Appendix:Gandal orthography

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Gandal Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography

Shul is an alphabet by David J. Peterson used to write the Gandal language from Tencent Games' Arena of Valor.

Orthography

The Gandal alphabet, known as the Shul or "pure" script, directly evolves from Veda's script, the Welqor abjad. Though the script is now an alphabet that indicates every vowel, sound changes resulted in different letters standing for the same sounds and some letters having several possible readings. For instance, Veda's /q/ merged with /k/ in Gandal, so Shul has two ways to write /k/, but the letter formerly pronounced as /q/ indicates that the following vowel is pronounced as a back vowel. Additionally, every doubled consonant (i.e. geminate) is now pronounced as a single one.

Letters

The glyphs of Shul representing sounds or sequences thereof are shown with their Welqor sources in the following table. Keep in mind that in Gandal's romanization, a stands for [ɑ] when stressed and for [ǝ] when unstressed, and that all instances of [ǝ] are spelt a, even the ones that do not descend from Veda's *a.

Glyph Source Romanization IPA Notes
p p p p
b b b b
t t t t
d d d d
th ts th θ
thy tsy ch Used to stand for [tsj], now stands for [tʃ] before other vowels.
thya tsya cha/chæ/chei tʃɑ, tʃǝ, tʃæ, tʃe See a for details about the realizations.
thyu tsyu chu/chaw tʃu, tʃaw See u for details about the realizations.
dh dz dh ð
dhy dzy j Used to stand for [dzj], now stands for [dʒ] before other vowels.
dhya dzya ja//jei dʒɑ, dʒǝ, dʒæ, dʒe See a for details about the realizations.
dhyu dzyu ju/jaw dʒu, dʒaw See u for details about the realizations.
k k k k
g g g g
q q k k Used to stand for [q], now stands for [k] but causes retraction of a following vowel.
a a a/æ/ei ɑ, ǝ, æ, e Stands for [ǝ] when unstressed, otherwise stands for [ɑ], [æ] or [e] depending on the environment.
e e e/a/i ɛ, ǝ, i Stands for [ǝ] when unstressed, otherwise stands for [ɛ] or [i] depending on the environment.
o o o/a/u o, ǝ, u Stands for [ǝ] when unstressed, otherwise stands for [o] or [u] depending on the environment.
f f f f
v v v v
s s s s
sy sy sh ʃ Used to stand for [sj], now stands for [ʃ] before other vowels.
sya sya sha/shæ/shei ʃɑ, ʃǝ, ʃæ, ʃe See a for details about the realizations.
syu syu shu/shaw ʃu, ʃaw See u for details about the realizations.
z z z z
zh zy zh ʒ Used to stand for [zj], now stands for [ʒ] before other vowels.
zya zya zha/zhæ/zhei ʒɑ, ʒǝ, ʒæ, ʒe See a for details about the realizations.
zyu zyu zhu/zhaw ʒu, ʒaw See u for details about the realizations.
h kh h/- h, silent Silent in some environments, causes retraction of a following vowel.
gh gh g/h/y/- g, h, j, silent Used to stand for [ɣ], now silent or stands for [g], [h] or [j] depending on the environment. Causes retraction of a following vowel.
u u u/aw/o u, aw, o Stands for [u], [aw] or [o] depending on the environment.
w w w w
wa wa wa//wei wɑ, wǝ, wæ, we Ligature. See a for details about the realizations.
wi wi wi/way wi, waj Ligature. See i for details about the realizations.
i i i/ay/ei i, aj, e Stands for [i], [aj] or [e] depending on the environment.
y y y j
ya ya ya//yei jɑ, jǝ, jæ, je Ligature. See a for details about the realizations.
yu yu yu/yaw/i ju, jaw, i Ligature. Realized as [i] word-initially when unstressed, see u for details about the other realizations.
r r r ɹ
l l l l
m m m m
n n n n
ny ny ny ɲ Used to stand for [nj], now stands for [ɲ] before other vowels.
nya nya nya/nyæ/nyei ɲɑ, ɲǝ, ɲæ, ɲe See a for details about the realizations.
nyu nyu nyu/nyaw ɲu, ɲaw See u for details about the realizations.
ng ng ng, n ŋ, n Now stands for [n] word-initially.

Ligatures

In addition to some ligatures inherited from Welqor, Shul has a few more recent ligatures of Shul letters:

Glyph Source Romanization IPA Notes
tho th‌o tho/tha/thu θo, θǝ, θu See o for details about the realizations.
thu th‌u thu/thaw θu, θaw See u for details about the realizations.
yuyu yu‌yu yu ju

Punctuation

The punctuation marks of the Shul script are shown with their Welqor sources (if any) in the table below:

Glyph Source Usage
. . Period
, , Comma
? ? Question mark
! none Exclamation mark
( ) ( ) Parentheses
- none Clitic or contraction marker

Spelling of paradigms

When examining a noun declension table, it becomes apparent that Gandal's spelling conventions require learning how to spell in the Shul script separately from learning how to speak Gandal. This distinction is illustrated by the differences in spelling between vowel-initial accusative singular and plural forms, both pronounced the same due to their shared initial "u," as seen in the following table (in which C = consonant and V = vowel, and gh and yuyu are romanized ⟨gh⟩ and ⟨yuyu⟩ respectively):

Inanimate
(Chaos)
Ergative Oblique Accusative
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
C...V jeghon
jiyan
⟨jeghon⟩
yajeghon
yajiyan
⟨yajeghon⟩
jee
ji
⟨jee⟩
yajee
yaji
⟨yajee⟩
yujee
iji
⟨yujee⟩
yuyajee
iyaji
⟨yuyajee⟩
V...V umbeghon
umbiyan
⟨umbeghon⟩
yumbeghon
yumbiyan
⟨yumbeghon⟩
umbe
umba
⟨umbe⟩
yumbe
yumba
⟨yumbe⟩
yumbe
yumba
⟨yumbe⟩
yuyumbe
yumba
⟨yuyumbe⟩
C...C chamon
chaman
⟨chamon⟩
yachamon
yachaman
⟨yachamon⟩
cham
cham
⟨cham⟩
yacham
yacham
⟨yacham⟩
yucham
icham
⟨yucham⟩
yuyacham
iyacham
⟨yuyacham⟩
V...C udhon
awdhan
⟨udhon⟩
yudhon
yudhan
⟨yudhon⟩
udh
udh
⟨udh⟩
yudh
yudh
⟨yudh⟩
yudh
yudh
⟨yudh⟩
yuyudh
yudh
⟨yuyudh⟩

The example words shown in the table above are jeghon jiyan "belly," umbeghon umbiyan "emptiness," chamon chaman "cloud," and udhon awdhan "whip."

Numerals

Gandal uses a base-10 number system, which is shown in the following table with its Welqor sources:

Glyph Source #
0 0 0
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6
7 7 7
8 8 8
9 9 9