2

The scripts of South Asia (i.e. the Indian subcontinent), e.g. Devanagari, and Southeast Asia, e.g. Thai, are almost all derived from the Brahmic script. They show gradual visual relationships and most of them are structurally similar. They are syllabaries with non-default vowels being denoted by diacritics and consonant clusters often forming complex ligatures.

Is there any constructed variant of this family of scripts that intentionally uses shapes found in the major European scripts (Roman, Cyrillic and Greek)? Preferably, it would be based upon the stems and loops of lowercase Roman letters. I think it’s impossible to achieve in a readable way, but maybe there is even a mimicry or "faux Latin" font for one of the existing scripts (e.g. Burmese or Malayalam) that would qualify.

PS: I have attached some roman letters in red to similar looking glyphs in the picture below. The imagined conscript would have a consistent set of letters and diacritics that looked much like roman ones.

Brahmic-derived scripts in current use, set in Noto showing a sample phrase in Sanskrit

14
  • 2
    Can you explain more what you mean? A Brahmic inspired script which has borrowed forms from the Latin script? Latin consonants used as an abugida with diacritics instead of the Lain vowels?
    – curiousdannii
    Mar 29, 2018 at 3:01
  • The former. A Brahmic script that strongly reminds one of the Roman script. If it was built closely matching the Malayalam script, for instance, the letters ട ധ ന would look (almost) the same as s w m.
    – Crissov
    Mar 29, 2018 at 6:47
  • Font designer's already have done this, seee e.g. Samarkan on this page: free-fonts.com/search?q=Devanagari%20Script%20Style
    – Sir Cornflakes
    Mar 29, 2018 at 10:19
  • 3
    Can you create a picture of a hypothetical example of the sort of thing you mean? Mar 29, 2018 at 14:38
  • 1
    I have seen examples of a Thai typeface with a very roman look (more so than @Crissov's last example). Oct 16, 2018 at 9:23

2 Answers 2

5

bgd

Next project: Pama-Nyungan inspired vocabulary, but using English words

3
  • 1
    Simultaneously beautiful and horrific!
    – curiousdannii
    Mar 29, 2018 at 6:28
  • I see how my question could be misunderstood in this way. I’m looking for a script whose looks fit well with the Roman script, not for an abugida build with IPA symbols.
    – Crissov
    Mar 29, 2018 at 6:51
  • @Crissov: IPA is the Latin script (or a specialised adaptation of it, anyway). Does replacing as4s4hetic's glyphs with plain alphabetic letters (like a for æ) meet your expectations? Mar 31, 2018 at 9:13
0


Franabugida by François Boullion, though developed for writing French, is a faux roman script with abugida features that fulfills the criteria pretty well, although some of the resulting shapes look quite foreign.


Akkhara Muni by Ian James comes close to being a roman-looking script with Brahmic abugida structure, although it lacks complex ligatures and (non-inherent) vowels are not diacritic-like.


The historic (but unused) Ariyaka script for writing Pali from 19th-century Siam/Thailand is also obviously inspired by Latin and Greek letter forms and the Brahmic system.


BLUIS by Punya Pranava Pasumarty does not meet the criteria, but due to its design, it could be used as a base: One would just need to make the letter forms more roman-looking.

2
  • If this is what you're after, then my original question was pretty might right, even though you said it wasn't? "Latin consonants used as an abugida with diacritics instead of the Latin vowels"
    – curiousdannii
    Apr 1, 2018 at 15:07
  • 1
    Except that the Latin letters should not be used for their usual phonological value, but for visual similarity to letters of existing Brahmic scripts.
    – Crissov
    Apr 1, 2018 at 15:10

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.