A blog about rook script, an alternative writing system for English
by Reductive Group
There are two major components of spelling in rook script. The second most important is breaking words into syllables, done by placing syllable boundaries. Every syllable has a vowel, so syllable boundaries determine which consonants correspond to which vowels. Syllable boundaries are written with · in standard romanization. For example, the word “biome|bai·oum” has a syllable boundary the only place it could possibly go. The set of consonants in a syllable that come before the vowel is known as the onset. The set of consonants that follow the vowel is the coda. If a consonant is to the left of a syllable boundary, then it is a coda consonant (of the preceding syllable), and to the right it is an onset consonant.
This page briefly overviews the factors to consider when placing syllable boundaries in rook script.
The first rule of syllable boundaries is that you should not place letters together in a way they can’t be pronounced. For example the word “sigma” has two syllables and needs a boundary between the i and the ə. The only place it can go is between g and m, otherwise one or the other syllable has a cluster /gm/, which is unpronounceable both in onset and coda; thus we have “sigma|sig·mə”.
This rule includes avoiding clusters that are awkward or unwieldy, not just impossible. For example, the name “Magdalene|mag·də·lən” avoids placing gd together in the coda for comfort, although words like “flagged|flagd” show it is perfectly pronounceable.
Some more examples of syllable boundaries determined by this rule alone:
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| exchange | eks·cheinj |
| abscess | ab·ses |
| rashly | rash·lii |
| cohort | kou·hourt |
| singing | siing·iing |
| boiler | boi·lər |
| virus | vai·ris |
| backyard | bak·yord |
The difference between onset and coda can sometimes affect the way a consonant or nearby vowel is pronounced. This is most noticeable with the letter t. At the start of words it tends to be pronounced strongly at the starts of words and weakly at the ends of them (meaning flapped, unreleased, dropped entirely, etc.). This can also be reflected within individual syllables: if t is the first letter of an onset it is usually pronounced strong, and if it’s in a coda it is pronounced weak. This way we see a difference between the t of “between|bii·twiin” and the t of “beaten|biit·ən”.
Several consonants also have effects on the vowels before them when they appear in the coda, especially r and l. And sometimes pairs of consonants have distinct pronunciations together, especially tr and dr.
Here are some examples of words where placement in onset and coda reflects different sounds made by at least one of the letters.
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| butter | bət·ər |
| deter | dii·tər |
| humanity | hyuu·man·it·ii |
| manatee | man·ə·tii |
| satin | sat·in |
| sateen | sa·tiin |
| pearl | pər·əl |
| parole | pə·roul |
| barrel | beir·əl |
| payroll | pei·roul |
| tailor | teil·ər |
| Taylor | tei·lər |
| bedraggle | bii·drag·əl |
| bedrock | bed·rok |
Really this is the same principle as the first: it’s awkward to pronounce a short vowel the at the end of a word, and in rook script that is reflected on the syllable level. Officially, however, it’s less important to avoid ending a syllable on a short vowel than to avoid awkward consonant clusters, so the vowel rule has more exceptions.
The vowels that always need codas are e, a, and u. In stressed syllables, the letters i and ə do as well, though in unstressed syllables they represent the weak vowel which does not need a coda. Note that o does not need a coda, even though it is often referred to as a short vowel.
Some examples of syllable boundaries determined by vowel checking:
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| ledger | lej·ər |
| savage | sav·ij |
| pushy | push·ii |
| spatula | spat·chuu·lə |
And some exceptions:
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| bittern | bi·tərn |
| satire | sa·tai·ər |
| metallic | me·tal·ik |
| yeah | ya |
In rook script, stressed syllables attract consonants and unstressed syllables repel them. This often aligns with the rules above, but not always. Let’s see some examples.
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| basic | beis·ik |
| under | ənd·ər |
| pastry | peis·trii |
| active | akt·iv |
| survey (noun) | sərv·ei |
| become | bii·kəm |
| indeed | in·diid |
| restrict | rii·strikt |
| activity | ak·tiv·it·ii |
| survey (verb) | sər·vei |
This is the trickiest consideration. The problem is that in English, it’s difficult to neatly break a word into morphemes. If it were easier, rook script would have a much simpler system for syllable boundaries with morphology as a primary consideration. As it is, the rules above largely attempt to settle most morphology cases by other means.
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| backstroke | bak·strouk |
| aging | eij·iing |
| logical | loj·ik·əl |
| summation | səm·ei·shən |
| maybe | mei·bii |
If the above considerations do not determine a syllable boundary, it falls to a linguistic tradition known as the principle of maximum onset. Most of the situations where this applies are between fully unstressed syllables, but there are also proper nouns and some long clusters between pairs of stressed syllables where it is relevant.
| Latin | rook (romanized) |
|---|---|
| terrible | teir·ə·bəl |
| philosophy | fi·los·ə·fii |
| company | kəmp·ə·nii |