01-06-2018, 04:54 PM
Due to the recent discussion of Abkhaz as a candidate-language, I would like to note that the main problem with the "invented script for a language with no alphabet" approach that I see is as follows.
The most obvious thing one would do to assist writing in a language with no alphabet is try to adopt some existing alphabet to that purpose. That's how things worked many times in history, from Slavonic to Hawaiian. In the case when there are sounds which could not be covered by the prototype alphabet, you will introduce new letters. You typically will not start with less common symbols.
There might be cases though when the new alphabet is mostly synthetic (i.e does not directly derive from a known alphabet). That's how the things most probably stood with the Glagolitic alphabet. It's far more older than the VMS, but it's a valid example anyway.
But even that being the case, the first thing you would do, having designed a new alphabet for your illiterate friends, is you would write some religious books using it - as many books as you can. Because the main purpose of designing a new alphabet is to extend political influence. Cyril and Methodius were missionaries, not horticulturists. You won't invent a new script to write a herbal in it. You won't even bother to make the local folks happy with a herbal. What you would like them to be happy with instead would be a Bible in their native language and some liturgical texts - of your own confession, of course.
A herbal in a new script could appear even if sufficient mass of people adopted the new script over time and were educated using that script (i.e. studies employing the new script would have been made available, otherwise you just would not be able to express complex notions). That implies, that, in between, you would have many books of religious and official nature available, - which would be better preserved over time, because they are being kept in secured places (like churches, fortified buildings etc). It's virtually impossible that that vast corpus would be entirely lost, while a single obscure herbal survives.
So for me looking for some exotic languages is a waste of time. Of more interest is thinking about what could be done to a fairly common contemporary language to make it resemble the properties of Voynichese.
The most obvious thing one would do to assist writing in a language with no alphabet is try to adopt some existing alphabet to that purpose. That's how things worked many times in history, from Slavonic to Hawaiian. In the case when there are sounds which could not be covered by the prototype alphabet, you will introduce new letters. You typically will not start with less common symbols.
There might be cases though when the new alphabet is mostly synthetic (i.e does not directly derive from a known alphabet). That's how the things most probably stood with the Glagolitic alphabet. It's far more older than the VMS, but it's a valid example anyway.
But even that being the case, the first thing you would do, having designed a new alphabet for your illiterate friends, is you would write some religious books using it - as many books as you can. Because the main purpose of designing a new alphabet is to extend political influence. Cyril and Methodius were missionaries, not horticulturists. You won't invent a new script to write a herbal in it. You won't even bother to make the local folks happy with a herbal. What you would like them to be happy with instead would be a Bible in their native language and some liturgical texts - of your own confession, of course.
A herbal in a new script could appear even if sufficient mass of people adopted the new script over time and were educated using that script (i.e. studies employing the new script would have been made available, otherwise you just would not be able to express complex notions). That implies, that, in between, you would have many books of religious and official nature available, - which would be better preserved over time, because they are being kept in secured places (like churches, fortified buildings etc). It's virtually impossible that that vast corpus would be entirely lost, while a single obscure herbal survives.
So for me looking for some exotic languages is a waste of time. Of more interest is thinking about what could be done to a fairly common contemporary language to make it resemble the properties of Voynichese.