Categories: Lore

Alphabet

The Bauhinian Alphabet.

The Bauhinian Empire had a universal language and alphabet. Even long after the empire split apart, everyone still spoke the same language and wrote the same script.

What language did the continent speak?

I would say they speak their own language, different from all of ours.

Truth is, it doesn't really matter, as long as everyone is speaking the same language. When I write about them, they speak in whatever language I'm writing in, which can only be Chinese and English. If other people write about them in another language, they'd be speaking that language. Whatever language they're speaking, the puns specific to that language would always make sense.

People in TIR are named after concepts (for the most part; exceptions will always be present). For example, Willow is named after the tree, and Amber is named after the gemstone. In another language, their names would simply be whatever the willow tree and amber stone is called in that language¹.

I made this writing system in a maniacal spree in one night. It is inspired by the Uyghurche alphabet, which is in turn based off of the Arabic abjad². Therefore, the Bauhinian alphabet has the features of being written from right to left, top to bottom; letters are joined together in a word, and each letter has a different way of being written, depending on their position in a word — beginning, middle, or end. It is more of a cipher, actually; designed to be directly transcribed from Uyghurche to Bauhinian.

The next day, I organized the script a little more and made it transcribable from Chinese and English as well.

The letters

The script features five base shapes, which I call: tall loops, short loops, R's, bumps, and breaks.

The break is called a break because it's the only base shape that causes a break in the writing flow — meaning you have to lift your pen up to continue.

The letters are then constructed by adding diacritics to these base shapes. Diacritics include a dot, a line (horizontal, vertical, or slanted), or an arrow (four directions).

Vowels are tall loops, and consonants hog the four other base shapes, with the exception of L, which is a tall loop with no diacritic.

Transcription

Following are four tables for transcription from Uyghurche, Chinese, and English to Bauhinian, and one to transcribe from Bauhinian.

Uyghurche

Uyghurche	Bauhinian	Composition
ئا		Tall loop + right slant
ئە		Tall loop + left slant
ب		Bump + bottom dot
پ		Bump + bottom arrow up
ت		Bump + top horizontal
ج		Short loop + arrow right
چ		Short loop + arrow left
خ		Short loop + dot
د		Bump + bottom horizontal
ر		R
ز		R + dot
ژ		Short loop + arrow up
س		Short loop
ش		Short loop + vertical
غ		R + horizontal
ف		Bump + bottom arrow down
ق		Short loop + horizontal
ك		Break
گ		Break + horizontal
ڭ		Break + dot
ل		Tall loop
م		Bump + top arrow down
ن		Bump + top dot
ھ		Bump + top vertical
ئو		Tall loop + arrow up
ئۇ		Tall loop + arrow down
ئۆ		Tall loop + arrow right
ئۈ		Tall loop + arrow left
ۋ		Short loop + arrow down
ئې		Tall loop + vertical
ئى		Tall loop + horizontal
ي		Bump

Chinese

Pinyin	Bauhinian	Composition
a		Tall loop + right slant
o		Tall loop + arrow up
e		Tall loop + left slant
i		Tall loop + horizontal
u		Tall loop + arrow down
ü		Tall loop + arrow left
b		Bump + bottom dot
p		Bump + bottom arrow up
m		Bump + top arrow down
f		Bump + bottom arrow down
d		Bump + bottom horizontal
t		Bump + top horizontal
n		Bump + top dot
l		Tall loop
g		Break + horizontal
k		Break
h		Bump + top vertical
j		Short loop + arrow up
q		Short loop + horizontal
x		Short loop + dot
zh		Short loop + arrow right
ch		Short loop + arrow left
sh		Short loop + vertical
r		R
z		R + dot
c		Bump + top arrow up
s		Short loop
y		Bump
w		Short loop + arrow down
ng		Break + dot

The ng consonant is a special one that does not exist in the standard pinyin chart, but I added it in to reduce the amount of symbols needed.

English

Letter	Bauhinian	Composition
a		Tall loop + right slant
b		Bump + bottom dot
c		Bump + top arrow up
d		Bump + bottom horizontal
e		Tall loop + left slant
f		Bump + bottom arrow down
g		Break + horizontal
h		Bump + top vertical
i		Tall loop + horizontal
j		Short loop + arrow up
k		Break
l		Tall loop
m		Bump + top arrow down
n		Bump + top dot
o		Tall loop + arrow up
p		Bump + bottom arrow up
q		Short loop + horizontal
r		R
s		Short loop
t		Bump + top horizontal
u		Tall loop + arrow down
v		R + vertical
w		Short loop + arrow down
x		Short loop + dot
y		Bump
z		R + dot

Bauhinian order

No.	Bauhinian	Composition	Uyghurche	Pinyin	English
1		Tall loop	ل	l	l
2		Tall loop + horizontal	ئى	i	i
3		Tall loop + vertical	ئې
4		Tall loop + right slant	ئا	a	a
5		Tall loop + left slant	ئە	e	e
6		Tall loop + arrow up	ئو	o	o
7		Tall loop + arrow down	ئۇ	u	u
8		Tall loop + arrow left	ئۈ	ü
9		Tall loop + arrow right	ئۆ
10		Short loop	س	s	s
11		Short loop + horizontal	ق	q	q
12		Short loop + vertical	ش	sh
13		Short loop + dot	خ	x	x
14		Short loop + arrow up	ژ	j	j
15		Short loop + arrow down	ۋ	w	w
16		Short loop + arrow left	چ	ch
17		Short loop + arrow right	ج	zh
18		R	ر	r	r
19		R + dot	ز	z	z
20		R + horizontal	غ
21		R + vertical			v
22		Bump	ي	y	y
23		Bump + top dot	ن	n	n
24		Bump + top horizontal	ت	t	t
25		Bump + top vertical	ھ	h	h
26		Bump + top arrow up		c	c
27		Bump + top arrow down	م	m	m
28		Bump + bottom dot	ب	b	b
29		Bump + bottom horizontal	د	d	d
30		Bump + bottom arrow up	پ	p	p
31		Bump + bottom arrow down	ف	f	f
32		Break	ك	k	k
33		Break + dot	ڭ	ng
34		Break + horizontal	گ	g	g

Notes

• Not every Bauhinian letter is pronounced the same in every language! For example, the Chinese C is pronounced as ts while the English C is pronounced either k or s. And perhaps more notably, the X sound is pronounced differently in all three.
• Not all base shape and diacritic combinations are used, creating possibilities for more sounds not present in these three languages.