The Ákat logographical script

The purpose of the logographic script is to explicitly demonstrate the philosophical roots underpinning the language. The script employs some 300 different glyphs to represent core concepts, together with a series of sur-glyphs and sub-glyphs to show the word's object class, derivation type and grammatical purpose.

The simplest way to introduce the script is through an example:

Core concept glyphs

Core concepts are not words; rather they are the concepts that lie behind the words - according to the Nakap philosophers. For this reason, a core concept glyph can be used for a range of words which somehow relate to the core concept, both on its own and in combination with other core concept glyphs; for instance the core concept glyph 'fak' (experience) can be found in the glyph columns representing the action and object words 'sense', 'hearing', 'heat detection', 'smell', 'taste', 'acceptance', 'sympathy', 'experience' and 'ear'.

The above glyphs are just a small selection of available core concept glyphs.

Object class, and action aspect, sub-glyphs

The logographic script uses the same set of sub-glyphs to represent object/action case, object number and action aspect:

Derivation type sub-glyphs:

The effect of deriving new words from existing words through the derivation models will sometimes have a profound effect on the phonology of the new word. The logographic script acknowledges this by placing a derivation model sub-sigil beneath the modifying core concept, both of which will follow the host concept.

Modification sur-glyphs

Agent, patient and oblique objects, and also action phrases, can be modified to provide further information about how they interact with each other within the clause or sentence. The logographic script uses a set of related sur-glyphs above the objects and actions to demonstrate this modification. Because derived object words will span more than one column, these come in short, long and extra-long versions; in actions, only the short versions are used (except for the default). The short versions of each sur-glyph are shown below:

Extended glyphs

Certain action prefixes do not fit neatly into the glyph block system. These are instead given their own, extended glyphs (covering the mid and lower rows of the glyph block) which go before the action phrase column with which they are associated. Actions use these extended glyphs to indicate past tense, negation and interrogation:

Whole column glyphs

Objects, on the other hand, prefer their affixes to cover the whole column. These glyphs are similar to their action counterparts, though slimmer. Objects use the action's past tense glyph as a focus marker, and have a special glyph that comes at the end of a person's name, in addition to the interrogative and negative glyphs:

There are also a number of "temporal-existential" glyphs - in actual fact oblique objects formed with the modifier 'xi' and the appropriate concept root - which have been given special whole column glyphs to use in preference to the normal oblique object column:

Numbers also get their own whole column glyphs:

Action modal sur-glyphs

Action modality is demonstrated in the logograph through a set of nine sur-glyphs over the action phrase. Just like modifier sur-glyphes, these glyphs come in both short forms and long forms:

Action inflections glyph column

The last sets of glyphs deal with the action phrase's agentive and patientive markers, the agentive determiners and the evidentiality markers. These all form a single column immediately following the action's core concept columns. They stack in the column as follows:

The agentive and patientive markers share the same glyphs, though the patientive markers are turned 180° to distinguish them:

The agentive determiner differs according to whether the action phrase has incorporated an agent object or not:

Finally, three evidence markers are added to the base of the column:

Column order within the glyph block

Column order tends to closely follow the order of action and object phrases within the spoken language: reading left-to-right, unincorporated agent phrases go before action phrases, which come before patient phrases and then oblique phrases. When the agent is incorporated into the verb, more often than not the column order remains unchanged, except any action prefix column will go ahead of the agent column.


This page was last updated on Tecunuuntuu-15, 527: Yaezluu-7 Gevile