ukarpanghooth.html (view raw)
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16<h1>ukarpanghooth</h1>
17<h2>overview</h2>
18<div class="win">
19<p>the first writing system i'm going to talk about is ukarpanghooth
20(meaning 'angular cut', <span class="nobreak">IPA: /ɤ.kaɾ.pan.ɡʱə.uːtʰ/</span>). it was actually
21my first attempt to create a writing system. it's main purpose was just
22to be unreadable by others (steganography? security by obscurity?).</p>
23</div>
24<h2>description</h2>
25<div class="win">
26<p>this is a simple alphabetic script based on latin alphabet. some
27letter shapes are also influenced by runic scripts. the first version
28(proto-ukarpangooth) was actually very similar to the latin alphabet,
29so later it was modified, as an attempt to make it more unique and more
30obscure. words are separated by a special symbol, so that sentences are
31written together as one piece.</p>
32
33<!--
34<figure>
35<img src="{}" alt=""/>
36<figcaption>
37proto-ukarpanghooth, ukarpanghooth, comparison with latin
38</figcaption>
39</figure>
40-->
41
42<p>there is one interesting aspect about it is the order and direction in
43which it is written. initially it was done the usual way (well... for
44some), right-to-left, top-to-bottom. then i came up with something
45creative, writing it in groups of four letters in a square (top-right,
46bottom-right, bottom-left, top-left). if the number of letters in a
47sentence isn't divisible by four, letters are stretched to fit into
48square shape. there also instances of it written snake-shaped, turning
49by 90 degrees after each word.</p>
50
51<!--
52<figure>
53<img src="{}" alt=""/>
54<figcaption>
55example text, writing direction outline
56</figcaption>
57</figure>
58-->
59
60<p>the name of the script suggests that one can cut it on something
61(wood, stone, etc.), as only straight line segments are used.</p>
62</div>
63<h2>usage</h2>
64<div class="win">
65<p>as mentioned before, script's main purpose was to hide some information
66(i once used it to cheat on a test in a physics class :D). mainly i
67wrote english text. some time later i used it to write my unfinished
68conlang named aihnth (<span class="nobreak">IPA: /a.ji.ən.tʰə/</span>).</p>
69
70<p>the script has some ornamental potential, as its glyphs are pretty
71simple and use only straight lines.</p>
72
73<!--
74<figure>
75<img src="{}" alt=""/>
76<figcaption>
77st peter's cross with "hd un'nuhrthh fah'deelhrhu khotghu koth'h" written on it.
78</figcaption>
79</figure>
80-->
81</div>
82<h2>font</h2>
83<div class="win">
84<p>actually, at first, i didn't think that it would be possible
85to replicate this script's peculiar writing order in a computer
86font. however, after reading some specs, decompiling some fonts and
87experiments i've found a way to do it.</p>
88
89<p>open-type features allow two things: substitution (GSUB) and position
90(GSUB) of glyphs. basically, we need to have three versions of each
91letter: full size, half size and quarter size. then we substitute runs
92of four letters with four quarter sized ones, three letters with two
93quarters and one half, and, finally, two letters with two halves. the
94only thing left is to use contextual postitioning to move each component
95where it needs to be.</p>
96
97<pre>
98<code>
99@full = [a b c]; # full-size letters
100@half = [a.half b.half c.half]; # half-size letters
101@qrtr = [a.qrtr b.qrtr c.qrtr]; # quarter-size letters
102
103# helper lookups
104lookup full2qrtr {
105 sub @full by @qrtr;
106} full2qrtr;
107lookup full2half {
108 sub @full by @half;
109};
110
111# main substitution lookup
112lookup charBlock {
113 sub @full' lookup full2qrtr @full' lookup full2qrtr @full' lookup full2qrtr @full' lookup full2qrtr;
114 sub @full' lookup full2qrtr @full' lookup full2qrtr @full lookup full2half;
115 sub @full' lookup full2half @full' lookup full2half;
116} charBlock;
117</code>
118</pre>
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