Kateinu Y�r�b

To view the font examples on this page, you must install the font (last updated Wednesday, 22-Apr-2009 22:20:30 PDT).

The native Asha'ille writing system is a cursive script called the kateinu yîréb. See my other page for a more detailed discussion about the script.

I used FontStruct to create a scalable-but-not-pretty TrueType font. It looks best around 16pt, although it is still somewhat difficult to read at that size. I eventually want to try making a nicer font with Inkscape and FontForge, but that will take more time. So for now, this works well enough.

Example Text

For example of using this basic font, here is the alphabet refrain, "Kateinu yîréb 'sa migh, zalojhaiv lnad feipám eg shath dhoò, mlchîshe jo," set in the font:

katenu yIrÉb ’sa ႠG, zaloႧv Lad fepáΜ Eğ SaT Do'o, MCISE jo.

Live Converter

Enter romanized Asha'ille in the text box and convert it into kateinu yîréb on the fly. (Javascript required)

Character Table

In the table below, the kateinu yîréb glyphs are oriented for left-to-right writing. The most common orientation is top-to-bottom, but left-to-right (and two other orientations) are also acceptable. The glyphs are listed in Asha'ille-alphabetical order.

Character Details

k k vs ķ kk

Marks a "stuttered" consonant, which is pronounced twice in quick succession. All consonants have a stuttered variant, with the exception of y, ln, ml, and h. Two-curve consonants carry the stuttered mark on the middle line of the glyph, not outside the curve: ķ kk vs ť tt.

k k vs c c

Pronounced the same as k, c appears in words of Gharchovian origin.

a a vs á á

Stressed vowels — that is, the primary syllable stress — can be explicitly marked when a word's stress doesn't follow the standard stress rules. Eg, Sanago shanago means spice, whereas Sanagó shanagó means ship.

a a vs ä ä

Question words' vowels change; this is written as two dots next to the character. Eg, JornႰ "árTæ jhorní Árthae means I am Arthaey, whereas JornႰ "ärTæ jhorní Ärthae? means Am I Arthaey?.

æ ae

Because æ ae is always stressed, there is no version of this glyph with a stress mark. The only modified version of the glyph is the question version: Æ äe

რ -eni

The first person verbal conjugation has a special glyph, distinct from the phonetic glyphs you would expect. Eg, EnirEvრ enirevni begins with the phonetic glyphs for Eni eni- and ends with the conjugation glyph რ -(e)ni. Compare with nij ni, using the final form of i.

ს -ejh

Like the first person verbal conjugation რ -(e)ni above, the very-close-friend conjugation also has a special glyph. Eg, nEJIvს nejhivejh begins with the phonetic glyphs for EJ ejh- and ends with the conjugation glyph ს -ejh. Compare with EIJ ejh, using the final form of jh.

. . vs ? ?

The punctuation marks for a period and a question mark are the same. This is because question words are marked with two dots, making it unnecessary to otherwise mark a sentence as a question.

’ ’

Used for contractions, like an apostrophe in English. Eg, alunsa alunsa is frequently contracted to ’sa 'sa. Final adverbs are also commonly contracted: kEp kep becomes k’ k'.

- -

Only used when writing a prefix (alun- alun-), suffix (-yu -yu), or circumfix (e-e e-e) by itself. It is never used to form compound words like in English.

¶ ¶

Marks the beginning of a text; useful to orient writing direction, since any of 4 possible orientations are allowed and the glyphs of this script look similar. Thus, knowing the orientation as soon as possible prevents confusion.

" "

Marks a foreign word, like italics or quotation marks in English. Eg, Jor haláin te "tri jhor haláin te "tree" means Haláin is "tree", glossing an Asha'ille word in English, within an Asha'ille sentence. Note that the English word is spelled phonetically (or the closest approximation). Also note that the symbol is only used at the beginning of the foreign word — it does not surround the word, as quotes do in English.

ტ î-...-î

The morpheme î-...-î is a circumfix, equivalent to the English -er suffix that turns a verb into the "doer" of the verb. Eg, EmælIv emaelîv to write becomes ტmæl imaeli writer. The two I î characters are not written phonetically for this morpheme: *ImælI.

უ -te

The morpheme -te, a politeness marker, has its own glpyh უ, rather than being spelled out phonetically te (/te/, not /tɛ/, despite being spelled with an e). Eg, dErპSár dershár leader vs dErპSárუ dershárte leader, sir, not *dErპSárte. A variant on this glyph is frequently used as the signature or seal of a ruler.

kr vs kპr kr

To clearly distinguish two right-side consonants that might otherwise be somewhat difficult to parse, the connecting line between them is drawn longer than normal. A left-side separator also exists.

mi m i vs Ⴀ mi

Adjacent "barred" characters have special ligature forms. Instead of drawing the bar through each of the characters, only one bar is drawn in between them. Note that, in a word-final position, the final form of the second barred character is used, rather than the ligature. Eg, DEm Aya dhem aiye (m followed by ai in a separate word) vs ႠnYES mainyesh (adjacent m and ai as a ligature) vs tEmĀ temai (adjacent m and ai, but with final form).