the Aurebesh isn't very great from a conscripting perspective. not only because it's a fucking cipher (a mere font to write in English, with English nonsensical spelling rules) but also because all letters are blocky squares.
Which us fine because this isn't the focus of Star Wars, it's purpose isn't to work well linguistically or practically, it is to set an atmosphere and pretend it's not English
Chinese, Japanese and other syllabic scripts work that way because each symbol stands for a while syllable, not an individual sound. and English has syllables with massive consonant clusters like scratch
an alphabet needs many tall, thin letters like l i r q r t p d f h j k l b
if all letters are fat and wide like ლ then any text occupies far too much space and is overly long. and larger chunks of text consume exponentially more space, paper, ink, digital pages, stablishment titles, etc, not to mention being annoying to read
the simplest solution is to create thinner versions of each letter, making them thinner and thinner until it's a totally different alphabet
a different solution that preserves the blocky feel is to combine letters together into ligatures, like in Hindi, specially for common words and consonant combinations, so, fusing E and R into a single ER letter, for example.
to illustrate, this is "Republic" in canon Aurebesh:
and this is "Republic" after combining some letters:
we could go more aggressive and combine more than two letters, but speakers would have to know all ligatures, but that's fine, Hindi speakers learn hundreds or millions of letter combinations and they're not random, they are intuitive
now with Skywalker:
of course, i'd still prefer to make an alphabet which actually makes sense
real life example: Korean
if we wrote English with the Hangul, Republic would be 러풉맄
A script I've been working on, for private use. Exclusive.
Logographic, thus, each symbol is a word.
Sentence starter, designates standard width of the central column.
"Swoosh", works like a parentheses (like this) or a reference, footnote/comment*
Plural diacritic.
"Alpha-swoosh", connects to the symbol on the same column as the one it started on. Used as an en-dash (-), simplifier of compound glyphs, or a rebus word/poetic paraphrasing marker.
A phonoglyph diacritic. Meaning, the glyph represents the initial sound the original, logographic meaning/pronunciation has, which then replaces/adds to the second glyph coming afterwards. Used for words without a specific pronunciation or without an assigned logograph. Think of it like writing "lord" as "L(egacy)(W)ord".
A name group: Name placeholder glyph, link to pronunciation.
An adjective form marker. There's also a verb form marker. Glyphs are usually signifying but not restricted to nouns. If an adj. marker is applied to an adj. glyph, it negates itself and thus becomes a noun.
Swoosh column separator. Those are two separate sentences regarding different cases. Alternatively, this punctuation mark can be used as a comma.
A cartouche, name marker. A diacritic of sorts that alternates the pronunciation of a glyph to mean a proper noun rather a noun. Like "hunter -> Hunter" or "stone -> Peter".
Fullstop, aka period punctuation mark.
NOTE: this script is in development, and for this presentation, the style has been drastically altered. Here, only the mechanics of the writing system are listed.
The script also isn't purposed to be naturalistic, much, as the people using it have their own approach towards writing and philosophy. Though, some glyphs are indeed based on pictograms.
Am not looking for criticism or prompts, but I can't stop you from giving either anyways, so whatever.
Hi! My name is Arcee and I am a worldbuilder with a BIG interest in neography.
This blog is nothing more than a stash of ALL of my neographies that I have documented since I began doing neography by the beginning of 2022. You can view the scripts faster by using the archive.
Mainer blog is @thecrazyworldbuilder, visit it and also my other blogs, @444names, @cryptolangsguy and @verical.
I will begin listing my neographies from the very beginning of the documented list, tagging each with the blog's tag, as well as couple more.
I have open commissions for artistic designs using my neographies, or I can create a neographic script for you!
If the project takes less than an hour to finish, you get the end result free of charge (accepting tips, you pay what you think the script is worth), longer than that depends on the amount of symbols and time spent designing the script; the standard English alphabet cipher with 26 symbols costs 30$.
On my pfp is Ahimiko, the mascot of this blog. She is an anthro canine of mixed heritage, and is a powerful symbolomancer (mage specializing in casting via projecting symbols of different kinds: the stronger the symbolism, the deeper the mysticism, and the more complex the symbol the more precise and specific is the spell she casts). Say hi! :D
Most of my scripts are purely ciphers for English. I do not care to make conlangs for every single one of them, for I enjoy the act of creation.
On creation: Some anon asked for the methods I use to create cohesive and constant-style scripts. A good post on my other blog might help, listing the methods.
NOTE THAT ALL OF MY CREATIONS ARE FREE TO USE, BUT YOU MUST CREDIT ME AS THE CREATOR/NOTIFY ME BEFORE USING THEM IN YOUR COMIC, ART, BOOK OR ANYTHING
As well - feel free to ask for assistance and guidance in usage of my scripts in DMs; Some of them lack explanation, and might be bit confusing.
And finally, please, if you like my work, spare a bit of money for my Ko-Fi.
ASK BOX RULES:
Refrain from using anonymous asks, since it cuts off the possibility of me responding more directly into your DMs if I deem them impossible to answer via post and won't be able to notify you about it, making me look rude.
You can send positive feedback - it will be stored in the bottom of this post (see below).
You can send requests for scripts, like "Futhark but more like Ogham", or "a Katakana chart inspired by Klingon". Those are free, unlike the commissions, hence I am not required to do adjustments, follow the idea 1:1, nor I am required to make them in the first place.
Don't ask for tips, guidance, or tutorials: This blog is purely an archive of my works. If you need help, go to @conlangcrab where I will answer your asks directly, just remember to address them to "Arcee", since the blog is run by two people there.
Updates on this post below:
I make neographic scripts for already existing writing systems (like Latin or Katakana) because I can't create a conlang for every single aesthetic I can come up with for a writing system.
By Ides of March, 2023, this blog has 350 distinct scripts documented, all created by me.
A pinterest user has been repeatedly stealing my works I've posted on Reddit without notifying or crediting me.
By 4/4/2023, there are over 400 scripts documented.
By 3rd of May, there are over 500 scripts documented.
By 27 of June, there are exactly 600 scripts documented.
By 7th of July, there are exactly 700 scripts documented.
By 25th of August, there are exactly 800 scripts documented.
Another pinterest user has been stealing my works from Reddit.
By 17th of October, there are exactly 900 scripts documented.
By 12th of November, there are exactly 1000 scripts documented.
By 23rd of December, there are exactly 1100 scripts documented.
By 2/10/2024, there are exactly 1200 scripts documented.
By 3/29/2024, there are exactly 1300 scripts documented.
By 6/13/2024, there are exactly 1400 scripts documented.
By 8/12/2024, there are exactly 1500 scripts documented.
By 10/29/2024, there are exactly 1600 scripts documented.
By 12/25/2024, there are exactly 1700 scripts documented.
By Ides of March, 2025, there are exactly 1800 scripts documented.
By 7/19/2025, there are exactly 1900 scripts documented.
Positive anon asks under the cut (you are encouraged to send more!)
<3
Sure thing! Thank you UwUb
Thanki ;w;b
Well, I do have some WIP or UFO (never meant to be finished WIPs) conlangs, but I don't have scripts for them really. I do ciphers because they are A) Simple to make, B) Are a good display of just enough symbol styles for a demonstration of an idea, thus, a good "advertisement" for my product, which are neographies.
QoQb
I will never stop indeed, as long as I can move my hands xD
In fact I answered this one, but didn't say thanks for the warm words Q~Qb
Here's some Bionicle conscripting I've had lying around for a while: A "Syllabic Mode" of the Matoran Writing System, for those who tire of the tiny circles..
Direct link to the Google Doc: https://bit.ly/2T2yx2P
The piece of art included in this post is a transcription of the first part of the Matoran version of the Legend of Mata Nui.
Spekinofwri Manuskript, my newest neographic project I'm quite proud of.
Key here:
Each word is underlined with an extended stroke of the last letter. This feature is not present in informal writing, though. Punctuation marks are rendered as extensions of the word, sort of like letters. In the key, if the letter has a dot to its right, this means that from there begins the stroke for the final underline, if it is placed final. You can see that in the example text.
Should I make a separate blog for solely neography?
So I see there is activity on this blog so Imma throw a brick at'che, catch:
CONSCRIPTS
Constructed Scripts are a common topic in the media: may it be Tengwar, Daedric, Klingon, Circular Gallifreyan or else.
We as worldbuilders do need to use it well right? So what are the differences between bad and good conscripts?
1) Writing system or a childish cipher?
So tell me the difference between those two pictures:
and
First is the Gnommish Alphabet, used in the Artemis Fowl series, and second is Ingari, created by Kyle Elshoff. Do you see the difference or should I point it out?
There is no actual way the Gnommish alphabet would stick long in the reality as a writing system: it is too complicated, and most probably is too difficult to write. Scribbling every single letter, and I checked it, takes around five seconds to finish, and is unreasonably ink-consuming. It is a fun way of encrypting messages for children, yes, but in a real world, a realistic world, it would not stick for long. Of course there existed Egyptyan hieroglyphs and many other writing systems, but they were ancient, and the reason they died off is because they were not perfect and were too "stiff" to use.
Ingari on the other hand is swift, takes lesser space, and is consuming less ink per letter: some consonants might appear alike each other, but a skilled scribe instantly notices what is what. It has it's own aesthetic, and isn't just a jimble of stamps, like the Gnommish.
This is regarding the alphabetic systems, yes. It is acceptable for something like Gnommish to exist, but it won't stick for long. Perhaps Gnommish as we see in AF evolved from a hieroglyphic writing, and now is just a rebus of pictograms depicting objects and carrying the sound of the initial phoneme (for example, the word for "dragonfly" might start with an A, and because of that, is depicting the letter A).
2) ˜”°•.˜”°• Aesthetic •°”˜.•°”˜
You can sense the difference between different writing systems, don't you? Might it be Cyrillic, Latin, Georgian, Hebrew, Hiragana, Hangul, Arabic, Aztec, Egyptian or whatever else.
When I make conscripts, usually, I make boundaries. Might it be a maximum of strokes per letter or some elements used in writing, some specific way of depicting specific letters (like the vowels, consonants, fluids, semi-vowels, sonors, thrills, stops et cetera) or some unique ideas.
Writing systems are of different kinds: remember that there is not only Alphabets, like Latin with which this post is written with, but also Abugidas, Abjads, Logographies, Syllabaries and so much more. I reccomend, strongly recommend you to research on that before making it.
Gerianish:
Codex of Matan:
Ingedol:
All of those scripts are basically ciphers for English, even though those shown are modes for English and are used differently with respectative conlangs or cryptolangs they are bound with.
Gerianish has descenders and ascenders, it is heavily inspired by the at sign (@) and the Georgian, and has a degree of featurality to it, different letters that sound alike or are phonemically close to each other are, in most cases, mirrored versions of each other. The little "flower" diacritic is used for easier differentiation of letters from each other.
Codex of Matan is stylish, high-tech to a degree and looks a bit unusual. It was made how? With using the frequency table of letters in English, numerating all letters 0-25 and then transferring those values into ternary numeral system, with symbols E, T and A representing 0, 1 and 2's. I like this one because of the solid style and the fact it is used by high-tech beings.
Ingedol is, too, quite remarkable. See, each letter is composed out of three possible elements with four allowed positions, and each symbol thus is unique. I believe it to look pretty when written in a long row of text.
(Each individual one of these is free to use, just remember to tag my authorship on them ^^)
3) Steal
Yes, I know that sounds unright, but just look at this:
Left one is Greek, right is Latin and bottom is Cyrillic. So much letters that look alike!
There is no stealing in writing, there is deriving, evolution and borrowing.
You like that particular letter from Daedric that depicts F - Hefhed? Sure do, copy it. Your O looks like real life O? No problem with that.
Your glyps kind of look like Japanese? If anyone tells you that that's cultural appropriation tell them to stop using Latin then and go live in a cave, because writing systems are constantly evolving, m8.
As well, some of my writing systems are based on Tengwar, Pigpen Cypher and Katakana, because I like their style.
OF COURSE YES, if you directly steal some symbols or an entire alphabet from some source and edit it slightly it might look suspicious and frowned upon (*looks at Alternian*), but as long as you can wiggle your way out of it, it's kind of okay.
:p
That was it, I guess, if you have any questions ask me here, and if you want to see more of my neography (aka conscript creation), visit my reddit profile, DaCrazyWorldbuilder!
