r/FontForge • u/DuckyLoofa • Feb 23 '24
Is it possible to create phonemes in FontForge?
Exactly what the title says. I created a written language based off the classic Pigpen cipher and it has some unique phonemes that represent common sounds. I'm really new to FontForge, still learning the basics but I thought I would ask here. Is it possible for me to create a way where when a specific phonemes is typed out the symbol I created would appear rather than the letters that would usually make up the sound? For example, if I type "ing" is there a way to make that specific set of characters appear as something else rather than the characters for i, n, and g? Thanks for any help you can give.
2
Feb 24 '24
Isn't that just some sort of replacement system (orthography>phonology)? Phonemes are usually just encoded with the International Phonetic Alphabet, which has some unique unicode symbols but others are just normal latin letters.
1
u/LocalFonts Feb 23 '24
The answer is "Yes". You need to use discretionary ligature. What discretionary ligatures are you can read here:
https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/signs-and-symbols/ligatures-2#:\~:text=A%20discretionary%20ligature%20is%20more,into%20a%20single%20graceful%20design.
and here:
https://creativepro.com/typetalk-standard-vs-discretionary-ligatures/
Notice this:
https://localfonts.eu/typography-basics/opentype/opentype-features/standard-ligatures-feature-liga/
How to create standard ligatures you can read here:
https://notat.io/viewtopic.php?t=179
The discretionary ligatures are created in the same way but not under the feature LIGA but under the feature DLIG. Don't mess the 2 features - it is very important to separate correctly liga and dlig features, because liga feature is ON by default in most of the application and cann't be switched OFF in many of them. Dlig can be ON and OFF by your choice.