A sample of _Kamlups Wawa_ for you to try! (long reply about font ideas)

[Mike Cleven]

David Robertson wrote:
>
> A tiny note:  _Kamlups Wawa_ is written in a shorthand alphabet, not
> really a syllabary.
>
> In other word it's written with a symbol for each sound, rather than a
> symbol per syllable.
>
> Several linguists at one conference I attended were under the same
> impression you had, Jeff.  The Duployan shorthand writing doesn't look
> like any alphabet at all, at first glance.

Like most ;-)

Shorthand looks funnier than most, though; and it is typically purely
phonemic and very compressed.  Given the limited number of words in the
Jargon, any development of typeset might just have evolved into
block-combinations that would resemble ideographic glyphs; but they'd
actually be word-glyphs, kind of like each separate Latin-script word,
or maybe syllable glyphs (ko, pa, etc.).  Of course the Kamloops Wawa is
written in full script, almost with no separations between words -
unlike a glyphic script where each word is its own character.  But
because once you recognize each of the 800-odd word lexicon of the
Jargon the effect _does_ become glyphic and it becomes practical to read
each word as a recognizable visual object; you look and you know that
it's "skookum" or "hyas" or whatever by instant recognition.  The
combination of phonetic elements into formal combinations is sort of the
way Korean Hangul works, each separate word in the being formed from set
combinations of the various phoneme glyphs (it may look like Chinese or
Japanese, but it doesn't work that way; Hangul are not ideograms).  One
thing about the Kamloops script, though, is that it has a different
look; reminiscent of the "ranch" atmosphere of the Central Interior; I
recall seeing big-board signs and ranch gates written in big bold
scrawlings in the old days (pre-70) that now I realize must have been
Jargon script; indeed mostly in the Spences
Bridge-Ashcroft-Merritt-Kamloops region, and I think in the Clinton-100
Mile House area as well although I don't think the script was ever
current in Lillooet; it was a long time ago and I can't remember details
about locations.  But apparently the use of the script was widely known
by many in the region, obviously those in the ranching business but who
knows what else.....I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older
registered ranch brands in BC turned out to have some Jargon in them,
matter of fact I'm sure some of them do.  Hmmmmm.  Promise to look that
one up when I'm up that way later in the week.