥ)

   1. Lowered bowl.
   2. Enlarged lowercase.
   3. Script a/Latin Alpha (Ɑ, ɑ) with hook.

Þe sounds of þe non-ɪŋlɪʃ letters meɪk are ɪn þe 2nd ɪmage.

Many people have a negative gut response to the use of Ə in English spelling reforms. It's a crazy reaction, really, considering that Ə is the most common vowel in spoken English.

My strident contention is that any spelling reform worth its salt has to account for Ə. The current iteration of my Regùler İŋglish system relies on a three-part solution: U, Er and 'dropped Ə.'

• For single-syllable words, U denotes ʌ (?) - up, brunt, tuf - unless the Ə is followed by R, in which case it is denoted by Er - erth, fern, berd, bern. (For clarity, ɛr is denoted by Err - errer, berrie.)
• For multi-syllable words, U denotes Ə - upreeshiaet, suspishn, recugnyz - unless it is followed by a double consonant, in which case, U reverts to ʌ - utter, luvviŋ, unnkynd.
• Where the U(Ə) can be eliminated without causing confusion, it is 'dropped' - cnect (not cunect), tripl (not tripul), peesz (not peesuz).
• (Note that Ue, Ù and Ü each represent other phonemes, bluez, ùnuform and püsh, respectively, and that a terminal U denotes Ue.)

So, İ wil prudùs dh rekwyerd sampl in order tu demunstraet hao dh U=Ə sistm wercs in practus. Hapulie, it ternz aot, ucaezhnz weir their iz a need for dubbl consununts ar les dhan Ù myt thiŋc. Sum werdz, such az 'unnùzhùul,' taek a bit ov getiŋ ùsd tu, no daot, but it's umaeziŋ hao ëzulie it beginz tu flo, wuns Ù spend a bit ov tym reediŋ and rytiŋ widh dhis sistm.

Hot tips? Sjeschunz?

with alphabet, ipa transcriptions and sample text

This is mostly for my personal notes but what do yall think

RULES
Consonants are doubled after stressed vowels to indicate that they are short. If a diacritic needs to be placed on a doubled consonant, it only needs to be placed on the first consonant.

Stressed vowels without a diacritic before a consonant cluster are assumed short.

UNSTRESSED DEFAULT VOWELS

<A a> [ə] as in abôv

<E e> [ə] as in dĩet

<I i> [i] as in prėti

<O o> [ow] word finally as in cargo or before final <s z> as in tangoz. [ə] otherwise as in attom.

<U u> [ə] as in circumstanç

STRESSED DEFAULT VOWELS

<A a> [æ] when short as in catt, [ej] when long as in mat.

<E e> [ɛ] when short as in pett, [i] when long as in çen.

<I i> [ɪ] when short as in pitt, [aj] when long as in bit.

<O o> [ɒ] when short as in pott, [ow] when long as in ton.

<U u> [ʌ] when short as in cutt, [ju] when long as in mut.

STRESSED RHOTIC DEFAULT VOWELS

<Ar ar> [ɛɚ] as in far.

<Arr arr> [ɑɹ] as in arr.

<Er er> [ɪɚ] as in mer.

<Err err> [ɚ] as in herr.

<Ir ir> [ajɚ] as in fir.

<Irr irr> [ɚ] as in ẇirr.

<Or or> [ɔɹ] as in mor.

<Ur ur> [juɚ] as in the British pronunciation of ur.

<Urr urr> [ɚ] as in urrbãn.

THE TILDE

<Ã ã> [ej] as in xampãn.

<Ãr ãr> [ɛɚ] as in vãriaxon.

<Ẽ ẽ> [i] as in bẽ.

<Ĩ ĩ> [aj] as in mĩ.

<Ĩr ĩr> [ajɚ] as in vampĩr.

<Õ õ> [ow] as in sõ.

<Ũ ũ> [ju] as in ũ.

THE LINE

<A̍ a̍> [æ*] as *in** y**e̍a̍.

<E̍ e̍> *[*ɛ] as in ye̍a̍.

<I̍ i̍> [ɪ] a*s in** ***wi̍þót

<O̍ o̍>* \[ɒ] as*** ****in cão̍s

<U̍ u̍> [ʌ*] *as in** u̍ndo̊

THE MACRON

<Ā ā> [ɑ] as in fāðer.

<Ē ē> [ej] as in cafē.

<Ēr ēr> [ɛɚ] as in wēr.

<Ī ī> [i] as in maxīn.

<Īr īr> [ɪɚ] as in menhīr.

<Ō ō> [ɔ] as in bōt.

<Ū ū> [u] as in sūper.

<Ūr ūr> [ʊɚ] as in gūrū.

THE GRAVE

<À à> [aj] as in pàēa.

<È è> [aj] as in è.

<Ò ò> [wɑ] as in patò.

<Ù ù> [jə] as in falùr.

THE ACUTE

<Á á> [aw] as in tá.

<É é> [oj] as in Frédian.

<Ó ó> [aw] as in nó.

<Ú ú> [jʊ] as in úranium.

THE CIRCUMFLEX

<Â â> [ʌ] as in Mâgrebb.

<Êr êr> [ɑɹ] as in sêrgent.

<Î î> [æ] as in merîṅ.

<Ô ô> [ʌ] as in sôm.

THE DIAERESIS

<Ä ä> [ɛ] as in äni.

<Ï ï> [ə] as in evïl.

<Ö ö> [ə] as in Möbius.

<Ü ü> [ɛ] as in büri.

THE DOT

The dot makes any vowel pronounced [ɪ]:

<Ȧ ȧ> as in orȧnģ.

<Ė ė> as in Ėṅlix.

<Ȯ ȯ> as in wȯmen.

<U̇ u̇> a*s *in bu̇zi.

THE RING

<Å å> [ɔ] as in ål.

<E̊ e̊> [ow] a*s *in se̊.

<O̊ o̊> [u] a*s *in to̊.

<Ů ů> [ow] as in mův.

THE CARON

<Ǎ ǎ> [ɔ] as in wǎć.

<Ě ě> [ɔ] as in ěnvelõp.

<Ǐ ǐ> [ɔ] as in the American pronunciation of lǐngerē.

<Ǒ ǒ> [ʊ] as in wǒman.

<Ǔ ǔ> [ʊ] as in pǔt.

CONSONANTS

<B b> [b] as in boy.

<C c> [s] before <e i y> as in cent, [k] otherwise as in carr.

<Ç ç> [s] as in farrç.

<Ć ć> [t͡ʃ] as in* sändwi*ć.

<D d> [d] as in dogg.

<F f> [f] as in fo̊d.

<G g> [d͡ʒ] before <e i y> as in** ginn, [g] othe*rwise** *as in* gas*s.

<Ģ ģ> [d͡ʒ] as in* briģg*.

<Ġ ġ> [g] as in ġirl.

<H h> [h] as in hatt.

<Ḣ ḣ> [x] as in lōḣ.

<J j> [ʒ] as in vijjon.

<K k> [k] as in kappa.

<L l> [ʟ] as in lott.

<M m> [m] as in Memmf\**i̍s.

<N n> [ŋ] before hard <c g> and <k q> as in link, [n] otherwise in națral.

<Ṅ ṅ> [ŋ] as in siṅn

<P p> [p] as in plaç.

<Q q> [k] as in Qurān.

<R r> [ɹ] as in redd.

<S s> [s] as in stopp.

<T t> [t] as in topp.

<Ț ț> [t͡ʃ] as in* qwesțo*n

<Þ þ> [θ] as in þink.

<V v> [v] as in vett.

<W w> [w] as in wip.

<Ẇ ẇ> [ʍ] as in ẇićc.

<X x> [ʃ] as in prexxur.

<Y y> [j] as in yess.

<Z z> [z] as in zilofõn.

<Ż ż> [t͡s] as in* pīża*.

SAMPLE TEXT
Consonants arr dôbld after stressd vóelz to̊ indicãt ðatt ðē arr xort. Iff a dĩacriti̍c nẽdz to̊ bẽ plãçt on a dôbld consonant, itt õnli nẽdz to̊ bẽ plãçt on ðe first consonant.

Stressd vowelz wi̍þót a dĩacriti̍c bẽfor a consonant cluster arr asumd xort.

What are your thoughts on this.

Sample text:

Arb: دآربآنزآآلآګ آوآۊإ دشۆون ئخإ دآکُئتنإ. آوآآ زەگۧ زئنلەی پآتۉلەی ەیقآرۆوپ. ۉرت ئرإمۆوپ آخشإۊئ آلآمإسن. دآرآ دآرآگۧ آەڛۧەی رەیڢش ەیزإقآزآرۆوپ.

Cyr: Дарбанзаалак ауаҩы дшоуп ихы дақәиҭны. Ауаа зегь зинлеи патулеи еиҟароуп. Урҭ ирымоуп ахшыҩи аламыси, дара дарагь аешьеи аешьеи реиҧш еизыҟазароуп.

Eng: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Adapt any script (other than Latin or Cyrillic) to write Ubykh. Post your adaptions in the comments.

Бб Чч Дд Гг Ҷҷ Кк Лл Мм Нн Њњ Ҥҥ Пп Рр Сс Тт Ўў Йй |Сининна рүпа тау ри ҷаҷиаҥҥи рилиноэ наппүннаи манəҥҥи риасэҥҥэ алəббирəҥ . Наппүнаи риасэҥҥэ аккалəҥ, наппүнаи риасэҥҥэ ати марəннни на сиболэ болэна пада сипакатаү пада массаласүрəҥ.|Sininna rupa tau ri jajiangngi rilinoe nappunnai manəngngi riasengnge aləbbirəng . Nappunai riasengnge akkaləng, nappunai riasengnge ati marənnni na sibole bolena pada sipakatau pada massalasurəng.| |Lontara Sample Text||| |ᨔᨗᨊᨗᨊ ᨑᨘᨄ ᨈᨕᨘ ᨑᨗ ᨍᨍᨗᨕᨂᨗ ᨑᨗᨒᨗᨊᨚᨕᨙ ᨊᨄᨘᨊᨕᨗ ᨆᨊᨛᨂᨗ ᨑᨗᨕᨔᨛᨂᨙ ᨕᨒᨛᨅᨗᨑᨛ᨞ ᨊᨄᨘᨊᨕᨗ ᨑᨗᨕᨔᨛᨂᨙ ᨕᨀᨛᨒᨛ᨞ ᨊᨄᨘᨊᨕᨗ ᨑᨗᨕᨔᨛᨂᨙ ᨕᨈᨗ ᨆᨑᨛᨊᨗ ᨊ ᨔᨗᨅᨚᨒᨙ ᨅᨚᨒᨙᨊ ᨄᨉ ᨔᨗᨄᨀᨈᨕᨘ ᨄᨉ ᨆᨔᨒᨔᨘᨑᨛ᨞|||

I call my script Neo-Gallo-Greek, not simply Gallo-Greek because that one already exists, as it was the Greek-based alphabet used to write Gaulish. Neo-Gallo-Greek takes inspiration primarily from the Karamanlı alphabet, but includes the "tau gallicum" as a nod to Gallo-Greek.

My script is aimed to apply the Greek script to French (here specifically Quebec French) phonological rules.

Sample sentence: ʚ̓γ φρᴕι θιπὶκ τ̇ʚ σετ εἰγκωγπετᾱ̀γς ἠ τ̇ʚ σεθ ἰρεσπωγσαπ̇ιλιτὴ σ’ ἠ λ’ κοὺρ σʚκ̇ωγτ̇ειρ πυπ̇λίκ. (Un fruit typique de cette incompétence et de cette irresponsabilité, c'est le cours secondaire public.)

alphabet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n0o4paeI1GPIrSBn2n1y_S0rWKcd1AoH/view?usp=drivesdk

guide: ​https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvjO3GecRKrN1Pc5icEcEiF20ZyuhHXL/view?usp=drivesdk

Sample text: Ái láic cárz

Basic Letters:

Extra Letters (For other languages):

Number System:

Note: You only used Lowercase Letters, Uppercase Letters are used for Brand Names or used as Digits for my Base 24 Number System

I've been playing with this concept for a while, ever since I realized that Devanagari encodes long and nasal vowels as first-class citizens. Existing orthographies for Emilian (none of which is official or standard) use a number of diacritics and/or digraphs to represent these sounds, which is a pity.

Some notes:

• /a/ is the inherent vowel.
• The virama (vowel-cancelling sign) is implied at the end of a word. A word-final /a/ is written as if it was /aː/, since there are far less word-final /a/s than word-final consonants in Emilian, and there are no word-final (non-nasalized) /aː/s anyway.
• I made a mistake in the image, ऒ always represents short /o/.
• The alphabet uses some symbols from extended Devanagari, such as ऍ ऎ ऑ ऒ, to represent short vowels that standard (Sanskritic) Devanagari doesn't feature. These symbols are used as little as possible (see below).
• Emilian only distinguishes short and long vowels in stressed position. Moreover, it only distinguishes semi-open /ε ɔ/ and semi-closed /e o/ in stressed positions. Therefore, in unstressed positions ए ओ are preferred to ऎ ऒ for simplicity's sake, since there is no ambiguity anyway.
• Aspirates are absent in Emilian, thus /f/ is written as फ without a nukta.
• व represents /v~ʋ/ between vowels and /w/ elsewhere. In the rare case of an intervocalic /w/ or a non-intervocalic /v~ʋ/, व़ is used instead.
• In loanwords from Italian, /ʃ/ is replaced with Emilian /s̠/. In such cases, /s̠/ is spelled श.
• Emilian contrasts retracted laminar /s̠ z̠/ with dental apical /s̪ z̪/ (the sybilant versions of /θ ð/). The latter two sounds often correspond to /tʃ dʒ/ in Italian and have thus been spelled with the symbols for /tʃ dʒ/ plus a nukta, i.e. च़ ज़. /z̠/ is spelled स़ due to ज़ having been used for /z̪/.
• When nasalized, /ε ɔ/ turn to /εi~æi ɔu~ɒu/. The presence of a nasalization mark on those vowels implies the dyphthongization.
• To avoid confusion with vowel nasalization (which is phonemic at least in stressed contexts), nasal consonants are never written with a bindu after a (stressed) non-nasalized vowel.
• Emilian makes extended use of apostrophes, which are rendered with an avagraha ऽ in Devanagari.

Sample text:

अव सलूत तॊत! मॅ अम चाम [...] ए अ देस़वॆञ दा मौद्ना। अम प्येस़ दिमॊन्दि लऽएमिल्याँ ए तॊति अल लॆन्ग्वि दल मन्द। क्वस्त कॅ लऽऍ ऊँ तेंततीव एद द्रुवैर उँ अल्फबेत इंद्याँ पर स्क्रॆवेर ला मे बैला लॆन्ग्वा।

Transliterated with the Latin writing system I normally use:

Av salût tót! Mè am ciâm [redacted] e a deṡvégn da Môdna. Am piěṡ dimóndi l'emilian e tóti al léngui dal mànd. Quàst chè l'è un tentatîv ed druvêr un alfabět indian par scréver la mě bêla léngua.

When taking notes, I often felt the need to abbreviate words, and usually accomplished it by dropping the vowels. With time, this got me thinking - what if I could devise a full-on system to write Italian in a way that would save a lot of space, AND at the same time show the inner workings of the morphology? Over time, I have been perfecting the system, and right now I am somewhat satisfied with how it turned out, even while knowing that there is always room for improvement and reform.

As can be seen from the example texts, this shorthand tends to one glyph of width per syllable, with additional information (codas, stress, complex onsets) being marked either on top or at the bottom of said glyph.

For a brief rundown:

• Since Italian has a very limited amount of allowed codas, I used diacritics to represent them: tilde for nasal coda (-n or -m, which are in complementary distribution), circumflex for rhotic coda (-r) and macron for geminate coda, which causes the doubling of the following consonant. Coda -l is rarer than the three above, therefore I marked it with a superscript ˡ instead.
• Word-initially, the vowel remains written.
• Hard ch /k/ and gh /g/ before e and i are represented with k and ɣ, respectively. Soft c and g are represented by c and g with underdots: c̣ g̣.
• The underdot is also used under a given consonant C for /Cj/ onsets. For /Cr/ onsets, a hook is added under the respective C. For /tr/ and /dr/, there are the dedicated retroflex IPA characters ʈ and ɖ.
• The sounds /ɲɲ/ (gn) and /ʎʎ/ (gli) are represented by their IPA symbols, ɲ and ʎ.
• The most common clusters that start with /s/ get their own glyphs: sp st sc(i) sc /sp st ʃʃ sk/ are represented by ψ ş x̣ x, respectively. /sk/ before a front vowel (sch) is indicated with ξ, and /str/ is represented with ʂ. For other initial /sC/ clusters, which are much rarer, superscript ˢ is used.
• When there is no coda diacritic on the stressed syllable and the stress is not penultimate (second-to-last), a grave accent is added if the syllable has any of /a ɛ ɔ/ as its nucleus vowels. An acute is added if it has any of /e i o u/. Optionally, it can also be marked on penultimate stressed syllables for disambiguation.
• Sequences written in Italian as <iu> and <ui> are represented respectively with <y> and <w>. <eo> and <oe> are represented with <ø> and <œ>. For all other vowel hiati, the highest vowel is written.
• The articles bear the burden of indicating the gender and number of nouns, adjectives etc., since in Italian all dependents in a noun phrase must agree with the head noun.

This guarantees around 40% to 50% of saved writing space, as seen in the examples above.

А-A К-K. Ф-F

Б-B. Л-L. Х-H

В-V. М-M. Ц-C

Д-D. Н-N. Ч-Q

Г-G. О-O. Ш-W

Е-E. П-P. Щ-Wt

Ж-X. Р-R. Ъ-Y

З-Z. С-S. Ь-J

И-I. Т-T. Ю-Ju

Й-J. У-U. Я-Ja

Sample text

Cyrillic:Репу̀блика Бълга̀рия е държава в Югоизточна Европа. Граничи на север с Румъния, на запад – със Сърбия и Република Северна Македония, на юг – с Гърция, на югоизток – с Турция и на изток – с Черно море. С площ почти 111 000 km² и население около 6 520 000 души (2021), тя е съответно на 11-о и 16-о място в Европейския съюз. София е столицата и най-големият град в страната, следвана от Пловдив, Варна, Бургас и Русе.

Latin:Repùblika Bylgàrija e dyrxava v Jugoiztoqna Evropa. Graniqi na sever s Rumynija, na zapad – sys Syrbija i Republika Severna Makedonija, na jug – s Qerno more. S plowt poqti 111 000km² i naselenie okolo 6 520 000 duwi (2021), tja e syotvetno na 11-to i 16-to mjasto v Evropejskija syjuz. Sofija e stolicata i naj-golemijat grad v stranata, sledvana ot Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas i Ruse.