Re: Ideographic Conlangs

Danny Wier writes:
 > From: "Nokta Kanto" <red5_2@...>
 >
 > > I'm new here, I've been looking through the archives a bit.  I've
 > > been working on an artistic conlang for a while, and mine seems
 > > to diverge quite radically from most of the constructed languages
 > > I've found.  It looks like most constructed languages start with
 > > phonology and grammar. My language is entirely written (the
 > > language has no associated sounds), is made of ideographs, and
 > > lays out words on the page according to their relationships
 > > rather than queueing them with prepositions and inflections to
 > > mark case. It is (approximately, since words are not in a true
 > > sequence) a VSO language. So far, I haven't found any conlangs
 > > like this. Does anyone here know of any similar conlangs?
 >
 > VSO and ideographic you say? Try Egyptian!

Egyptian isn't ideographic, it's logographic.  It's an important
distinction - all known scripts in human history have had a phonetic
component (there have been attempts* to _construct_ ideographic
scripts, but I don't think any of them have achieved completion, let
alone been widely adopted).

It appears that Nokta Kanto's script is truly ideographic, which could
be quite interesting.  Clearly it's a language, but if I understand
"lays out words on the page according to their relationships rather
than queueing them" correctly, it can't map directly to a spoken
form.  Which is quite interesting.


* Such as this one, for instance:
   http://www.iicm.edu/thesis/ahollosi_html/node10.html

Replies