The Kerek script

The Kerek [ˈkɛɾɛk] are a writing system used by the Kiççazi [ˈkɪçːazɪ] people for religious and ornamental purposes. It is exclusively used to write in a ceremonial language alleged to have originally been spoken by the Tiyppati [ˈtɪjpːatɪ]. The Tiyppati are a race of aliens who came from another star system to gave the gift of language to two dozen animals, who gained intelligence and evolved into the first Kiççazi. Those original Kiççazi are known as the Kerek, and each of them is represented by a letter of the script.

Little is known about the Tiyppati besides their language. It is believed that they were not proper gods, and only acted as missionaries who spread their own religion to the Kiççazi as they created them. It is said that the Kerek script wasn't used by the Tiyppati themselves; the native Tiyppati script is thought to be extremely complicated and impossible to understand for common creatures, which is why they invented a much simpler script for missionary work.

Kiççazi phonology

This section is only relevant for the proper pronunciation of Kiççazi names. An account of the phonology of Tiyppati is available here.

Fricatives are voiced intervocalically, unless geminated.

/j/ is fortified and devoiced to [ç] when geminated or when following another consonant.

/ɾ/ becomes [l] in coda position, when geminated or when following another consonant.

The close vowels are realized as [i] and [u], respectively, when occurring next to another vowel, or when in a mono- or bisyllable with initial stress.

Stress is initial, unless the final syllable is heavy, in which case that syllable is stressed.

The five principles

The design of the Kerek is based on five cosmological principles.

I

The Tiyppati teach that the supreme god of the world is Aite [ˈʔa.itɛ]. Like the primordial chaos, Aite existed before everything. When the world ends, it will collapse back into Aite. In the eons sandwiched in between, everything that exists is Aite. Aite does not have a desire, consciousness, or principle of morality that can be understood in human terms. The only permitted way to depict Aite is by its name, as any other depiction is said to mislead the mind to think that one understands Aite.

There is nothing in the Kerek to symbolize Aite; or equivalently, everything in the Kerek symbolizes Aite. By the nature of Aite, one cannot establish a contrast between what Aite is and what Aite is not. In summary, Aite is really boring. Moving on.

II

Duality was established as Aite acted. In doing so, Aite asserted a sense of subjectivity, and could no longer be Aite. Aite became Ipey [ʔɪˈpɛj], the first actual god. Ipey is the god of virility, action, light, and the conscious mind. Predictably, this original divine action consisted of snapping the original dick pic.

This is the letter "t". All of the Kerek are formed from this vertical line.

Kerek manuscripts are always written such that the space between each vertical bar is the same as the width of a vertical bar. This is to illustrate that what is written is as important was what is not written. There is no definition without something to be defined against. Accordingly, when Aite drew the first Kerek, an opposite aspect emerged. This opposite is represented by Uni [ˈʔuni], the goddess of femininity, in- or reaction, dark, and the unconscious mind. Since there is no way to visually represent the lack of something, the aspect of Uni is indicated by adding a small circle to the end of the letter. Phonologically, this usually marks a sound as voiced.

One may see some parallels between this story and the biblical creation myth, where Eve is created from a rib of Adam. The Kiççazi perspective is somewhat less patriarchal, and maybe more similar to the duality of the Magician and High Priestess cards in Tarot. It is taught that Uni is a reaction to Ipey as much as Ipey is a reaction to Uni, and that the two contain each other in mystifying ways. For example, "something-ness" is ostensibly more than nothingness, and yet the letter of Ipey lacks the circle adornment that is added to Uni.

Uni may be less prominent than Ipey, but this does not mean she is secondary to him; on the contrary, Kiççazi culture values humility as a virtue and often elevates the unconscious above the conscious -- after all, the conscious thoughts of mortal men can't understand the divine, while the unconscious does so effortlessly. Sometimes, the circle of Uni is seen as representing divine perfection, contrasting with Ipey's profane lack thereof. In particular, since Kiççazi does not have phonemic voice distinctions, no letters with the aspect of Uni are used when adapting the Kerek to the people's language.

III

Ipey and Uni bonked and had three kids: Sazami, Ea and Nuniy. They represent a temporal order of things in the universe.

Sazami is a god of beginnings, and their domain is the heavens, where unborn souls reside. They are associated with raw sensory/sensual experience. Letters with the aspect of Sazami are curled towards the nucleus (i.e. to the right if in onset position, or to the left if in coda position), like an unopened flower bud. They represent labial sounds, like those first sounds spoken by infants.

Nuniy is a god of destruction, and their domain is the underworld, where souls travel to after death. From a cognitive perspective, they are associated with "aged" thoughts that are affected by the experience of having lived as a human, rather than just base instinct. Letters with the aspect of Nuniy are curled outwards from the nucleus (i.e. to the left if in onset position, or to the right if in coda position), like the petals of a wilted flower. Phonologically, they mark dorsal sounds, like a dying choke.

Ea is a god of lifetime, and their domain is the earth, where mortals live. In an apparent contradiction, Ea is both the most basic of the three siblings but also the most elusive. They form a gate between the sensory and the erudite, or the past and the future, coming together to meet somewhere in the middle and creating some notion of "here and now". The letters t and d encountered in the previous principle bore the aspect of Ea.

IV

In keeping with the ancient tradition of cosmological incest, the three siblings all bonked each other in pairs.

From the union of Sazami and Ea came Awretae, god of the earth. Letters bearing the aspect of Awretae are plosives, grounded and steadfast like the earth. All letters previously encountered bore this aspect.

From the union of Ea and Nuniy came the twins of Ezi and Eruw, gods of fire and water.

Ezi burns quickly and passionately as a flame. Letters with this aspect have a shorter stem, and represent fricatives.

Eruw is slow and calculated like the flow of water. Letters with this aspect have a longer stem. Ipey-Eruw letters are nasals while Uni-Eruw letters are liquids.

From the union of Sazami and Nuniy came Aruzi, god of air. Like air itself, Aruzi resists being contained; they have some characteristics of a trickster god. Letters bearing this aspect can have arbitrary length, but grow towards the vertical extreme instead of the vertical center. Phonologically, they encode various "odds and ends".

TODO draw Aruzi letters

V

We have now seen how to build all the 24 Kerek, but there's a final principle left. This is because we haven't learned how to write the five vowels yet.

Kerek syllables are formed by joining the feet of the last onset consonant to the feet of the firt coda consonant. The kind of vowel is indicated by optionally flipping all onset consonants, all coda consonants, or both. When the onset and/or coda positions are not occupied, the connecting line is simply left floating at the place where a vertical bar would go.

TODO illustrate

The vowels don't have gods associated to them, though they are often thought of as the fourth from the previous principle plus one additional one. They are:

• Aylis, "low", represents a-like vowels and is indicated by the lack of vertical flipping. It is associated with Awretae, as the earth is below us.
• Seture, "rising", represents e-like vowels and is indicated by vertically flipping the coda. It is associated with Ezi, as a flame rises upwards.
• Alçere, "falling", represents o-like vowels and is indicated by vertically flipping the onset. It is associated with Eruw, as water flows downwards.
• Pekey, "high", represents u-like vowels and is indicated by flipping both consonants. It is associated with Aruzi, as the sky is above us.
• Makkal, "extra" represents schwa and is indicated by a lack of connection. The flipping used depends on the closest "full" vowel. Makkal is somewhat associated with Aruzi, and could be seen as a parallel to the classical element of aether. In some manuscripts, schwa is distinguished from the lack of a vowel by writing it as a vertically centerred line, but this is not that common.

The connecting lines of these vowels follow the opposite motion of that suggested by the names, which may be somewhat confusing.

Each of the four core vowels represents three vowel phonemes of Tiyppati. They are usually not distinguished, but some manuscripts distinguish them with diacritical marks:

TODO fill table

Evolution

TODO