Kardii Writing

Alphabet

There are twenty nine letters in the Kardii alphabet. The most common order of the letters is based on Iilkana alphabetical order and is shown below. The letters have no actual names, and so are often described using words that begin with them, naan, uhlta, uwen, etc.

There are two main lettering styles, the imperial style, used for official and religious records, and the trade style, used by the merchant clans.

Imperial Alphabet (Tayrruad Daajnaa)

n uh u o a i

e t v s sh k

j f r p l w

d th rr m y ee

oa ay b h ch (apostrophe)

The Trade Style Alphabet (Tayrruad Saalan)

n uh u o a i

e t v s sh k

j f r p l w

d th rr m y ee

oa ay b h ch (apostrophe)

Punctuation

The Iilkana Word Delimiter

The Kardii 'hyphen' is used in Iilkana to seperate words. In Kardii, it's used as a written equivalent for any unnatural break in speech.

e - ki rrucha la? (Um... What did you say?)

kirra oiache papashui'ian. pa-pa-shu-i'ian (The town is called Papashui'ian, Pa-pa-shu-i'ian)

Ends of sentences

Kardii likes to start each sentence on a new line, where practical. When two sentences share the same line, they are seperated with this symbol:

When a sentence is too long for a line, continuation is marked with the apostrophe symbol at the end of the line:

Apostrophe in Transliteration

The combinations t'h, eg. 'ayt'hali' (shoulder), and s'h, eg. 'tes'hijena' (annual flooding), are written with an apostrophe in latin transliteration only. This is to distinguish them from 'th' and 'sh'.

Questions

Closed (and sometimes open) questions are indicated by writing the word 'kay' at the beginning of the sentence. This word is not read aloud.

Abbreviation Letters

Most Kardii suffixes, and a couple of grammatical words, have single letter abbreviation forms. These are not used in formal documents. belongs in a similar context to "R U coming 2day?".

The abbreviation forms of 'kay' and 'ksate' are used only when indicating a question/request at the beginning of a sentence. Elsewhere these words are always spelled out in full.

-che -cha -chii -se -sa -sii

-ke -jje -kii -jjii -di

kay ksate ty tuii

Strikethrough

Strikethrough in Kardii is used for emphasis, much like the exclamation mark in English. Instead of the whole sentence, only the most important word(s) are struckthrough.

pilimake theriimi! etaka thekatchii! (Get out of the house! The roof's going to collapse!)

Taytastu

'Taytastu' (lit. 'trace' or 'ghost' writing) is for words that are somehow seperate from the main text. A footnote, or comment or address to a person in the middle of a sentence are written with taytastu letters. The taytastu letters are simplified versions of the normal letters, with a much reduced height.

may i'iee, ilia, min iree shaavche ay. (I'd be so happy, Ilia, if she came back.)

When the writing is meant to be a representation of speech, taytastu can be used to indicate whispering, or a lowering of volume.

ira ty leshe tah ksii ramarriari ksii, lii lyshaanche yda! (He's a very kind and friendly person, but don't trust him!)

The Taytastu Letters (Taytastu Daajnaa)

n uh u o a i

e t v s sh k

j f r p l w

d th rr m y ee

oa ay b h ch (apostrophe)

(Taytastu Saalan)

n uh u o a i

e t v s sh k

j f r p l w

d th rr m y ee

oa ay b h ch (apostrophe)

Numerals

Kardii numerals are written in the order that they are said, 'rin vin aat wen' (sixty three) is written '3-10-6'. The 'vin' is not written. 'ted' (100) is written by doubling the numeral '10'. For more, see the Numbers Page.

These are the Kardii numerals, in both the imperial and trade lettering styles.

			1			6
			2			7
			3			8
			4			9
			5			10

And the taytastu forms:

			1			6
			2			7
			3			8
			4			9
			5			10