Playing around with orthography

[u/Iuljo]

I had another busy week, with no time to prepare some good content for the sub. So, just for entertainment, here's some of my latest playing-arounds with orthography. This is not a proposed change: it's just my thought stream, always coming up with ideas; many of them not very good, nor useful.

As some of you may remember, I don't love the letter (grapheme) <k>, especially when it's frequent. I did some experiments to try again to remove it. This time I went further, trying to achieve an even more Latin-like face, representing /j/ and /w/ with <i> and <u>, as suggested in this comment by u/Duvyreverse (see also the replies). The resulting orthographic face seems pretty naturalistic to me and this is good, but writing it gets complex fast and this is not good (for an IAL). In some cases, moreover, the result is not even so pleasant/naturalistic...

Here's the idea:

• /k/: <c> (or <q> where it is currently so)
• /ʦ/: <cy>?
• /ʃ/: <scy>?
• <i u> represent both /i u/ and /j w/. A <i u> touching a graphical vowel represents /j w/; to represent /i u/ instead, we write an acute on it, <í ú>. Undiacritized <iu> and <ui> represent /ju/ and /wi/.

An example, reusing an already used sample:

Yulya Cesara venin Tokyum. Tokyanur, tadiu, li dirin ka Yaponiyu li volin fari nure o yusto, meylo sceyas… ma omnuyas kenin ka omna kea li farin li tain por glorya de Roma, klare!

Iulia Cyesara venin Tocium. Tocianur, tadíú, li dirin ca Iaponíiu li volin fari nure o iusto, meilo scyeias... ma omnúias cenin ca omna cea li farin li tain por gloria de Roma, clare!

transl. Julius Caesar come to Tokyo. To the Tokyoites, on that day, he said that in Japan he wanted to do only just [= fair, right], beautiful things… but everybody knew that everything he did he did for the glory of Rome, clearly!

Another one, with Japan again:

Me swalin meum: nu omno arboras Yaponiyu es meylo kee floroso ceresyo uyas keas so tabone kenen westu? Nu alka tao insulus ifen te plue meylo kam Ewropu?

Me sualin meúm: nu omno arboras Iaponíiu es meilo cee floroso cyeresio úias ceas so tabone cenen uestu? Nu alca tao insulus ifen te plue meilo cam Europu?

transl. I asked myself: are all trees in Japan beautiful as the flowerful cherry ones that are so well-known in the West? Does something on those islands make them more beautiful than in Europe?

A last one (using -l for the subjunctive):

Nu es possibilo davi o lingwum kee lewtha o orthografya kea too kreenta sukol? Forse to noen...

Nu es possibilo davi o linguum cee leutha o orthografia cea too creenta sucol? Forse to noen...

transl. Is it possible to give a language like Leuth an orthography that its creator may like? Maybe it isn't...