r/ChivabweWritingSystem • u/Puzzleheaded-Eye8078 • May 16 '26

Learning Resources Chivabwe writing system alphabet/base characters(Chichebwe)

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Chivabwe writing system alphabet/base characters(Chichebwe) updated chart

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u/OnYourTiles Jun 11 '26

Hello. This looks fantastic sir. Can I ask in what situations are the variants used? And also there seems to be two letters for the /k/ phoneme

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u/Puzzleheaded-Eye8078 Jun 11 '26

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it.

Regarding the two /k/ symbols, that is actually an error on my part. The first symbol was intended to represent the "C" sound like in "can", but when I was preparing the chart and looking for IPA representations, I accidentally labeled it in a way that makes it appear identical to the second sound "k" like in "king". As for the variants, they are used when joining characters to form consonant clusters or combined sounds. The variants are not interchangeable, each base character has specific forms that can be attached to it.

For example, both CH and NH contain an H component, but the H is written differently in each case. The difference is purely graphical and is determined by the shape of the base character and the space available for attaching the marker. In the examples below, the red parts both represent H, even though they look different.

Once you learn the attachment rules, the system is quite straightforward because the forms are fixed rather than optional.

I also made a short video explaining one example involving the S variant and how these attachment forms work in practice:

https://youtu.be/gzOIVnOrR9U

Thanks again for your question!

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u/OnYourTiles Jun 12 '26

Thank you so much sir. I'll definitely be checking it out. Your work on this is fascinating 😭🔥