The term "Nazra'yot" refers to the writing of
Nazra'yo.
Typeface
This is how a typical sentence in the Nazra'yot looks like:
( 2501 ) sentence beginning — "nazra" — "t'eela" —
bracket opened — 2501 —
bracket closed — "yhoko" —
sentence endEach Yot (font symbol) corresponds to a word and is connected to the next by the baseline. Only by numbers the baseline is interrupted. According to the beginning of the sentence (filled circle) and end (empty circle) the line is read from left to right. However, depending on the situation, the direction of the sentence can be reversed, thus the eyes can capture a text without interruption.
Yot
Yot are the words in Nazra'yot. The filigree writing symbols are built around a core (circle) and connected with each other by a thin line for the formation of a sentence. This baseline separates the symbol into an upper and a lower half (red and blue in the example). Typically, these halves are divided into 3 sectors each:
Each of these sectors is able to take in a building block. The numbering shows the order in which the Yot get filled. Regardless of this, the reading direction always remains the same; it begins top-right and runs counter-clockwise:
In addition to this subdivision, there're also buildings blocks that fill a quarter or half of the Yot. Accordingly, these are referred to as quarter and half words. Thus, in one half of the Yot, either 3 syllables, 2 half words or 1 half word can be accommodated. A combination of syllable and quarter word is also possible, whereby a gap of 30 ° is created:
Number of possible words
The limitation to a circle symbol with a maximum of 6 sectors means that no word in the Nazra'yot can be longer than 6 syllables. First, it sounds limited, but the nazran alphabet knows 60 different building blocks (incl. quarter- and half-words).
From this, the following calculation can be made:
| Word with 2 sectors: |
8 ^ 2 |
64 |
| Word with 4 sectors: |
16 ^ 4 |
65'536 |
| Word with 6 sectors: |
36 ^ 6 |
2'176'782'336 |
| Word with combined sectors: |
(div.) |
265'603'484 |
... which gives a total of around 2.44 billion possible words (of which many synonyms).
This number represents a technical upper limit. Some of these words can't be used in language usage, just as in German, where most letter combinations doesn't make sense as well (e.g. "Xqlzfy"). However, the Nazra'yot building blocks are mostly syllables, thus much more combinations can be pronounced at least.
Yota'ra
Yota'ra (literally: letter-community) is the alphabet of the Nazra which contains a set of 60 building blocks with single letters, syllables or entire words.
Letters and syllables
The basic building blocks of the Nazra'yot are the following 12 single letters (highlighted in yellow), from which 24 more syllables are formed. If several letters are entered in the table, they aren't distinguished in the Nazra'yo; e.g. "Ka" and "Ga" are the same symbol. The complexity of the individual symbols roughly reflects their rarity in language usage.
Partial words
In addition, there're 16 quarter and 8 half words which are mainly composed by the preceding letters or syllables. New are the letters X and H as well as selected syllables with R:
Some symbols haven't been defined yet.
Synonyms
Except for the single letters, all symbols of the Yota'ra build upon one another; thus "Ta" can be formed as single syllable or from "T" and "A" separately. Accordingly, almost every word can be put together in different ways. For example, instead of "Naz-ra" it's possible to write "N'a'z-ra", what would look like this:
or
While this causes a great optical change, the essential meaning of the word remains the same. The different spellings can best be called synonyms, such as a house can be called benevolently "Residence" or derogatory "Ramshackle Hut". In this way, the Nazra'yot attempts to depict the telepathic component of the language with which such subtleties would be transmitted in direct conversations.
In order to find the "usual" notation of a Yot, The following rules are useful:
- prefer complex building blocks (use Naz instead of N'a'z)
- promote summaries (continuous lines are better)
- avoid mix-ups (preferably different building blocks)
Here, in the Nazrapedia, the nazran phonetic is provided with apostrophes (letter separators) and hyphens (to change the lower half of the symbol) to clarify the used spelling. In principle, however, "Laydankon" is just as correct as "Lay'dan-kon". Also upper and lower case has no importance for the phonetic.
Aesthetics
Nazra prefer straight lines, therefore they avoid superfluous interruptions as far as possible. For that matter, basic line as well as sector separators get decoupled from the core. In the case of a double letter or a continuous line, the separators are omitted completely.
Example: Yot-aa'n (Book):
becomes
First, the basic line is separated from the core – depending on the symbol, it can be removed right instead, but not on both sides at the same time. The sector separator between the two As (bottom/left) is superfluous since the lines match on both sides of the separator, thus it can be completely eliminated. At the end, the last sector separator (bottom-right) can be decoupled from the core. Frequently attempts are being made to create contiguous forms, like the empty arc at the core.
Foreign characters
In the original Nazra'yo there were no names and designations, this need arose only after use of the language in everyday life. At that time, the human phonetic was already known, thus it was decided to use their alphabet (often only upper-case letter) for the display of names. The grammar requires brackets around the phonetics, although younger Nazra prefer to skip them.
Example:
( THOMAS
) "A'ka-ni THOMAS" — "(My) name (is) Thomas."
