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    <!-- KEEP A COPY OF THIS DOCUMENT ONLINE. I've lost data from my flash drive too many times. --> <h1>Azarennya and Its Speakers</h1> <h2>To Do</h2> <h3>Create vowel-shift/sound-change scheme</h3> <p> Final vowels should be a subset of: ee i e aa a o u oo (plus diphthongs). </p> <p> <span class="lead">Stage 1 to Stage 2:</span> Back vowels move forward. Compare the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_English">California Vowel Shift</a>. </p> <table border="1"> <tr><td><b>Original sound (Stage 1)</b></td> <td><b>Stage 2</b></td> <td><b>Stage 3</b></td> <td><b>Example</b></td> </tr> <tr><td>ee</td><td>ei</td><td></td><td>"beat" > beit > b</td></tr> <tr><td>i </td><td>e </td><td></td><td>"bit" > bet > b</td></tr> <tr><td>e </td><td>aa</td><td></td><td>"bet" > baat > b</td></tr> <tr><td>aa</td><td>o </td><td></td><td>"bat" > bot > b</td></tr> <tr><td>a </td><td>a </td><td></td><td>"bar" > ba > b</td></tr> <tr><td>aw</td><td>a </td><td></td><td>"bawl" > bal > b</td></tr> <tr><td>ou</td><td>ea</td><td></td><td>"boat" > beat > b</td></tr> <tr><td>u </td><td>i </td><td></td><td>"book" > bik > b</td></tr> <tr><td>oo</td><td>ee</td><td></td><td>"boot" > beet > b</td></tr> <tr><td>ei</td><td>e </td><td></td><td>"bait" > bet > b</td></tr> <tr><td>ai</td><td>ai</td><td></td><td>"bite" > bait > b</td></tr> <tr><td>oi</td><td>ai</td><td></td><td>"boil" > beil > b</td></tr> <tr><td>au</td><td>oo</td><td></td><td>"bow" > boo > b</td></tr> <tr><td>er</td><td>u </td><td></td><td>"burn" > bun > b</td></tr> </table> <h3>Make derivative words</h3> <p> Words that end in a consonant (other than l, n, r, s) should be followed by a duplication of the previous vowel sound; however, if the previous vowel sound is a diphthong, split the sound, leaving the first half of the diphthong where it is, and moving the second half to the end of the word. </p> <ul> <li>babe: bebe</li> <li>bail: beya</li> <li>bait: bete</li> <li>bake: beke</li> <li>bar: bar</li> <li>base: bese</li> <li>bat: boto</li> <li>bawl: bal</li> <li>beat: beti</li> <li>best: baastaa</li> <li>bet: baataa</li> <li>bit: bete</li> <li>bite: bati</li> <li>blessed: blaastaa</li> <li>boat: beta</li> <li>book: biki</li> <li>boot: beetee</li> <li>bowl: bela</li> <li>breast: braastaa</li> <li>catch: kocho ("ko" could conceivably become an object particle)</li> <li>chest: chaastaa</li> <li>crate: krete</li> <li>date: dete</li> <li>dressed: draastaa</li> <li>face: fese</li> <li>fate: fete</li> <li>fester: faastaar</li> <li>fetch: faachaa</li> <li>gate: gete</li> <li>grate: grete</li> <li>guest: gaastaa</li> <li>hate: hete</li> <li>latch: locho</li> <li>late: lete</li> <li>match: mocho</li> <li>mate: mete</li> <li>nest: naastaa</li> <li>patch: pocho</li> <li>pest: paastaa</li> <li>quest: kwaastaa</li> <li>rate: rete</li> <li>rest: raastaa</li> <li>retch: raachaa</li> <li>scratch: sukocho</li> <li>stretch: shaachaa</li> <li>taste: teste</li> <li>test: taastaa</li> <li>wind: wende</li> <li>beak: beki</li> <li>bead: bedi</li> <li>bread: braadaa</li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> </ul> <h3>Make words by vaguer methods</h3> <ul> <li>"sofe" from "satisfy": Enough, sufficient; problem solved.</li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> </ul> <h3>Make words changing "aw" to "eh"</h3> <ul> <li>"shen" from "strong": Fitting, appropriate, deserving, etc.</li> <li>"ken" from "con" (control, confidence, etc.): In command, in charge of the situation, in control of oneself, ready to act, able, etc.</li> <li>"gen" from "gone": Marks an action that happened at one point but is NOT happening now.</li> <li>"len" from "long"</li> <li>"ren" from "wrong"</li> </ul> <h2>Goals</h2> <ul> <li><span class="lead">Easy to pronounce.</span> I don't need the language to be easy for <i>everyone</i> to pronounce, like Toki Pona, because I wanted around twenty consonants so that I could get a good-sized number of possible syllables, but I don't want to include the more exotic sounds, such as nasalized vowels, tones, clicks, etc. I also want to keep consonant clusters and complex diphthongs to a minimum. Some two-consonant clusters will be relatively common.</li> <li><span class="lead">Simple grammar.</span> I don't want a complex grammar; I want just enough to make the language complete and usable. (The complexity will lie in the language's abundance of synonyms and idioms.)</li> <li><span class="lead">Easy to type.</span> The transliteration scheme will use only the plain unaccented characters of ASCII, so that the language will be easy to type using a US keyboard.</li> <li><span class="lead">Mellifluous and exotic sound.</span></li> <li><span class="lead">A vocabulary rich in synonyms and idioms and allusions.</span> Each word has a story behind it. Words will often be derivatives of a person's name.</li> <li><span class="lead">A clear connection with English.</span> This will show up in the vocabulary, in some of the most common words, though the meanings of some words will have changed.</li> <li><span class="lead">Isolating language.</span> I want to mark inflection with particles, as Hawaiian does.</li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> <li><span class="lead"></span></li> </ul> <h2>Phonology</h2> <h3>List of characters</h3> <p> Probably should split this up — this table should have only letters, and only one form of each letter. Put numerals and punctuation in a separate script table, where the forms of the letters can be properly explained in depth. </p> <table border="1"> <tr> <th>Character (printed and handwritten)</th> <th colspan="3"> Transliteration;<br /> IPA Symbol;<br /> X-SAMPA Symbol </th> <th>Sound Classification</th> <th>Pronunciation</th> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">STOPS AND AFFRICATES</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>p</td> <td></td> <td>/p/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>b</td> <td></td> <td>/b/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>t</td> <td></td> <td>/t/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>d</td> <td></td> <td>/d/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>ch</td> <td></td> <td>/tS/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>j</td> <td></td> <td>/dZ/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>k</td> <td></td> <td>/k/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>g</td> <td></td> <td>/g/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">FRICATIVES</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>f</td> <td></td> <td>/f/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>v</td> <td></td> <td>/v/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>s</td> <td></td> <td>/s/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>z</td> <td></td> <td>/z/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>sh</td> <td></td> <td>/S/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>zh</td> <td></td> <td>/Z/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>h</td> <td></td> <td>/x/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>gh</td> <td></td> <td>/G/</td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">NASALS AND APPROXIMANTS</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>m</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>n</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>l</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>r</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>w</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>y</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">VOWELS</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>ee</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>i</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>e</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>aa</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>a</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>o</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>u</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>oo</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">NUMERALS</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="preface"> [Azarennya MIGHT have a system of only EIGHT numerals instead of ten. I'll have to think about this.] </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>0</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>1</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>2</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>3</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>4</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>5</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>6</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>7</td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="table-section">PUNCTUATION</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="6" class="preface"> [A long em-dash or horizontal swash to separate sentences; perhaps a raised dot to separate clauses, or groups of clauses within a long sentence] </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table> <h3>Notes</h3> <h4>Case</h4> <p> I still tinker with my script from time to time, but I have no plans on adding an uppercase/lowercase distinction. </p> <p> (1) The distinction is a frill, IMHO, something you don't need in a language. </p> <p> (2) My conlegend is that the script for my conlang was developed by one person, most likely to make written messages harder for outsiders to read. </p> <p> (2a) Another theory that people in my conworld have is that the script was developed by a warrior apprentice to help his warrior master learn to read, because the master was dyslexic. Each letter is made up of a specific set of strokes (say, two straight strokes crossing, or one "hook" stroke joined to one "loop" stroke, etc.), and each letter has a story that connects the letter to the sound it represents. (No, I don't have any of this finished; I'm still tinkering with the script.) </p> <p> (3) Capitals are used in European languages mainly (a) to mark the beginning of a sentence, and (b) to mark proper nouns (or all nouns in German). I may use special swashes to mark these instead of alternate letter forms. </p> <p> (4) I'll point out, just for completion, that professionally printed Indo-European language (at least English) uses not only upper and lower case, but also italics (essentially a third and fourth form for each letter) for emphasis, book titles, etc. So I suppose you could also ask if peoples' conscripts use anything analogous to italics on professionally drawn/painted/printed material. (I think in my case I'll probably experiment with underline swashes, special stroke endings, etc. for something like this.) </p> <h2>Writing System</h2> <h3>Notes</h3> <ul> <li>Letters are written left to right, as in English.</li> </ul> <h3>What I wrote at Zompist</h3> <h4>One</h4> <p> My conlang, Azarennya, has its own script, which has a "central grid" of sixteen consonants: </p> <p> <img src="pix/az-script-central-grid.png" width="461" height="408" alt=" <h2>Morphology</h2> (syllables/words allowed) <h2>Grammar</h2> <h3>Grammatical notes</h3> <h4>Word order</h4> <p> My conlang, Azarennya, is SVO by default. (Clauses can also be VOS to emphasize the verb, or OSV to emphasize the object.) </p> <p> I like SVO just because the verb comes between the two nouns, and because it suggests (to me, at any rate) a general pattern NVN (noun-verb-noun), which can be expanded to NVNVN. In this expanded pattern, the noun in the middle is both the object of the first verb AND the subject of the second verb, as in, say, "Cop threatens robber drops loot" -- that is, "the cop threatens the robber, who (then or as a result) drops the loot." I suppose you could come up with a way to chain clauses together in similarly compact fashion with other word orders, but SVO just seems to lend itself to this sort of thing. </p> <p> This is the sort of compact syntax I want to have for Azarennya. </p> <p> BEGINNING OF CLAUSE: Marked with a "discourse marker" like those in Chinese, only these are called "clause markers" or "clause particles". </p> <h4>Miscellaneous</h4> <ul> <li><span class="lead">Here vs. not-here.</span> Azarennya has a distinction between things happening right here, right now, and things happening at another time, or another place, or both. This distinction permeates the language. Essentially, the not-here is unmarked; a verb not marked as indicating an action going on here and now indicates an action occurring elsewhere. This is used not merely for stories but for things like "the adjective following the noun" — if marked as "present," then the phrase refers to an adjective in the very passage being read; otherwise it may refer either to a specific adjective being discussed, or to any adjective following a noun.</li> <li>(possibility that adjective chains, or noun phrases, as opposed to bare nouns, might really be clauses in Azarennya)</li> <li>Three pronouns: proximate (perhaps NO pronoun, as in Japanese!); obviate (the OTHER thing nearby); remote (a third thing, discussed last).</li> </ul> <h2>Customs</h2> <h3>Drink and a conversation</h3> <p> When someone arrives at your house with a flask of <span class="az">kivanassee</span>, it means that he wants to talk. The custom is that he shares the drink with you. The drink does not make you drunk, though it may make you a little giddy, but it does not erode your power to think clearly. </p> <h3>Architecture</h3> <p> The people of Emmegan built artificial hills and cliffs of various shapes — stars, spirals, pyramids, arches, bridges. </p> <p> Several large cities have "migration highways" to allow herds of animals to cross through the cities without interfering with humans or allowing the humans to interfere with them (though both may see each other). These are typically long bridges of great width. In the spring and autumn, people come to watch the great herds passing from the safety of the enclosed walkways along the sides of the bridges. </p> <h2>Wildlife</h2> <h3>Notes</h3> <h4>Communicating by shining lights on one another's flanks</h4> <p> A planet where the dominant species communicates with low-powered lasers. Instead of vowels and consonants, they use different colors and wavelengths. (And maybe it seems implausible that there could be creatures that generate light and focus it internally into laser beams, it doesn't strike me as any more implausible than, say, creatures that hold chemicals in separate sacs, squirt both chemicals out into a combustion chamber through muscular action, and blast the resulting fumes at a predator. And of course it has the advantage that you can't "overhear" a conversation unless you happen to be more or less directly in the path of the speaker's beams [so attracting the attention of a predator is much more unlikely]. Group conversation might be a problem, unless of course these creatures are just repeating to their neighbors stuff said to them pretty much <i>all the time</i>.) </p> </body></html> |
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</p>
<p>
Azarennya of course also has eight vowels, and six more consonants -- l m n r w y -- but these are not shown here. I just wanted to slap together something that I could post here tonight before I went to bed. The letters as drawn here aren't very pretty (sorry Serali), but I'll draw calligraphic versions of these later. Right now I just wanted to discuss the thinking behind the design of these letters.
</p>
<p>
My motivation was to try to have a "featural" alphabet that nevertheless would be acceptable to dyslexics. (I'm working on a backstory/legend that explains that the script was invented by a warrior apprentice who adored his master, who was dyslexic and illiterate. This apprentice felt himself deeply in debt to his master because his master had been such a wonderful teacher for so many years. So the young man worked long and hard on devising a new alphabet, so that the shapes of the letters might suggest to his master the sound each letter made. Of course, this moving and inspirational story is probably apocryphal. :D )
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<p>
(I also had an idea that it would be cool if these letters could be designed so that they could be turned upside-down, backwards, at different angles, etc. and still be legible -- because the people using this script do go up in space from time to time, and they don't always have the luxury of artificial gravity.)
</p>
<p>
As you can see, the sixteen letters are based on four basic shapes -- essentially O V U L (although the U has a small hook at the top of the right prong). Each of these shapes is the same height as the "x-height" -- the height of a (lowercase) letter that has neither an ascender (like "h" or "t") nor a descender (like "g" or "p"). However, these shapes are only starting points; they are not letters by themselves.
</p>
<ul>
<li>The O suggests the mouth, so it is reserved for sounds made with the lips.</li>
<li>The V suggests a tooth, so it is reserved for sounds made with the teeth.</li>
<li>The U suggests the tongue, which is inside the mouth, and it is also a rounded version of the V, so it is reserved for sounds similar to the "tooth" sounds.</li>
<li>The L suggests an arrowhead pointing down and backward, e.g., down the throat, so it is reserved for sounds made in or near the throat.</li>
</ul>
<p>
In addition, each shape is transformed by attaching one of four tails:
</p>
<ul>
<li>If the sound is a simple inert-sounding voiceless stop or affricate, then the basic letter gets a descender -- a straight tail hanging straight down from the bottom of the body of the letter.</li>
<li>If the sound is a voiced stop or affricate, then the sound is a little more "alive," and so the tail is moved to the right-hand side of the body. It's still a descender; it still hangs down, but it curves slightly to the left, like the tail of a cat sitting and ignoring you.</li>
<li>If the sound is a windy or hissy sound -- an unvoiced fricative -- then the tail is an ascender; it goes up from the upper-right corner of the body of the letter, and it forms an inverted L -- it makes a sharp right angle to the left.</li>
<li>If the sound is among the four most "alive-sounding" of these consonants -- voiced fricatives -- then the tail is an ascender here also; it goes up from the upper-left corner of the body of the letter, and it curves into a pronounced inverted-U hook, like the tail of a cat running into the kitchen with her tail in the air because she smells yummy fish.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Hopefully the design is such that even if two letters look a little close in design, it will be because the sounds are also close together.
</p>
<p>
I'll post the rest of the script, and hopefully a prettier version of the script, at another time.
</p>
<h4>Two</h4>
<blockquote><p><span class="lead">faiuwle wrote:</span></p><p>
As for the script - I like the symbolism in the main shapes, though the tails all seem rather similar if your intent was to have the script be entirely symbolic of the sounds. What do the other letter look like? Do they have similar base shapes based on their places of articulation also? It seems like you could have unadorned base-shape letters - like, if your <y> is in fact /j/, it could be considered the "quintessential" palatal, and use just the untailed U-shaped base, or /w/ could use the O.
</p></blockquote>
<p>
The remaining letters are as follows (I'll post a picture later):
</p>
<p>
NASALS AND APPROXIMANTS: There are six of these: /l/ /m/ /n/ /r\/ /w/ /j/ (spelled l m n r w y). My scheme for these is to give each of these letters BOTH an ascender AND a descender, like the letter "thorn" (ŝ) -- in effect, each letter would have two "tails."
</p>
<p>
VOWELS: There are eight of these: /i/ /I/ /E/ /{/ /a/ /o/ /U/ /u/ (spelled ee i e aa a o u oo). These have neither ascender nor descender; they are just simple shapes without tails. (These would be what I guess you mean by "unadorned base-shape letters.") For example, the character for /o/ would just look like O. This shouldn't be a problem if every consonant has a "tail", so an O with a straight-down tail is /p/ but an O without any tail is a vowel.
</p>
<p>
These letters aren't grouped as neatly as the sixteen in my graphic above.
</p>
<h4>Three</h4>
<blockquote><p><span class="lead">Ollock wrote:</span></p><p>
Anyway, I like the look of the script. My main thing is that, judging from your consonants, it looks like it would hold up with printing, but that in people's handwriting some of your distinctions might get lost. Not that that's an insufferable problem though, as the redundancy allows for one or two to be lost without causing any harm in most cases.
</p>
<p>
Still, just to make sure, I'd consider making another change. Maybe make some of the tails curve <i>outward</i> rather than inward as they all do now.
</p></blockquote>
<p>
I've given this a little thought before answering.
</p>
<p>
My first impulse is not to worry so much about handwriting; if people are taught the four basic shapes and the four basic tail styles (i.e., not just the letters but the principles behind the letters), then people should be able to write legibly reliably.
</p>
<p>
But I can see how the tails might be confusing -- the lower-right descender (on voiced stops/affricates) and the upper-left ascender (on voiced fricatives) do look similar, at least in my clumsy diagram. What I had hoped to convey was that the voiced-fricative ascender has a pronounced curve (in the diagram, the ascenders end in semicircles) and that the voiced-stop-or-affricate descender has only a slight curve (I think I overdid the curve; the stroke shouldn't really end in a quarter-circle, but only a gentle curving to the left). The descender's curve is supposed to look distinct both from the overt curl of the ascender and from the straight-down descender of the unvoiced stops/affricates.
</p>
<p>
I also thought about your suggestion that maybe some of the tails should curve outward rather than inward. Well, the letters would be more distinct, but I decided against the idea, because I thought that my letters with inward-curving tails would be (1) more attractive and (2) less awkward to draw quickly than letters with outward-curving tails would be.
</p>
<p>
I'll also have to give a little more thought to handwriting, specifically to (1) stroke count and order (as taught in schools) and (2) modifications to the design of the "print" characters to accommodate speedy handwriters (such as, say, a convention that the "teeth" (V-shape) and "throat" (L-shape) letters should be drawn narrow, but that the "lips" (O-shape) and "palate" (U-shape) letters should be drawn wide.
</p>