Appendix:Shu orthography

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Shighraad Shu (Shu pronunciation IPA^(key): [ʃiɣˈɾad ʃu]) is a syllabary created by Christian Thalmann that is used to write the Shu language from the Netflix series Shadow and Bone.

Structure

The script is an alphabetic syllabary, meaning that its characters (also called syllabograms) represent syllables, with the individual parts representing the onset, nucleus and optional coda. In this, it bears similarities to the Korean script.

The Shu script's fundamental structure revolves around syllables, which are vertically arranged. Each syllable comprises three components:

• Onset consonant: the initial consonant of the syllable, at the top.
• Core vowel (Nucleus): the central sound of the syllable, in the middle.
• Coda: an optional component that can be either a consonant or a second vowel, at the bottom.

This is exempified in the following syllabograms (with the corresponding romanization to the sides):

In cases where a syllable begins with a vowel sound, a silent vowel carrier is used to represent the absence of an onset consonant:

Vowels in the coda position have the same shape as when they appear in the nucleus:

Arrangement

Syllables in the Shu script are typically written side by side:

However, if space allows, they can also be arranged in a continuous column:

Consonants

Onset consonants

The basic forms of consonants appear in the onset position, and are displayed below (with the corresponding IPA character below each consonant):

Coda consonants

Coda consonants are rotated 180 degrees compared to the onset consonants:

Vowels

The vowel characters were designed mimic the shape of the mouth during the pronunciation of each vowel. They are shown below as they appear in the nucleus and coda positions:

Synopsis

Some, but not all, of the syllable blocks for the Shu script are summarized in the following table:

Spelling

Shighraad Shu is not a perfect match for Shu's pronunciation due to sound changes, for instance /h/ was lost syllable-finally but is still written.

Numerals

Shu numerals are base-100. In this system, separate symbols are used for tens and ones. These symbols are combined to represent numbers within the range of 0 to 99. They are summarized as follows:

There are unique characters for ten through ninety. Shortened forms of the digits 1-9 are written below the tens. Some additional numerals are given in the following table:

Punctuation

Shu punctuation is sparse, comprising only two characters: