Re: Writing systems

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@POLARIS.UMUC.EDU>]

On Fri, 8 May 1998, Clinton Moreland-Stringham wrote:

> On Thu, 7 May 1998, David G. Durand wrote:
>
> >    I designed a new kind of book binding for Valusian books, based on strips
> > of paper folded into equilateral triangles. I now need sufficient time and
> > knowledge of my own work to actually create such a book! Have any of you
> > designed similar cultural objects for your languages or their speakers?

Sort of reminiscent of the paper footballs we made in grammar school; if I
understand your technique aright.  How do you plan on holding the things
together?  Are all the shorter strips of paper glued together into one
long strip, or have you invented another way?

>
>         I have! The Yulmadanne is a bowl that holds objects germane to the
> ancestor cult. Recipes also go in this category, I think.
>         As to book bindings, I also have devised a "book" based on the
> equilateral triangle, though it's used almost exclusively for poetry.
> There is also a glyphic system using triangular letters to write on it.
> The end result is basically a hexaflexagon...
>
>         Clinton
>

I have too.  The current project (Brithenig) has spawned a book as a
cultural artifact, being a Grammar Book for the Kernu dialect.  There's
nothing particularly special or curious about it, though.  The binding is
oriental, though, because it's easy to do and _very_ sturdy.  The standard
occidental binding gave me gyp, when I tried my hand at that, and the
pages kept tearing and the whole thing ended up loose.

Other constructed cultures I've worked on have yielded various artifacts
as well, ranging from books to tools to money (paper and coin).  One of
the books was a rectangular strip accordion folded and glued into two
boards.  That way, the bookwriters in question could fit two books into
one (one book on each side of the strip), or make a single long book.  If
I remember aright, the language it was written in was Latin based, and it
was some sort of treatise on the construction of wooden rakes.  The other
side held the account of some battle or other.  The culture itself can be
as fun to construct as the language.

Padraic.