Appendix:Engála orthography
The Engála language from David J. Peterson and Jessie Peterson's YouTube series LangTime Studio is written using an abugida.
Orthography
Engála is written with an abugida, meaning that the script consists of base consonant glyphs which are modified to indicate the quality of an adjacent vowel. In the case of Engála, this is the vowel preceding the consonant, unlike many other abugidas, where it is the following. The inherent vowel for an unmodified consonant glyph is a. The script is written from top to bottom. Additionally, the script displays a certain degree of orthographic depth, i.e. it is somewhat historical and reflects an earlier stage of the language (the proto-language).
Vowels
Vowels are generally written as diacritics. They also have standalone forms, which are given below and vary depending on whether they precede another vowel:
| Prevocalic | Non-prevocalic | |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | aa |
| e (*ǝ) | ǝ | ǝǝ |
| i | i | ii |
| u | u | uu |
| ai | — | a ii |
| au | — | a uu |
| e (*ǝi) | — | ǝ ii |
| o (*ǝu) | — | ǝ uu |
Consonants
Consonants with their vowel modifications are shown below:
| a | e | i | u | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| f | af | ǝf | if | uf |
| h | ah | ǝh | ih | uh |
| k | ak | ǝk | ik | uk |
| kh | akh | ǝkh | ikh | ukh |
| l | al | ǝl | il | ul |
| m | am | ǝm | im | um |
| mb (*ᵐb) | amb | ǝmb | imb | umb |
| n | an | ǝn | in | un |
| n (*ⁿd) | and | ǝnd | ind | und |
| ng (*ᵑɡ) | ang | ǝng | ing | ung |
| p | ap | ǝp | ip | up |
| s | as | ǝs | is | us |
| t | at | ǝt | it | ut |
| z | az | ǝz | iz | uz |
| z (*ⁿz) | amz | ǝmz | imz | umz |
Palatal series
The spelling of palatal consonants is somewhat more complicated compared to other consonants:
| Engála | Romanization |
|---|---|
| t i aa |
cha |
| d i aa |
ja |
| l i aa |
lya |
| n i aa |
nya |
| s i aa |
sha |
| z i aa |
zha |
Numerals
Engála has a base-30 numeral system, with a sub-base of 4 (+ 1), which is summarized as follows:
Numerals 0-29
| 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 21 | 21 | 25 | 25 | 29 | 29 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 22 | 22 | 26 | 26 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 19 | 19 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 27 | ||||
| 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 28 | 28 |
Numerals 30-870
| 1 0 |
30 | 5 0 |
150 | 9 0 |
270 | 13 0 |
390 | 17 0 |
510 | 21 0 |
630 | 25 0 |
750 | 29 0 |
870 |
| 2 0 |
60 | 6 0 |
180 | 10 0 |
300 | 14 0 |
420 | 18 0 |
540 | 22 0 |
660 | 26 0 |
780 | ||
| 3 0 |
90 | 7 0 |
210 | 11 0 |
330 | 15 0 |
450 | 19 0 |
570 | 23 0 |
690 | 27 0 |
810 | ||
| 4 0 |
120 | 8 0 |
240 | 12 0 |
360 | 16 0 |
480 | 20 0 |
600 | 24 0 |
720 | 28 0 |
840 |