The Lantean Alphabet
The traditional Atlantean (Lantean) alphabet contains twenty-five letters arranged in a pattern whose origins have yet to be determined. Ancient influence on the Levant can be seen by the fact that the Phoenician and other alphabets, while drawing their forms from, as is now commonly thought, simplified forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, largely copied the Lantean order (replacing several Lantean consonants and vowels with local consonants that either had no equivalent in Ancient or were represented by combinations, and leaving other vowels out entirely.)
As can be seen, the formal versions of the Lantean letters are highly stylized and single-case. Lantean handwriting shows the development of majuscule and minuscule forms -- whether these eventually represented a true upper and lower case is yet to be determined; see Jackson, Hernandes, and Hernandes (2006) -- and reveals that the letters are technically reversible, as is the direction of writing; standard practice in Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy is that the nonbilaterally symmetrical letters point in the direction one is supposed to read. This practice is echoed in the print/inscription texts, where the direction follows the stylized forms and reads from right to left and then always from top to bottom; note that this subordination of writing direction to letter direction is NOT practiced in several important inscriptions in the Milky Way, where although the same left-facing letters are used the writing goes from left to right, top to bottom -- or even left to right, bottom to top. (Jackson, 2004)
The stylized letters, however, always face left. The reason for this is uncertain; it has been suggested that the alphabet reached its definitive form among Ancients who were predominantly left-handed, which might also explain the usual right-to-left direction. (Corrigan and Hernandes, 2005)
While Ancient pronunciation seems to have varied somewhat over the millennia (Hernandes et al., 2005), the values given here seem to approximate what remained largely the base values -- that is, values tied as loosely as, say, the English alphabet, with similar instances of silent letters or otherwise alternative pronunciation. In several texts, the meanings and readings of the twentieth and twenty-first letters are reversed; the reason for this is presently unclear (Jackson, 2004), but the alphabet is here given as in most recent usage.
is so named because it tends to soften from a k before the so-called "soft vowels."
can be a consonant, used as the second element of a diphthong (either an -i diphthong or a lengthener, as in English), or an unvoiced vowel; still, not counting the sloppy habit of using a
to represent an "ai" ligature -- particularly as the handwritten custom is for the second letter of such a ligature to be subscript relative to the other -- in the same way that "B" is sometimes used for the German "sz" ligature "ß," the only letter to fully do double duty as consonant and vowel is
.
is the same breathy s used in several languages and in the Ancient words more commonly rendered "Asura" and "Asegaard" (the latter more commonly yet simply translated "Asgard"); note that the Asurans spell themselves
.
The combinations
"x,"
"j," and
"sh" are often written as ligatures, but never so inscribed. It is probable that the compounds
and
are meant to be read as thorn and eth respectively, as in Gatespeak; certainly it is on this basis that the title
has been translated Myrddin (Hernandes, March 2005), although it has been pointed out that the Welsh "Myrddin" is far more likely to be directly derived from moridun (Corrigan, July 2005) -- coincidentally, the young grandson of Councillor Moros Silva (one of the last to be named
on Atlantis) seems to have been named "Moridunus Aehs." (Jackson, November 2005)
The Lantean alphabet is still widely used in the Pegasus Galaxy, particularly for Gatespeak, but also for many local languages. Lantean inscriptions -- and, to some extent, Lantean handwriting -- are the basis for most of the other alphabets used in the Pegasus Galaxy, including the Athosian, Hoffan, and Aramite, and for handwritten alphabets such as Genic or Manarian cursive. Notable exceptions include the syllabic Satedan Conceptary and the Geldarian Alfabit (which latter still owes much of its order at least to the Lantean alphabet, via certain intermediaries). (Hernandes, McKay, and Weir, 2007) In all of these Lantean and Lantean-derived alphabets, writing direction once again follows the direction of the letters. Depending on the people using it, said direction may be standardized as left-to-right, right-to-left, boustrophedon, or rotated ninety degrees and written top-down; other cultures leave letter and therefore writing direction to the discretion of the scriber.
The Atlantean Expedition has by-and-large adopted the Lantean alphabet to write Gatespeak, although transcription of names and of various non-automatically-translated ideas or concepts tends to vary wildly between forcing the Lantean alphabet into some kind of one-to-one correspondence with the writer's own, spelling things as phonetically as possible, or some sort of makeshift between the two extremes. (It is notable, however, that nearly all of the Tellurians make use of the European innovation known as "spaces between words," itself an unvention of the Lantean convention for backlit text; "Tellurian spacing" or "Geldarian spacing" has become known if dubiously regarded by many of the worlds of Pegasus, and enthusiastically adopted by the Athosians, Pastorales [as the inhabitants of M7G-677 recently renamed themselves] and Genic librettists.)
As can be seen, the formal versions of the Lantean letters are highly stylized and single-case. Lantean handwriting shows the development of majuscule and minuscule forms -- whether these eventually represented a true upper and lower case is yet to be determined; see Jackson, Hernandes, and Hernandes (2006) -- and reveals that the letters are technically reversible, as is the direction of writing; standard practice in Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy is that the nonbilaterally symmetrical letters point in the direction one is supposed to read. This practice is echoed in the print/inscription texts, where the direction follows the stylized forms and reads from right to left and then always from top to bottom; note that this subordination of writing direction to letter direction is NOT practiced in several important inscriptions in the Milky Way, where although the same left-facing letters are used the writing goes from left to right, top to bottom -- or even left to right, bottom to top. (Jackson, 2004)
The stylized letters, however, always face left. The reason for this is uncertain; it has been suggested that the alphabet reached its definitive form among Ancients who were predominantly left-handed, which might also explain the usual right-to-left direction. (Corrigan and Hernandes, 2005)
While Ancient pronunciation seems to have varied somewhat over the millennia (Hernandes et al., 2005), the values given here seem to approximate what remained largely the base values -- that is, values tied as loosely as, say, the English alphabet, with similar instances of silent letters or otherwise alternative pronunciation. In several texts, the meanings and readings of the twentieth and twenty-first letters are reversed; the reason for this is presently unclear (Jackson, 2004), but the alphabet is here given as in most recent usage.
is so named because it tends to soften from a k before the so-called "soft vowels."
can be a consonant, used as the second element of a diphthong (either an -i diphthong or a lengthener, as in English), or an unvoiced vowel; still, not counting the sloppy habit of using a
to represent an "ai" ligature -- particularly as the handwritten custom is for the second letter of such a ligature to be subscript relative to the other -- in the same way that "B" is sometimes used for the German "sz" ligature "ß," the only letter to fully do double duty as consonant and vowel is
.
is the same breathy s used in several languages and in the Ancient words more commonly rendered "Asura" and "Asegaard" (the latter more commonly yet simply translated "Asgard"); note that the Asurans spell themselves
.
The combinations
"x,"
"j," and
"sh" are often written as ligatures, but never so inscribed. It is probable that the compounds
and
are meant to be read as thorn and eth respectively, as in Gatespeak; certainly it is on this basis that the title
has been translated Myrddin (Hernandes, March 2005), although it has been pointed out that the Welsh "Myrddin" is far more likely to be directly derived from moridun (Corrigan, July 2005) -- coincidentally, the young grandson of Councillor Moros Silva (one of the last to be named
on Atlantis) seems to have been named "Moridunus Aehs." (Jackson, November 2005)
The Lantean alphabet is still widely used in the Pegasus Galaxy, particularly for Gatespeak, but also for many local languages. Lantean inscriptions -- and, to some extent, Lantean handwriting -- are the basis for most of the other alphabets used in the Pegasus Galaxy, including the Athosian, Hoffan, and Aramite, and for handwritten alphabets such as Genic or Manarian cursive. Notable exceptions include the syllabic Satedan Conceptary and the Geldarian Alfabit (which latter still owes much of its order at least to the Lantean alphabet, via certain intermediaries). (Hernandes, McKay, and Weir, 2007) In all of these Lantean and Lantean-derived alphabets, writing direction once again follows the direction of the letters. Depending on the people using it, said direction may be standardized as left-to-right, right-to-left, boustrophedon, or rotated ninety degrees and written top-down; other cultures leave letter and therefore writing direction to the discretion of the scriber.
The Atlantean Expedition has by-and-large adopted the Lantean alphabet to write Gatespeak, although transcription of names and of various non-automatically-translated ideas or concepts tends to vary wildly between forcing the Lantean alphabet into some kind of one-to-one correspondence with the writer's own, spelling things as phonetically as possible, or some sort of makeshift between the two extremes. (It is notable, however, that nearly all of the Tellurians make use of the European innovation known as "spaces between words," itself an unvention of the Lantean convention for backlit text; "Tellurian spacing" or "Geldarian spacing" has become known if dubiously regarded by many of the worlds of Pegasus, and enthusiastically adopted by the Athosians, Pastorales [as the inhabitants of M7G-677 recently renamed themselves] and Genic librettists.)