The Gweydr Stone Script

This page is dedicated to the Gweydr Stone Script, which, as its name implies, is carved on stone. It was heavily influenced by Mayan epigraphs, as you'll see.


Introduction

These pages contain the glyphs used by a writing system for Gweydr that was written on stone walls whose name (in Gweydr) is Négwínry Ästrälä ("Stone Script"). Its uses are mainly decorative, as most messages (e.g., "We're out of milk. Go pick some up at the store") usually aren't carved into stone walls.

The purpose of this introduction is to let you know how the glyphs are used. To see the actual glyphs, just click on any of the links above.


Disclaimer

Before I begin the introduction, though, I have a couple of disclaimers to make. First, all the glyphs on these pages were designed by me by hand on the computer (perhaps I should say "by mouse"?). Drawing things on the computer with a mouse has never been my strong suit, so you may notice that some of the glyphs don't look as good as they should (e.g., "Shouldn't that line go through that dot, not run alongside it?"). For that, I apologize: I did the best I could. Also, though, it wasn't until well after I'd started that I discovered just how much you can do with copying and pasting. Anyway, though, the glyphs are just to give you a basic idea, since, when they're actually used, the placement of lines and dots, etc., can vary, according to the whim of the writer (carver?).


How the Glyphs Are Used: The Basics

Okie doke, now onto the description. As you click on the links above, you'll see images that look like this:

blank glyph

What this is is a glyph template. It in itself is not a glyph. (If it were, it'd be the impossible word 'a'a'a'a, since the glyph template above is for the syllable 'a.) What a glyph template shows you is every possible form of the given glyph in question. That is to say, in the image above there are four glyphs, each one outlined in red. Each glyph is for the syllable 'a.

Now then, the glyphs shown above fit together to form words. Each glyph of the shape above represents either a CV or CCV syllable, no more. And there are plenty of words that consist of no more than these types of syllables, such as:

first example

The above images should give you an idea of how glyphs are put together to form words. Though I chose the standard method to fit them together, any method can be used, as long as the glyphs occur in the sam linear order (obviously), and the result is a quadrilateral of some kind. So here are a couple alternate methods to spell mélínâ, "sister":

second example

There is no rule for how to spell a word with glyphs. In mainly depends on, again, the whim of the carver, but also on how much room is left or needs to be taken up, because, as you can see, which glyph variants you use will change the overall size of the word itself.


How the Glyphs Are Used: Beyond the Basics

As you may well have guessed, given the name of the language, Gweydr can have more than just open syllables. To that purpose, I'll now show you how codas work in the Stone Script.

A basic coda glyph has two forms: A quarter square and half square form. The form used depends entirely upon the shape of the syllable the coda is added. Here's what the coda forms look like (I'll use coda s, appended to a blank glyph template):

example of coda forms

Now here're a couple examples showing how you can use the coda glyphs, using the word for "chin", ħôlôs:

third example

And it works the same with medial codas and multiple codas:

fourth example

[Note: You may have noticed that there's no distinction between tense and lax vowels in the Stone Script. This is so because the distinction was non-phonemic at this stage of the language.]

Beyond the examples you've already seen, there are a few additional consonantal glyphs that need to be explained. A word can begin with s plus just about any of the glyphs seen above (the exceptions are that an initial s can't be added to a word that begins with s, h or '). As a result, words that begin with an initial s that are followed by a full glyph begin with a triangular s glyph. Here's an example:

fifth example

Finally, if a glyph ends with either l, r, w or y, special triangular glyphs are used. These glyphs are used only if the aforementioned letters end the word in question. Here are a couple examples:

sixth example

And, of course, all the previously discussed facts about word-formation apply to the above glyphs as well.


How the Glyphs Are Used: Some Final Notes

Beyond the phoneme glyphs, there are other glyphs that are used. Many of these glyphs have phonemic values, but their values cannot be determined from the glyphs themselves, the way they can be with the phoneme glyphs. These glyphs are glyphs like the personal pronouns, the noun case prefixes, the plural marker, verb tense markers, and the causative prefix. That which has been explained thus far should give you enough of an idea on how to use the rest of the glyphs featured on this site. Nevertheless, here's an example of a fully inflected noun and a conjugated verb:

seventh example

For more advanced examples, go to the examples section.


Explanation of the Glyphs' Appearance

Each glyph is comprised of prussian blue lines, white space, red outlines, and a green background. If the medium used is stones, then those correspond to the following:

  • The green background is the stone background. A stone background can be recessed or not, decorated or not. So, if you have a stone wall, and then decide that the writing area will have to be recessed (I hope that's a word...) and have a striped background, then all the green area would be recessed and striped, while the glyph outlines, at the very least, would be raised.

  • The red outlines are there just as a guide. On a real stone wall, there'd be no "lines", per se, but edges that would define where each glyph began and ended.

  • The prussian blue lines are recesses. In some cases, the red outline, the prussian blue lines, and the green background all have the same depth, so to speak.

  • The white space is always raised with respect to the prussian blue lines and the red outline, at the very least. In some cases, the white space may be level with the green background, but in this case there will always be indented lines around all the glyphs to set them apart.

Finally, as for sentence structure, words are sort of "pieced" together however they fit best. Words are only positioned linearly from left to right or top to bottom, though these two strategies can be mixed in a single text.

Back to Gweydr Main

This page was last modified on Thursday, August 2, 2018.
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