Project Osteoglyphy is an exploration in the field of artistic neography, the creation of new writing systems. The focus of this project is to create a script which, when applied in writing, presents a pictorial character way beyond the merely textual.
The project started as a way to adapt the Korean alphabet (Hangeul) into the writing of Finnish, Korean being a script with very aptly designed formal characteristics and Finnish being a strongly phonetic language. Many of the letters in Osteoglyphy are hence derived from Hangeul, and the script is predominantly used to write Finnish. Finnish test words are used here.
I. The Osteoglyphic Alphabet
Most consonant letters are derived from Hangeul. While the vowel letters have been created ex nihilo, they are formulated under the same principle under which the Hangeul consonants are made i.e. according to the shape of the mouth pronouncing that vowel.
Fig I: The Alphabet and letter order
II. Approach to Formal Unity
I decided on an angular design of all the letters. Now I can't remember why I did that. Maybe it's for making it feel more Finnish, and for doing away with the characteristic geometry of Hangeul. And so it naturally follows that the letters acquire a special tendency to be written close together, because they don't look good written apart. They stick like lines stick to each other in a Mondrian.
Fig II: Test word "Helsinki" written in Hangeul, for comparison.
Fig III: "Helsinki" written linearly, with first version letters.
Fig IV: As above, with a more stickly, runic approach.
Fig V: The whole thing just sticks together.
Fig Va: Piet MONDRIAN 1919 Composition; Light Color Planes with Grey Lines / utilising a similar formal approach to Osteoglyphy
Note the manner in which phonemes touch each other and even share the same sides. The phonemes for n and k are joined, since the orthography (the alphabet) of virtually all Northern European languages pronounce them as a single sound. This compression of phonemes, where adjusted to produce a continuity of pattern, gives rise to an interesting undulating in direction as contrasting to the usual, linear rendering of words in the reader’s eye. In extreme cases, even the directionality of the script itself.
III. Direction of Writing
Directionality is the direction in which individual graphemes are written, and in this case the phonemes themselves can be twisted around in a word like play-dough. This also makes it diabolical to read though pleasing to the untrained eye.
Fig VI: Variations on the directions in which letters in a word is written. Test word "Nahkaruoska"
A scribe is able to take artistic license as to which way to arrange the letters in a word i.e. whether the letters are written left-right, top-down, zigzagging or clustered together. Of course, in a real setting in which this script is used, standard (clustered) arrangements of each word may be set.
IV: Diacritics
A diacritic (e.g. two dots or umlaut over an o that makes it ö) gives an indication to a reader that the letter bearing the diacritic is to be pronounced differently. In the case of Finnish, ä is pronounced roughly "ae", ö is pronounced "eur" (as in French), to name just two.
Osteoglyphy utilises only one diacritic, the ring. It's beautiful and simple and partly based on the obsolete diacritic once used in writing Chinese loanwords in the Korean alphabet, the Gabyeoun.
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Fig VIIa: Basic Finnish Osteoglyphy, including háček letters
In written Finnish Osteoglyphs, the ring usually approximates an umlaut.
A ring on an "a" grapheme reads "ä".
A ring (usually written as a diamond) within an "o" grapheme reads "ö".
Less commonly, the ring functions as a háček when applied to the grapheme "s"
A háček "č" is not written with a ring in Finnish; rather, it mimics the Korean "j" (New Revised Romanisation) or "ch" (McCune-Reischauer)
In writing consonants like "g", "b" or "f" that do not appear much in Finnish but are more common elsewhere, a ring is applied on an existing letter to represent its close counterpart.
A ring applied on a "k" grapheme reads "g"
A ring applied on a "v" grapheme reads "b"
A ring applied on a "p" grapheme reads "f"
In writing palatalised consonants in languages that have them, the ring also comes in.
A ring applied on a "t" grapheme reads "gy" (Magyar)
A ring applied on an "n" grapheme reads "ny" (Magyar, Mari and Russian)
and so on.
V: Digraphs and Modified Letters in Non-Finnish Osteoglyphy
Fig VIII: Digraphs and special letters in Icelandic Osteoglyphy
A special "y" digraph is used instead of the Finnish "y" as the Latin "y" is pronounced differently in the two languages. (i.e. more like "i" in Icelandic and "ü" in Finnish)
"Hv" is made of letters "k" and "v" as the digraph is pronounced like "kw"
"Þ" is directly borrowed from the Icelandic letter. (Pronounced "th" as in "teeth")
Fig IX: Special letters in extended Osteoglyphy adapted for languages like Estonian, Magyar, Mari, Saami and suchlike.
The "z" phoneme imitates its roughly correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the obsolete banshiot
The "d" phoneme imitates its correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the digeut
The graphemes for vowels "ə" and "õ" are creations ex nihilo.
VI: Handwriting and Typefaces
Fig X: Seal: The most primitive edition of the script, good at giving an atmosphere of primeval civilizations.
Fig XI: Rune: Ideal for engravings, with exception to the ring diacritic. This is the standard script in the project, being the most ductile in its word forms.
Fig XII: Hand: This script variation is written similarly to a modern alphabet.
Fig XIII: Blocktype: An experimentation of a modernistic typeface, which occurs as whatever civilization using this writing system enters the digital age. I’m serious.
Test word "Helsinki"
Test word "Nahkaruoska"
Test word "Laulutyttö"Fig XIV - XVI: Handwritten: Exploring the possibilities of freehand writing, converting a script which is tedious to write into an easily-renderable system which is tedious to read. They look nice all the same anyway.
VII: Languages adaptable to writing in Osteoglyphy
Fig XVII: Languages in white are adapted to the script, while those in grey are currently construction not under progress. Theoretically, any language renderable in the Latin alphabet is renderable in Osteoglyphy.
Applications 0: Examples of individual glyphs that bear unexpected forms when letters are arranged in a specific way.
Fig XVIII: Avatar designs bearing interestingly-shaped glyphs of random test words
The test words used here are (left to right, top to down) Aho, Akureyri, Taivas, Aamu, Skagi, Debrecen, Nuoruus, Arkeni, Álafoss
Ductile as the letters in Osteoglyphy are, they can be modelled and modified to form many interesting shapes dubbed glyphs. The letters that constitute each test word are the basic bluiding blocks for many a glyph. The trick to finding a good glyph in long lesson times is to find a random test word, write it out in many different arrangements, until a meaningful shape, like a bird, a human, a dog or some modern architecture springs forth from the paper.
Doing it is great fun and it's a cheap way to do logo design.
Applications I: 'A' Levels Art Coursework
Fig XIX: CD design for Moving House (digital animation short, 2007)
featuring glyph "Thomond" above the title as shown.
Fig XX: The same glyph in the leading frame of the video file (screenshot)
Fig XXI: The glyph "Ahtisaari" on a cargo container appearing in the train scene. The logo itself is never clearly shown in the film, however.
Fig XXII: A shot with the above container design shown.
