Gagrite alphabet

The Gagrite script was invented by Jeffrey Recinos in 2013 to write Gagrite, a Kostro-Saric language spoken by about 300 million people in the country of Argaren, and used as a lingua franca around the fictional world of Kadara. It is also used to write Savastrian, another Kostro-Saric language spoken by about 22 million people in the country of Savastria. Gagrite was developed as a way of creating a history of the Kostro-Saric writing systems used in Kadara. As a result, the script deliberately takes cues from the Naric script to present Gagrite as a parent script.

Internal History

Gagrite stands as the oldest surviving language in Kadara, lasting over 4,100 years. Its morphology and lexicon remain virtually untouched with most of the changes today suited to technological advancements. The Gagrite script has gone through several changes in its history, being more curved to better fit modern printed medium as most ancient Gagrite slabs were very sharp and angular. Gagrite serves as the parent of many scripts for other Kostro-Saric languages like Naric, Tolianem, Neosaric, and Praezhadan. Gagrite used to contain semanto-phonetic characters alongside the standard alphabet, but ultimately fell out of use about 800 years ago. During that time, the script also evolved to suit the Savastrian language as well.

Notable features

Type of writing system: Alphabet

Direction of writing: left to right in vertical columns

Used to write: Gagrite and Savastrian

Gagrite uses additional numerals to represent 10, 50, 100, and 1000

Gagrite uses special combinations for certain CV syllables

Gagrite contains many special punctuation marks used for specific purposes

Gagrite alphabet (gagrus hêkayon)

Gagrite is written in a syllable-block style (known in Gagrite as jočyautogre), with each character containing an initial (optional), onset, nucleus, and coda letter:

Initial consonants (tuxontogre)

Onset consonants (simdêxutogre)

Onset consonants have two forms: The first form used in CV syllables, the other used in CVC syllables:

Nucleus vowels (iriska)

Coda consonants (hiyêtogre)

Gagrite has special characters when certain letters are combined:

Pronunciation rules for Gagrite

Stress occurs in the antepenultimate syllable of a Gagrite word; nasalized vowels are always stressed.

Syllables beginning with [h] are pronounced [ʔ] if its preceding syllable ends in a coda consonant (e.g. doče, bread vs dočhare, eat bread)

Consonants can be geminated by adding the appropriate initial consonant above the syllable.

The sound [g] is pronounced when stressed, and [ɰ] everywhere else if does not succeed a coda consonant (e.g. gano [ˈga.no], simple vs sênbêge [ˈsen.be.ɰə], narrow)

The sound [d] is pronounced when stressed, [ð] everywhere else; other dialects may have [d] or [ð] pronounced everywhere regardless of stress.

The sound [q] is pronounced [g] as a coda consonant if its onset consonant a voiceless plosive [p,t̪,k,q] and the voiceless velar fricative [x].

[l]+[j] and [n]+[j] are pronounced [ʎ] and [ɲ] respectively.

[ɾ]+[l] is pronounced [ɬ] in Standard Gagrite, [ɮ] in minor dialects

E is pronounced [ə] in Standard Gagrite, [ʌ] in other major dialects

Î and ë are extremely rare vowels in Gagrite, occurring in very ancient Gagrite words. Proposals are being made to replace these with i and e, respectively.

Numerals (har)

Gagrite punctuation marks (okarigerye)

Sample text

Transliteration

Qam ineri donema gebuč et xopre hat yêč et kramino sêpuneqdon. Sêbare holuk et orithê xai tratuneqdon, et dêkustin bar nai hat kêspirau tom igoreru.

(Pnit dêke osmêda turčêpeq tom ineri xopre tom)

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

If you have any questions about Gagrite, you can contact Jeffrey at languo7@live.com

Con-scripts by Jeffrey Recinos

Gagrite, Naric, Simtex, Todocisian, Tolianem

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