Appendix:Sondiv orthography

Sondiv Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography, Dialogue

Kwandon is an abjad by David J. Peterson used to write the Sondiv language spoken by the alien Atrian people from The CW's Star-Crossed.

Orthography

Sondiv's script, known as Kwandon, is an abjad, a writing system that primarily represents consonantal sounds. Vowels are typically not written or are only written in specific contexts.

Design concept

Kwandon was created to have a appearance inspired by seaweed and oceanic elements, based on the water-world character of Atria. The goal was to emphasize consonants, with a particular visual style that included lines written over and under glyphs. Peterson had previously created scripts like abugidas and a syllabary for the show Defiance, and so aimed to create writing system of a different type for Star-Crossed.

Root system

Similar to Arabic, Sondiv employs a root system that allows for the easy formation of new words. There are twenty-four basic nominal patterns, an adjectival pattern, a determiner pattern and a pattern for male and female names, respectively. Patterns have broad semantic categories, such as "Animate A" and "Animate B," assigned to them. The script was designed encode these patterns unambiguously using only consonant characters and certain modifications to those characters.

Consonant modifications

Peterson devised a schema with four modifications to the consonant characters that accommodated roots with two and three consonants. The goal was to minimize the number of modifications while ensuring unambiguous encoding of the patterns. All glyphs occupy the same vertical space for efficiency.

Glyphs have two modifications above and two below the character. Modifications 1 and 2 are written over one or two consonants to the left, modification 3 is written under one or two consonants to the right, and modification 4 is written under a single consonant to the right or under and between two consonants. They are shown in the following table:

Root type	Modification
	1	2	3	4
Biconsonantal	sk=	sk=]	s=/k	s=[k
Triconsonantal	skt==	skt=]]	s=//kt	sk=[[t

Glyphs

Romanization	IPA	Unmodified	1	2	3	4	Notes
a	a	a	ga= gga==	ga=] gga=]]	a=/g a=//gg	a=[g ga=[[g	Former long vowel, used as a consonant in some roots.
b	b	b	gb= ggb==	gb=] ggb=]]	b=/g b=//gg	b=[g gb=[[g
ch	tʃ	ch	gch= ggch==	gch=] ggch=]]	ch=/g ch=//gg	ch=[g gch=[[g	Used in loanwords.
d	d	d	gd= ggd==	gd=] ggd=]]	d=/g d=//gg	d=[g gd=[[g
e	e	e					Invariant, used in special cases.
f	f	f	gf= ggf==	gf=] ggf=]]	f=/g f=//gg	f=[g gf=[[g	Used in loanwords.
g	g	g	gg= ggg==	gg=] ggg=]]	g=/g g=//gg	g=[g gg=[[g
h	h	h	gh= ggh==	gh=] ggh=]]	h=/g h=//gg	h=[g gh=[[g
i	i	i	gi= ggi==	gi=] ggi=]]	i=/g i=//gg	i=[g gi=[[g	Former long vowel, used as a consonant in some roots.
j	dʒ	j	gj= ggj==	gj=] ggj=]]	j=/g j=//gg	j=[g gj=[[g	Used in loanwords.
k	k	k	gk= ggk==	gk=] ggk=]]	k=/g k=//gg	k=[g gk=[[g
l	l	l	gl= ggl==	gl=] ggl=]]	l=/g l=//gg	l=[g gl=[[g
m	m	m	gm= ggm==	gm=] ggm=]]	m=/g m=//gg	m=[g gm=[[g
n	n	n	gn= ggn==	gn=] ggn=]]	n=/g n=//gg	n=[g gn=[[g
o	o	o					Invariant, used in special cases.
p	p	p	gp= ggp==	gp=] ggp=]]	p=/g p=//gg	p=[g gp=[[g
r	ɾ	r	gr= ggr==	gr=] ggr=]]	r=/g r=//gg	r=[g gr=[[g
s	s	s	gs= ggs==	gs=] ggs=]]	s=/g s=//gg	s=[g gs=[[g
sh	ʃ	sh	gsh= ggsh==	gsh=] ggsh=]]	sh=/g sh=//gg	sh=[g gsh=[[g	Used in loanwords.
t	t	t	gt= ggt==	gt=] ggt=]]	t=/g t=//gg	t=[g gt=[[g
th	θ	th	gth= ggth==	gth=] ggth=]]	th=/g th=//gg	th=[g gth=[[g	Used in loanwords.
u	u	u	gu= ggu==	gu=] ggu=]]	u=/g u=//gg	u=[g gu=[[g	Former long vowel, used as a consonant in some roots.
v	v	v	gv= ggv==	gv=] ggv=]]	v=/g v=//gg	v=[g gv=[[g
w	w	w	gw= ggw==	gw=] ggw=]]	w=/g w=//gg	w=[g gw=[[g
y	j	y	gy= ggy==	gy=] ggy=]]	y=/g y=//gg	y=[g gy=[[g
z	z	z	gz= ggz==	gz=] ggz=]]	z=/g z=//gg	z=[g gz=[[g

Pronunciation

Patterns to form nouns, adjectives, determiners and names can apply to biconsonantal (e.g., S-K) and triconsonantal (e.g., S-K-T) roots. They are written with consonant letters representing prefixes and suffixes, as well as applying the presence or absence of the four modifications to the consonants of the root. Most of the patterns have singular and plural forms, and some of the plural forms end with a special plural glyph.

There are some cases in which the absence of modifications or an unexpected usage of them is used to inform a different reading. If two or three letters follow each other without modifications, they will be read as the determiner pattern. The second root letter, rather than the third, is modified (with modification 2) for the first male name pattern pronunciation. The modification of the third root letter (using modification 1) covers only the second letter, not the first, for the female name pattern pronunciation in triconsonantal roots.

Pattern	Biconsonantal root		Triconsonantal root
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Determiner	sk sik		skt skit
Adverbial determiner	skr sikur		sktr skitur
Feminine name	*sk=h Soka		*skt=h Sakota
Masculine name A	*sk=] Sak		*sk=]t Sakat
Masculine name B	*s=/ktwr Sektur		*s=//kttwr Skettur
Common noun A	s=/k sek	s=/k+ sayak	s=//kt sket	s=//kt+ skayat
Common noun B	sk= sok	sk=+ suvuk	skt== skot	skt==+ skuvut
Diminutive A	s=/ks skis	s=/kl skil	s=//kts sketis	s=//ktl sketil
Diminutive B	sk=s skus	sk=l skul	skt==s skotus	skt==l skotul
Locative A	bs=/k besek	bs=/k+ besayak	bs=//kt besket	bs=//kt+ beskayat
Locative B	bsk=m beskon	bsk=wl beskuvul	bskt==m beskuton	bskt==wl beskutuvul
Locative C	s=[k‌h esika	s=[kl eskil	sk=[[t‌h eskita	sk=[[tl eskitil
Diminutive locative	bs=/ks beskis	bs=/kl beskil	bs=//kts besketis	bs=//ktl besketil
Augmentative A	s=/k= swak	s=/k=+ swayak	s=//kt== swakat	s=//kt==+ swakayat
Augmentative B	sk=w sku	sk=wl skuvul	skt==w skutu	skt==wl skutuvul
Common implement	s=[k esk	s=[kl eskil	sk=[[t esekt	sk=[[tl eskitil
Augmentative implement	s=/k=m swakon	s=/k=wl skuvul	s=//kt==m swakton	s=//kt==wl skutuvul
Verbal noun A	isk= isuk		iskt== iskut
Verbal noun B	ssk=v soskiv	ssk=l soskil	sskt==v soskutiv	sskt==l soskutil
Instance of action	ssk= sosuk	ssk=+ sosuvuk	sskt== soskut	sskt==+ soskuvut
Absolute noun	sk=]m oskon	sk=]wl oskuvul	skt=]]m oskuton	skt=]]wl oskutuvul
Animate A	is=/km isken	is=/kwl iskivil	is=//ktm isketen	is=//ktwl isketivil
Animate B	sk=] sak	sk=]l sikil	skt=]] skat	skt=]]l siktil
Animate C	ys=/k=]m syaken	ys=/k=]vl yaskivil	ys=//kt=]]m syakaten	ys=//kt=]]vl yaskativil
Animate D	ws=/k=]m swaken	ws=/k=]vl waskivil	ws=//kt=]]m swakaten	ws=//kt=]]vl waskativil
Temporal	s=[ks eskas	s=[k+ sek	sk=[[ts askitas	sk=[[t+ sakit
Collective noun	hsk=w husku	hsk=wl huskuvul	hskt==w huskutu	hskt==wl huskutuvul
Individual noun	us=/ks uskis	us=/kl uskil	us=//kts usketis	us=//ktl usketil
Natural noun	s=[k=] sovok	sk=l skul	sk=[[t=]] skovot	skt==l skotul
Adjective	s=[k= seku	s=[k=hl skuhul	sk=[[t== sekut	sk=[[t==l skutil
Comparative	mbsk= mbesku	mbsk=hl mbeskuhul	mbskt== mbeskut	mbskt==l mbeskutil
Superlative	mbs=[k mbesek	mbs=[kl mbesekil	mbsk=[[t mbesakit	mbsk=[[tl mbesektil
Adverb	s=[k=r sekur		sk=[[t==r sekutur
Comparative adverb	mbsk=r mbeskur		mbskt==r mbeskutur
Superlative adverb	mbs=[kr mbesikur		mbsk=[[tr mbesakitur

Number system

Sondiv employs a base-10 number system with special words for prime numbers up to twenty. Symbols for numbers are taken from the alphabet, and a special number sign differentiates numbers from words.

References

• https://dedalvs.tumblr.com/post/85564939775/hi-im-loving-star-crossed-at-the-minute-specially