Elefdar Alphabet

In addition to creating a language for the Elefdar, I am also working on an alphabet for them. It's gone through many iterations over the past twenty-odd years, but I think I've finally settled on a set of glyphs that I'm happy with. They have the look and feel I've been trying to get from the very beginning, and also have an internal logic to their design that was just as important as the look.

The sketches are pretty rough at the moment -- just line drawings in pencil. But I am working my way through a set of ink drawings that I think will look nice, and then I can scan them in so I have a digital master set. After that, I may even create a TrueType font! Stay tuned for more on this, I'll post the scanned ink drawings soon enough. Assuming I can manage the font, I'll post that as well.

Should be fun!

Publishing the Elefdar Language

A reader recently pointed me to Penflip, a website for collaborative writing. After reviewing the functionality of the site, I went ahead and created an account, and have now added my first writing project: The Elefdar (Elvish) Language.

This is based on my previously linked grammar document, but I had to change some formatting (Penflip doesn't do tables) and also fixed a couple of errors in the process.

Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments!

The Elefdar Language

I've been playing some more with the Elefdar tongue. Not so much with the language itself, but rather the alphabet I had designed for it something like 20 years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long, but it really was the mid-1990s when I first created them. They are heavily influenced by alphabets that I'd seen for Hindi and Sanskrit, with a high horizontal line intended to connect all the letters in a word, and the letter-forms themselves being hung down below the line. They were very curly and ornate, and at the time I really liked the designs.

Not so much any more. I've decided I want something a bit simpler, easier and faster to write. So, I started playing around with simple forms and pen-strokes, to see if I could come up with a complete set of letters that can each be written with just a few movements of the pen. So far I haven't come up with anything particularly exciting, but it is fun to be playing in this sandbox again.

Once I've got a set of letters that I'm reasonably happy with, I will be sure to take a pic and post them here.