Bullywug Updates/Changes

The way we created the orthography (writing system) for Bullywug means that a few things need to change about the syntax. I’ve also just plain changed my mind on a few things after looking at more conlanging resources and thinking more about Bullywug culture. 

Syllable Structure:

In Bullywug, there are base characters for consonants and characters that represent syllables. The base characters are arrangements of dots that the syllabic characters are based off of, and thus much less interesting than the syllabic characters. The previous syllable structure I had of (C)(C)V(C)(ʔ) not only would’ve been impossible because vowels can’t stand on their own, but it also would’ve looked odd with so many dots. When I’m finished with the font for Bullywug I’m creating, I’ll add some examples here. So, the new syllable structure will be (C)CV(C).

Vowels

In creating the orthography it made the most sense to combine some vowels, (‘a’ and ‘æ’ as well as ‘ʌ’ and ‘ə,’) which left the question of how a reader would know which vowel to pronounce. I’ve decided that stressed syllables will be pronounced as a/ʌ and unstressed syllables as æ/ə. Both this change and the new syllable structure mean that a number of words in my in-progress lexicon will need to be edited. I plan to get to this soon.

Word Order

I’m changing the original SOV word order to VSO, because a focus on actions and change rather than objects and individual beings felt to me more in line with the awareness I imagine Bullywugs would have for their environment.

 More updates coming soon, particularly syntax- and grammar-wise.