Alphabet of a Merpeople

These are the remainder of my Shioren concept and design sketches, this portion focused primarily on their written language and alphabet (known as "Shiori"), which I worked on in tandem with their physiology.

Starting on the upper left is the initial concept for the Shiori alphabet. I started the Shiori alphabet as a simple cipher, by tipping English letters on their side and redrawing them with an emphasis on curves and swirls. I decided early on I wanted the Shiori alphabet to be phonetic; as such, they do not have the letters C, Q, or X, and have additional letters for 'sh' and 'th'.

Upper center is the Shiori alphabet's second version. This was little more than a straight redraw of the same symbols, although I did change the letters 'sh' and 'th', added the letter 'zh' to the Shiori alphabet, and included some punctuation. Also included with this version of the alphabet is one of their early physiology sketches.

On the upper-right is the second change to the Shiori alphabet, with consonant letters grouped by sound and their symbols revised and simplified. Again, the Shiori alphabet does not include the letters C, X, or Q, and instead includes letters for 'th', 'sh', 'ch', and 'zh'.

Next, on the lower left, is the final Shiori alphabet as it stands now, after much thinking and revising. Being a heavily phonetic language, there are nearly a dozen vowels in the Shiori alphabet, each with a distinct pronunciation. Shiori language also considers the letters W and Y to be vowels as well, while the letter H is considered neither vowel nor consonant, but instead an empty breath.
Consonants are still grouped by sound, with 'minor' consonants being whispered sounds (such as s, t, ch, f, etc.) and 'major' consonants being vocalized. (z, d, j, v, etc.) The oddball sounds of the letters L, M, N, and R are termed 'semiconsonants' because they lack the major/minor distinction shared by other consonant sounds.

Additionally, Shiori language has special symbolic letters used to represent pronouns, 'and' and 'or'. Shiori language also includes a few combined letter sounds (such as the long 'I' and 'un'), punctuation, and numerals. The Shiori number system was originally a base 8 system (Shioren traditionally do not include the thumb when counting by hand), but as Shioren society advanced, this grew (with some modification) to a base 16 number system.

Bottom center is the final Shioren physiology sketch, which was itself the concept sketch for my Shioren drawing, [url=pic-218640.html]Masters of the Sea[/url].

And, finally, on the lower right are all the names I brainstormed through while trying to decide on their species name. I tried just about everything I could think of, starting with anagrams of 'mermaid' or 'merfolk', and working my way through several ruts and themes. I wanted to avoid a three-syllable species name for this race, and trying to come up with a good two-syllable name wasextremely difficult. I ultimately chose the name 'Seoran' (modified to 'Schioren', then 'Shioren') as their species name -- a name which I must admit I was not satisfied with at first. But like many things, it kinda grows on you with each use.

Go ahead and see if you can translate the sample Shiori sentence and added text at the bottom!

IMPORTANT: The Shioren race and alphabet are my creation, and I will NOT allow other use, reproduction, or representation of them unless I specifically gave permission for such use; and I will be reporting any violations to site staff for removal.

Medium: Standard 0.7mm pencil, arranged and edited via computer
Time: Unknown (several hours)
Scale (full view): 60px/in, except for the bottom Shioren sketch which is 45px/in