Rokadong Orthography

Information about the artlang created by Astaryuu

Romanization

Rokadong consonants are written as in Indonesian, with the single exception of <sh> replacing <sy> where /ʃ/ is phonemic (to differentiate it from /sj/). Hence, all consonants are written as seen in the IPA with the following exceptions:

• /ɲ/ is written as ny, except when before <c> or <j>, in which case the y is dropped
• /ŋ/ is written as ng
• /tʃ/ is written as c
• /dʒ/ is written as j
• /ɾ/ is written as r (this includes all of its allophones)
• /ʃ/ is written as sh
• /j/ is written as y in the onset (and in i-on-glide diphthongs) and i in the coda (in i-off-glide diphthongs)
• /w/ is written as w in the onset and u in the coda (in diphthongs)
• /ʔ/ is written as h

Rokadong short vowels are written correspondingly to the sounds in Spanish (also their IPA equivalents). Long vowels are written with an acute accent over the short vowel being lengthened. Two vowels that are next to each other and aren't diphthongs, but may be confused for them, are written with an apostrophe in the romanization. This does not include coda-less /i/, because the "diphthongs" are written with <y>. Assimilated nasals word-medially are written as they are spoken except when separated by a dash.

This romanization system is thus quite phonemic, as two of the three cases where two phonemes use the same letter could be analyzed as the other anyway (as in the pairs /j/ /i/ and /w/ /u/). The third pair, /ʔ/ and /h/, does not form any liminal pairs in Rokadong, and in some dialects, they are allophones, so technically both pronunciations are acceptable. Note that this is a phonemic transcription, not a phonetic one - for example, /sihiŋ/ is written as "sihing" despite being commonly pronounced [ʃihɪŋ] (or [ɕihɪŋ], but this would be spelled the same way).

The romanization will be used in all cases on this website, except when demonstrating an aspect of the Rokadong script (which will be written in the Rokadong script) or when showing a pronunciation (which will be written in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Rokadong script

Rokadong natively uses an abugida, which is a form of alphabet where each consonant has an implicit vowel and other vowels are written using diacritical marks on the form with the implicit vowel. In the case of Rokadong, the implicit vowel is a. The null vowel is used to mark that a consonant should be in the coda of the preceding consonant's vowel, though it is not used word-finally. Natively this script is known as telajang ("branch letters"), though a common nickname for them is curakjang ("mountain letters") due to many of the letters' resemblance to mountain peaks.

In-universe, this script derives from an older Nenta script, a more calligraphic abugida whose letters were simplified due to a medium change to writing on bark or leaves, as paper was less abundant when the original Nenta speakers stopped trading with mainland Nenta speakers.

Assimilated nasals inside morphemes are typically not written in their assimilated form, instead taking on a more historic spelling that may or may not align with the assimilated nasal. Rokajang may be written as the assimilated consonant for clarity. Assimilated nasals between morphemes are never written as assimilated, only as the original letter.

Syllable boundaries that could be confused with diphthongs are not marked either; as with the romanized script, this doesn't affect /i/ because, for example, the "diphthong" /ja/ is written with the character for /j/ and no diacritic on the preceding consonant, while the vowel /i.a/ is written with a diacritic on the preceding consonant and the character for /a/: kya KY, kia iKA. kaya can be confused for kya though, as both are KY.

The Rokadong abugida is inspired by the Rejang abugida, also known as Kaganga script, borrowing its italic motif. However, Rokadong looks different to Rejang, and contains consonants not present in Rejang, as well as phonemic vowel length, so it cannot be written using Rejang.

A font, known as AH Rokajang <AiH RoKJ]>, has been made to fix this issue. This can be downloaded here. Please note the following before use:

• As Rokadong orthography has more consonants than English orthography does, the [, ], and " keys have also been used. All characters represented with monographs, except for the glottal stop, are on whichever key corresponds to the romanization for that character. If a vowel has no onset consonant, use A/a as null consonant. If a coda consonant other than one of the five characters with coda versions is required, type X/x as null vowel after that consonant.
• For all consonants except the nasals, vowels, and the glottal stop, either capital or lowercase letters will work. This is because these characters take on multiple different forms:
• For the nasals and glottal stop, uppercase (shift plus the key) is used for the character in the onset, while lowercase (the key itself) is used for the character in the coda.
• For the vowels except A, capital is long and lowercase is short. To type a long A, follow the consonant character with A/a.
• If a vowel has no onset, type A for the null consonant.
• I/i and E/e need to be typed before the consonant they apply to. U/u, O/o, and X/x need to be typed after the consonant they apply to.
• The consonants represented with digraphs in romanization CQ{} are placed on the c, q, [, and ] keys respectively ({ and } for the onset versions of nya and ang). The glottal stop " is placed on the ' key (" for the onset version).
• Numbers, the period, and the comma are also supported. Lead any number string with #, and finish it with @, like this: #123@ #123@

The dictionary will include words both romanized and in AH Rokajang.

Rokadong may also be written using Sanényan script, known as terajang ("leaf script"). These will not be included in the dictionary, and spellings are based on the romanized script. See Sanényan orthography for details.