Rlaan writing

[rubikcube]

Rlaan written language appears as a sequence of characters consisting of one to four slashes in each of four quadrants formed by a pair of crossed lines. It is read in a counterclockwise spiral out from a blank central region that is reserved for the signature glyphs of the author.

So I thought how about doing this so that it's understandable? Here it is, the white line is only for us humans for being able to follow the line, the Rlaan themselves wouldn't need this of course.
http://flickr.com/photos/16253119@N00/32650093/
This is on of the first Rlaan writing artefacts, recovered from a long abandoned planet. It seemed to serve some decorative purposes.

[chuck_starchaser]

Looks nice; the way I understand the text description though, is that each character looks like a "+" where 1 to 4 of the quadrants have a line in it.
Are you planning to come up with the language?

[theguyfromsaturn]

Yes, I also understood from the description that each character should have a crosshair. Also, isn't it supposed to be read in a "counterclockwise" direction out from a central area occupied by the author's glyph?

The way I understand it also, each of the quadrants can have 1 to 4 slashes... so a character might be up to 16 slashes (not counting the crosshair). A question though, are those slashes supposed to be diagonal with respect to the crosshairs? I also don't know (but haven't read the Wiki ) if their language is alphabetic or ideographic. Is there some idication as to the number of characters?

[Lord Q'Daan]

Code: Select all

\   /|    /
  .  |  .
/    |
-----------      = 0*4^3+2*4^2+0*4^1+1*4^0 = 33   (the slashes are radial with respect to the center of the sub-char)
    /|\   /     
  .  |  .
     | 

(note that the dots indicate that this is a number)


There is only one signature glyph per work. The glyph is at the center of a given piece of writing. There is no expectation that the glyph can be readily spoken. The name of the Rlaan can be written and pronounced, but the signature glyph is... a signature

Code: Select all

GFEDC
H432B
I5g1A
J6789
KLMNOP

gives the order of the first 25 chars and the glyph.

-from a PM exchange with JackS

[jackS]

Rlaan with really bad handwriting (and featuring a number, in this case, 12)

It's a non-overloaded phonetic alphabet augmented with a fairly large number of punctuating characters. Rlaan speech features a very large distinguishable number of sounds, due to having 4 mouths, each capable of independently buzzing, clacking, chirping, rumbling, or vocalizing with different frequencies and intonations. They therefore have a very large phonetic alphabet.

[Lord Q'Daan]

lol, 1 minute difference

[rubikcube]

OK, many thanks for the "official" feedback, now at last I know how to do more Rlaan artwork I suppose that counting works clockwise (as opposed to the bigger spiral) with the lowest part being in the lower right? This would be consistent with jackS's "12" and Lord Q'Daan's "33". Well, see you in the artwork forum again soon.

[jackS]

OK, many thanks for the "official" feedback, now at last I know how to do more Rlaan artwork I suppose that counting works clockwise (as opposed to the bigger spiral) with the lowest part being in the lower right? This would be consistent with jackS's "12" and Lord Q'Daan's "33". Well, see you in the artwork forum again soon.

ummm no
Counting is also counterclockwise, but from the top right. Check your 33 again.

[rubikcube]

OK, if you take the highest quadrant first, that's correct. For converting from base 4 to 10 I personally prefer taking the lowest power first.
To set it clear again:

Code: Select all

     |     
 4^2 | 4^3
     |
-----------
     |          
 4^1 | 4^0
     | 
with:
    /
  .    = 0
     
\   /
  .    = 1
     
\   /
  .    = 2
/    

\   /
  .    = 3
/   \