Walnerian orthography

The Walnerian orthography (Walnerian: Rósbérisse ortografie; in blackletter Rósbériſſe ortografie) is a set of rules, that guide the written form of the Walnerian language.

Alphabet

Walnerian alphabet Rósbérisses alfabét Rósbériſſes aľfabét
First ever Walnerian printing press, 1650's
Type	Alphabet
Languages	Walnerian language
Parent systems	Latin script Walnerian alphabet

A a /a ~ ɑ/	Á á /aː ~ ɑː/	B b /b/	C c /ts/	Cs cs /tʃ/	D d /d/	E e /ɛ ~ e/	É é /ɛː ~ eː/	Ë ë /ə ~ ◌̩/	F f /f/
G g /ɡ/	H h /ɦ ~ h/	Ch ch /x/	I i /i ~ ɪ/	Í í /iː ~ ɪː/	J j /j/	K k /k/	L l /l/	M m /m/	N n /n/
O o /ɔ ~ o/	Ó ó /ɔː ~ oː/	P p /p/	Q q /kv/	R r /r/	Ŕ ŕ /ʁ̩ ~ ə/	S s /s/	Ss ss /ʃ/	T t /t/	U u /u/
Ú ú /uː/	V v /v/	W w /w/	X x /ks/	Y y /y ~ yː/	Z z /z/

Historical development

From a historical digraph alphabet, the script developed from the Early New High Dolch orthographies. The changes either follow the phonetic shifts (for example the phonetical shifts from /æ/ and /œ/ to /ɛː/, or shift from /a͡u/ to /ɔː/).

Changes in orthography without the phonetical shift include:

• SS/ẞ → S
• S → Z
• Z → C
• Ü → Y

Later in the mid 17th century, accute was introduced for the long vowels, replacing the digraphs:

• IE/IH/II → Í
• AH/AA → Á
• EH/EE → É
• OH/OO → Ó
• UH/UU → Ú

Current usage

R Accute

Ŕ ŕ
Ŕ ŕ

The letter R Accute (Ŕ) was introduced in early 19th century, replacing the digraph ER in cases, where the phonological shift /əˑʀ/ → /ʁ̩ ~ ə/ happened.

Digraphs

There are three digraphs in the Walnerian language (CS for /t͡ʃ/, CH for /x/, SS for /ʃ/). They are a remnant of the old digraph orthography and some people support their replacement with diacritic characters. The most popular of those proposal suggests replacing the digraphs with circumflexed letters C, H and S, possibly being inspired by Esperanto, which gained popularity in Walneria in mid 1950's.

• Cs cs → Ĉ ĉ
• Ch ch → Ĥ ĥ
• Ss ss → Ŝ ŝ

E Diaeresis

Ë ë
Ë ë

The letter E Diaeresis (Ë) was introduced around the same time as the Accuted R (Ŕ), replacing the letter E in endings and other syllables, where it either became silent and another sound became syllabic, or the /ɛ/ sound was reduced to /ə/. The most common example may be the -ën ending in the infinite forms of the verbs. Examples of the words including multiple syllabic letters may be:

• Lófën (English: "To run", IPA: /lɔːfn̩/)
• Ézël (English: "Donkey", IPA: /ɛːzl̩/)
• Róbë (English: "Seal", IPA: /rɔːbə/)

S vs. SS

Ss ss
Ss ss

In front of the letters P, T, if in the first syllable of a word, or a word compound, the letter SS, representing the /ʃ/ sound is written only as a S. Examples of the orthography may include:

First syllable of a word

• Sterbën (English: "To die", IPA: /ʃterbn̩/)
• Spílën (English: "To play", IPA: /ʃpiːln̩/)

Other syllables of a word

• Liste (English: "List", IPA: /liste/)
• Knospa (English: "Bud", IPA: /knɔspa/)

First syllables of a coumpound word

• Hópstodál (English: "Capital city", IPA: /ɦɔːpʃtɔdaːl/)
• Baispíl (English: "Example", IPA: /bɑjʃpiːl/)

J vs. I

J j
J j

For the sound /j/ behind a vowel, letter I is used instead of a J (That means that in -AJ- should be replaced with -AI-). This rule doesn't apply to the compound words or words of a foreign origin:

• Cvissjár (English: "Year in between")
• De júre (English: "By the law", or simply de jure)
• Ainikait (English: "Uniquity")

Fraktur orthography

Walnerian fraktur alphabet Rósbérisses fraktúr alfabét Rósbériſſes fraktúr aľfabét
Example of R rotunda (ꝛ) in a word
Type	Alphabet
Languages	Walnerian language
Parent systems	Latin script Blackletter Walnerian fraktur alphabet

	This section includes blackletter characters
	- Please check if you have the font UnifrakturMaguntia installed -

In the case Walnerian language is to be written in Fraktur, there are a bit different rules to orthography, creating the Walnerian Fraktur Orthography (Walnerian: Rósbérisses fraktúr ortografie; in blackletter Rósbériſſes fraktúr ortografie), which guides the rules only for if the font is of the blackletter family.

Contrary to the popular opinion, the Fraktur Orthography is not the older Zusamëlfasunk orthography, but developed from it independently relative to the main Walnerian orthography.

A a /a ~ ɑ/	Á á /aː ~ ɑː/	Æ æ /ɛː ~ æː/	B b /b/	C c /ts/	Cſ cſ cs /tʃ/	D d /d/	E e /ɛ ~ e/	É é /ɛː ~ eː/	Ə ə /ə ~ ◌̩/
F f /f/	G g /ɡ/	H h /ɦ ~ h/	Ch ch /x/	I i /i ~ ɪ/	Í í /iː ~ ɪː/	J j /j/	K k /k/	L l ľ /l/	M m /m/
N n /n/	O o /ɔ ~ o/	Ó ó /ɔː ~ oː/	Œ œ /ɛː ~ œː/	P p /p/	Q q /kv/	R r /r/	ꝛ ꝛ /ʁ̩ ~ ə/	S ſ s /s/	Sſ ſſ ſs /ʃ/
T t /t/	U u /u/	Ú ú /uː/	V v /v/	W w /w/	X x /ks/	Y y /y ~ yː/	Z z /z/

Main difference from the main orthography is the preservation of the long S (ſ/ſ), vowel shift denotation symbols for shifts Ä→É (Æ/Æ) and Ö→É (Œ/Œ), usage of turned e (ə/ə) instead of ë, two miniscule versions of the letter L (ľ;l) and preservation of R rotunda (ꝛ/ꝛ) rather than introducing ŕ.

Long and rounded S

S ſ s

The Fraktur orthography still uses both long and rounded S letters as a miniscule.

The rules on writing those are:

• Long S (ſ/ſ) is written, if it is on the beginning or in the middle of a syllable
• Rounded S (s/s) is written on the end of a syllable or if they act as a syllabic consonant

Both rounded S (s) & long S (ſ), if capitalizated, are written as a regular S

This applies to both digraphs including the letter S (Cſ/Cs & Sſ/Ss). Long S (ſ) is used again in the case, that the digraph stands on the beginning or the middle of a syllable, while Rounded S (s) is used if the digraphs stands on the end of a syllable or is syllabic.

The digraph ſs/ss always uses the long S for the initial letter of the digraph, creating variants:

• Ss - For alone standing digraph Ss
• Sſ - For the initial capitalised digraph Ss
• ſſ - For the initial or medial letter of a syllable
• ſs - For the finial letter of a syllable

Variants of the É

Besides the regular Éé/Éé, there are two more letters, the letter Ææ/Ææ, which stands in the places, where the sound is equivalent version to the Dolch sound Ä, and the letter Œœ/Œœ, which stands in the places, where the sound is equivalent version to the Dolch sound Ö. Those letters were used commonly in the regular orthography until mid 18th century.

Hard and soft L

L l ľ

The Fraktur orthography still uses both soft blackletter miniscule l (l) and hard blackletter miniscule l (ľ). It was originally taken from the Slavic soft and hard L rules, but eventually merged with other rules, simplifying it:

The rules on writing those are:

• Soft L (l) is written before the vowels or if the letter is syllabic (that means, behind ə/ë)
• Hard L (ľ) is written before consonants or on the end of the world

Comparison of the two orthographies

Order		1	2	3	4	5		6	7	8			9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18		19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27		28		29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Normal	Majuscule	A	Á	B	C	Cs		D	E	É			Ë	F	G	H	Ch	I	Í	J	K	L		M	N	O	Ó	P	Q	R	Ŕ	S		Ss		T	U	Ú	V	W	X	Y	Z
	Minuscule	a	á	b	c	cs		d	e	é			ë	f	g	h	ch	i	í	j	k	l		m	n	o	ó	p	q	r	ŕ	s		ss		t	u	ú	v	w	x	y	z
Fraktur	Majuscule	A	Á	B	C	Cſ	Cs	D	E	É	Æ	Œ	Ə	F	G	H	Ch	I	Í	J	K	L		M	N	O	Ó	P	Q	R	Ꝛ	S		Sſ	Ss	T	U	Ú	V	W	X	Y	Z
	Minuscule	a	á	b	c	cſ	cs	d	e	é	æ	œ	ə	f	g	h	ch	i	í	j	k	l	ľ	m	n	o	ó	p	q	r	ꝛ	ſ	s	ſſ	ſs	t	u	ú	v	w	x	y	z
IPA Sound		a ɑ	aː ɑː	b	t͡s	t͡ʃ t͡ɕ		d	ɛ e	ɛː eː			ə ◌̩	f	ɡ	h ɦ	x	i ɪ	iː ɪː	j	k	l		m	n	ɔ o	ɔː oː	p	k͡v	r	ʁ̩ ə	s		ʃ ɕ		t	u	uː	v	w ɰ	k͡s	y yː	z

Marcation of Anglish in Walnerian

Th th ᵺ
Th th ᵺ

Walnerian-Anglish dictionary includes few notable characters in the translations, most notably:

• Slash through the miniscule th (making it a ᵺ) for the cases where the letter denotes the voiced dental fricative [ð], to distinguish it from the voiceless dental fricative [θ]
  • Example: „I think ᵺat ᵺis thing may be ᵺeirs“
• Breve below silent letters, helping to denote them as not being pronounced (only for consonants), the digraph gh is written with a connecting single breve (making it a g͜h).
  • Example: „The ḫonorary class had too many sub̮tle thoug͜htful answ̮ers“

So the word "though" would be found in the dictionary produced in Walneria as "ᵺoug͜h"