Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Abjad Language

An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually[1] stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel. It is a term suggested by Peter T. Daniels[2] to replace the common terms consonantary or consonantal alphabet or syllabary to refer to the family of scripts called West Semitic. In popular usage, abjads often contain the word "alphabet" in their names, such as "Arabic alphabet" and "Phoenician alphabet". The name abjad itself derives from the Arabic word for alphabet. The word "Alphabet" in English has a source in Greek language the first two letters of which were A (Alpha) and B (Beta), hence Alphabeta. In Arabic, A (ʾAlif), B (Bāʾ), J (Jīm), D (Dāl) make the word "Abjad" which means "Alphabet". It is also used to enumerate a list in the same manner that a,b,c,d etc. are used in the English language.

Above is the introducing paragraph for the article on Abajad with accompanying link from Wikipedia. I have been fascinated by the use of an abjad vocabulary. But the big difficulty I have seen is in a modern world how can it be extended to describe all the various situations that may occur and generate enough vocabulary with out using diacrtics to indicate vowel usage and placement. For now I dont see how it can be done. How could you use an abjad and yet still indicate past tense, future tense, defintie/indefinite articles etc...

Playing with words and ideas purely. First attempt, trying to see what different sounds can arise. I am quickly realizing this does me no good. Since I am playing with new sounds in an existing structure, Spanish. The problems I have are indefinte vs definte artice, verb tenses, I want to make as simple and functions in an language as possible.

 


Derivatives (Abja)AddVVR (to live)TRBJR (to work)AMR (to love)
PersonC[c]+[a]+C+[o]+[o] Trabajo (Worker)Amoro(Lover)
PlaceC[c]+[u]+C+[e]+[iat]Vuveriat (Home)Trubejiat (Workplace)Amuriat (Bedroom)
Collection+ “ES” to end of PERSON Trabajose (Workers)Amorose (Lovers)
Tool    
Adjective Viviri (Alive)  
Causative    
Diminutive   

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