Hello,
I just learned about the
Takeluma project (I would recommend reading it, just to know more about it), which is a new way of writing English. I find the premise interesting, and the creator did a project on it. I am thinking of making a font (or typeface, depending on how it goes) that lets one type the Takeluma alphabet. However, the alphabet is a phonetic one, and keyboards do not type phonetically. If I were to create a font, I would need a way to differentiate between the a in b
ag and the a in b
agel. I figured for things like a double e, I could make a ligature, but with stuff that the difference between bag and bagel, it seems a bit more complex.
Does anyone have a solution? (By the way, I have yet to ask Peter for permission/advice on how to do so, but I will do so very shortly, this is just a preliminary problem)
Comments
One is theoretical: the maluma/takete shape mapping is an example of something that has also been tested with other non-words and round/sharp images. This indicates that humans generally associate some sounds with roundness and others with sharpness—there are some exceptions noted in other studies—, but that doesn’t tell us that there are ‘hidden meanings’ conveyed in speech sounds, only that there are a couple of broad and not at all hidden correspondences.
The other is practical: the shapes of the Takeluma script are inadequately differentiated. Many of them are very similar in shape, and would need to be written very slowly and carefully to distinguish them consistently. Even then, they would remain easily confused. This is not a good basis for confident and competent reading.