Carrier syllabics


Carrier or Déné syllabics is a script created by Adrien-Gabriel Morice for the Carrier language. It was inspired by Cree syllabics and is one of the writing systems in the Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Unicode range.

History

The Dakelh people once enjoyed extensive literacy with the script. It is recorded that it was often used to write messages on trees, and Morice published a newspaper in syllabics which was in print from 1891 to 1894. Some transcriptions of Latin and English have been recorded as well. Its usage began to decline around 1920, when the Carrier language was banned from the local schools. In liturgical publications, such as prayer books, the Carrier language became written in a non-standard form of the Latin alphabet, which used many English sound values, such as for and for. The switch was rather abrupt, to the point that parents would write in syllabics and their children would write in the alphabet, and neither could understand the other's writing.
In the 1960s, the Carrier Linguistic Committee in Fort St. James created a standardized form of the Latin alphabet for usage in the Carrier language. This is now the preferred form of writing the language, although Carrier syllabics is still often seen as more authentic to the culture.

Description

Carrier syllabics is designed so that syllables which begin with the same consonant have the same basic form. Depending on the following vowel, this form may be rotated, flipped, or a diacritic may be added in the centre which is a short stroke for ⟨e⟩ and a centre dot for ⟨i⟩. There are special characters for consonants at the end of a syllable.
Carrier syllabics is written from left to right. Morice originally intended to have regular spacing between words; however, in practice, the letters were sporadically spaced, and the gaps between them did not often correlate to separate words. There was no formally defined punctuation; Morice used the modern punctuation of the Latin alphabet.
u oə eiano vowel
∅ᐁᐃᐅᐈᐉᐊ
ʔ ᐧᐁᐧᐃᐧᐅᐧᐈᐧᐉᐧᐊᐧ
hᐯᐱᐳᐶᐷᐸᑋ
p ᗨᗩᗪᗫᗬᗭᗮ
x ᗄᗅᗆᗇᗈᗉᐥ
ɣ ᗊᗋᗌᗍᗎᗏᐦ
wᗐᗑᗒᗓᗔᗕᐃ
xʷ ᗖᗗᗘᗙᗚᗛ
t ᑌᑎᑐᑓᑔᑕᐪ
tʰ ᗜᗝᗞᗟᗠᗡ
tʼᗢᗣᗤᗥᗦᗧ
k ᗯᗰᗱᗲᗳᗴᐟ
kʰ ᗵᗶᗷᗸᗹᗺᐠ
kʼᗻᗼᗽᗾᗿᘀᘁ
nᘂᘃᘄᘅᘆᘇᐣ
ngᐡ
mᘈᘉᘊᘋᘌᘍᑦ
j ᘎᘏᘐᘑᘒᘓ
tʃ ᘔᘖᘗᘘᘙᘛ
tʃʼ ᘜᘝᘞᘟᘠᘡ
lᘢᘣᘤᘥᘦᘧᑊ
tɬ ᘨᘩᘪᘫᘬᘭ
ɬ ᘮᘯᘰᘱᘲᘳᒡ
tɬʰ ᘴᘵᘶᘷᘸᘹ
tɬʼ ᘺᘻᘼᘽᘾᘿ
zᙀᙁᙂᙃᙄᙅᙆ
ẕᙇ
ts ᙈᙉᙊᙋᙌᙍ
sᙎᙏᙐᙑᙒᙓᔆ
s̱ᣵ
ʃ ᙔᙕᙖᙗᙘᙙᙚ
tʃʰ ᙛᙜᙝᙞᙟᙠ
tsʰ ᙡᙢᙣᙤᙥᙦ
tsʼᙧᙨᙩᙪᙫᙬ

u oə eiano vowel
kʷ ᐟᗐᐟᗑᐟᗒᐟᗓᐟᗔᐟᗕ
kʰʷ ᐠᗐᐠᗑᐠᗒᐠᗓᐠᗔᐠᗕ
kʷʼ ᘁᗐᘁᗑᘁᗒᘁᗓᘁᗔᘁᗕ
ts ᐪz
tsʰ ᐪs
f ᶣᐁᶣᐃᶣᐅᶣᐈᶣᐉᶣᐊᶣ
pʼ ᗮᗨᗮᗩᗮᗪᗮᗫᗮᗬᗮᗭᗮᗮ
r rᐁrᐃrᐅrᐈrᐉrᐊ+
v ᘁᗨᘁᗩᘁᗪᘁᗫᘁᗬᘁᗭᘁᗮ
ʒ ᙇᙔᙇᙕᙇᙖᙇᙗᙇᙘᙇᙙᙇᙚ

Suffix or indicates long vowels. There is a final for, and an initial for French j. There are no dedicated series for ; presumably the vowelless variants of are combined with the series, since only occurs finally. A variant of ᔆ is used for the laminal/apical distinction, but it is not supported by Unicode and in any case the rest of the series is missing.
Prefix marks proper names.
Unicode has interchanged the and series compared to Morice : they have and rather than and . Some fonts have ᘨ dlu reversed: the serif should be on the left, as in lu, not the right as in tlu.

Unicode

Carrier syllabics has been included in Unicode, along with related Canadian Aboriginal scripts, which use the same codes where they share glyphs.