Bocean script
| Bocean Script | |
|---|---|
| |
| Script type | Logography with some phonetic attributes, Alphabetic script. |
| Creator | Unknown |
| Created | During Inkban-i Bocea |
| Time period | Logography: 2021 – present
Alphabet: 2023 - present |
| Direction | Logography: ambiguous
Alphabet: left to right |
| Official script | None Co-official script in: Template:Country data Xiyonland |
| Language | Bocean |
| Related scripts | |
| Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
The Bocean script consists of the two writing systems developed to represent the sounds and words which comprise the Bocean Language, which is spoken as a literary and formal language in the Principality of Xiyonland. There are two scripts that are referred to as the Bocean Script. The first is the Bocean Logography, an older logographic system, which was used in the days of the Second Bocean State, the second being the Bocean Alphabet, a more recently made alphabetic system, which was developed by the Xiyonese Government. The Bocean Alphabet, which was derived from simpler forms of the Bocean Logography and using similar elements from the Xiyonese alphabet, is used most widely, as it is simpler and easier to write than the logography, thus being the most widely attested. As a result, the logography has largely become obsolete.
Bocean Logography
The Bocean logography was a development of the Boceans in the time of the old state of Shionese Boceo (Inkban-i Boceá) to represent the written form of their language. Before this, the Bocean Language was represented solely by a sign language, which was also called the Bocean Script, despite not being a script. The Boceans took their sign language forms and converted them to picture form, then chiseled them into stone. Examples of this script survive, but are harder than usual to come by as they were soon replaced by the Xiyonese Alphabet. There are 25 phonetic characters, but there are over 500 other characters that serve as determinatives. The complexity of this system as well as the invention of the alphabetic system were the main factors of the decline of the usage of the script. The Bocean Logography is still used in a select few, usually important building inscriptions.
Bocean Alphabet
The Bocean Alphabet is a much more recent writing system constructed by the Principality of Xiyonland in order to facilitate writing in the Bocean language. A step down from the hundreds of logographic symbols, it makes use of 25 symbols, each representing a phonetic sound. There is an equivalent for every Latin letter with the exception of "c". The forms were possibly derivations from the Xiyonese script, where the forms of the scripts are similar to each other.
Form
Of the two scripts used to write the Bocean Language, the most commonly used is the Alphabetic system. There is a simple one-to-one correspondence between the symbols used in the alphabet and the phonetic aspects of the logographs.
The writing direction of the monumental script was ambiguous, and could be written in any direction. However, it is easy to distinguish which direction it is written in due to the fact that Bocean characters always face to the direction of the start of the sentence. Unlike the arbitrary directions of the logographic script, the writing direction of the alphabetic script is always left-to right, like English.
The characters of the logographic script look similar to Egyptian Hieroglyphs, suggesting that the glyphs may have had Egyptian influence. In addition, the mechanics of the script are also Egyptian-like.
There are 25 letters in the Bocean alphabet, each having a distinct symbol for each sound, 20 consonants and five vowels. In Academic Transcription, the main system of correspondence between Bocean and Latin, the consonants are as follows:
b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
The vowels are as follows:
a, e, i, o, u