Appendix:Sondiv orthography

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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, two patterns for male names, and one for female names. 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

Patterns

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.

Roman numeral	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
i	Common noun A	s=/k sek	s=/k+ sayak	s=//kt sket	s=//kt+ skayat
ii	Common noun B	sk= sok	sk=+ suvuk	skt== skot	skt==+ skuvut
iii	Diminutive A	s=/ks skis	s=/kl skil	s=//kts sketis	s=//ktl sketil
iv	Diminutive B	sk=s skus	sk=l skul	skt==s skotus	skt==l skotul
v	Locative A	bs=/k besek	bs=/k+ besayak	bs=//kt besket	bs=//kt+ beskayat
vi	Locative B	bsk=m beskon	bsk=wl beskuvul	bskt==m beskuton	bskt==wl beskutuvul
vii	Diminutive locative	bs=/ks beskis	bs=/kl beskil	bs=//kts besketis	bs=//ktl besketil
viii	Locative C	s=[k‌h esika	s=[kl eskil	sk=[[t‌h eskita	sk=[[tl eskitil
ix	Augmentative A	s=/k= swak	s=/k=+ swayak	s=//kt== swakat	s=//kt==+ swakayat
x	Augmentative B	sk=w sku	sk=wl skuvul	skt==w skutu	skt==wl skutuvul
xi	Common implement	s=[k esk	s=[kl eskil	sk=[[t esekt	sk=[[tl eskitil
xii	Augmentative implement	s=/k=m swakon	s=/k=wl skuvul	s=//kt==m swakton	s=//kt==wl skutuvul
xiii	Verbal noun A	isk= isuk		iskt== iskut
xiv	Verbal noun B	ssk=v soskiv	ssk=l soskil	sskt==v soskutiv	sskt==l soskutil
xv	Instance of action	ssk= sosuk	ssk=+ sosuvuk	sskt== soskut	sskt==+ soskuvut
xvi	Absolute noun	sk=]m oskon	sk=]wl oskuvul	skt=]]m oskuton	skt=]]wl oskutuvul
xvii	Animate A	is=/km isken	is=/kwl iskivil	is=//ktm isketen	is=//ktwl isketivil
xviii	Animate B	sk=] sak	sk=]l sikil	skt=]] skat	skt=]]l siktil
xix	Animate C	ys=/k=]m syaken	ys=/k=]vl yaskivil	ys=//kt=]]m syakaten	ys=//kt=]]vl yaskativil
xx	Animate D	ws=/k=]m swaken	ws=/k=]vl waskivil	ws=//kt=]]m swakaten	ws=//kt=]]vl waskativil
xxi	Temporal	s=[ks eskas	s=[k+ sek	sk=[[ts askitas	sk=[[t+ sakit
xxii	Collective noun	hsk=w husku	hsk=wl huskuvul	hskt==w huskutu	hskt==wl huskutuvul
xxiii	Individual noun	us=/ks uskis	us=/kl uskil	us=//kts usketis	us=//ktl usketil
xxiv	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

Verbs

Infinitive forms of verbs function as class (xiii) nouns, which do not have plural forms, as seen in the table above. In order to spell finite verb forms, the character for the vowel associated with the tense (i for imperfect, a for perfect, and u for gnomic) is placed first, followed by the letters of the verb's root, without any modification. Verbs are thus easily identifiable by the initial vowel and the absence of additional modifications. Note that the object suffix is not indicated in the orthography. To write the subjunctive forms, a d is written in between the first i and the first root letter of a class (xiii) infinitive. For command forms, a u is written before the root, and the root receives modification 1, despite these words not starting with a u sound.

Number system

Sondiv employs a base-10 number system with special symbols for prime numbers up to 20. The symbols for numbers larger than 1 are taken from the alphabet, and a special number sign, #, differentiates numbers from words, for instance, 2013 is written #2013.

Kwandon	Arabic
0	0
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	6
7	7
8	8
9	9
10	10
11	11
13	13
17	17
19	19

Punctuation and other symbols

Kwandon's punctuation works similarly to the Latin alphabet's.

Kwandon	Latin
,	Pause
.	End of sentence
?	Question mark
!	Exclamation mark
$	Currency sign
-	Dash
( )	Brackets
…	Ellipsis

Furthermore, Kwandon has special symbols for the 4 Atrian tribes:

Kwandon	Meaning
@i	Iwabas, the mystic tribe
@s	Swamad, the farming tribe
@v	Vwasak, the warrior tribe
@z	Zwahan, the ruling tribe

References

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