Hoelāı

The Hoelāı script was invented by Miles Forster in 2019 to write Toaq, a language he also constructed. It was created partially to give an identity to the language. The script draws inspiration from the Thai, Tibetan and Hebrew’s scripts. The image on the right is a calligraphy version of the script's name.

Notable features

Type of writing system: abugida with the inherent vowel /a/. A dot placed under a consontant mutes this vowel.
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Used to write: Toaq
The initial consonant is the center of the written syllable
Some vowel letters have different shapes when they come at the beginning of a word

Hoelāı

Download a script chart for Hoelāı (Excel)

Download a font for Hoelāı

Notes

The fullest Toaq syllable may have a consonant, two nuclear components, and a coda /ŋ/. In the Toaq script there are 18 consonantal glyphs one of them being a placeholder, 15 tonal glyphs that represent both the tone of a syllable and presence/absence of a coda /ŋ/, and 14 vocalic glyphs. 10 are for the five monophthongs, which each have two different forms depending on whether they are written before or after a consonant, and four are for the diphthongs ai, ao, oi, and ei, and they are always written before a consonant.

Nuclei are split into two slots with the first component written after the consonant and the second component after. An example would be "h-o-aı" which in the script would be written aı-h-o. Notice the consonant is in the center and the second component of the nucleus, a diphthong in this case, is written before said consonant.

Tones and the presence/absence of coda /ŋ/ are both encoded into one of 15 diacritics which are placed on the initial consonant. There are 7 tones and one nuetral tone, giving 7 diacritics because the neutral tone isn't marked if there is no coda. These are doubled semi-productively to encode the presence of coda /ŋ/.

For the neutral tone with a coda /ŋ/, the diacritic is a superposed point. Sóe, meaning "the sour thing," would be written eśo, and kěaı, meaning "which has the right to...," as aıǩe.

Sample text in the Hoelāı

Transliteration

Tu tủq rẻq bòı jîu hó pa shẻı na ru chẻo jẻq lî dỏıdēaı ru lî kẻaı ja hı rảı da. Rỏabō hó lî dẻq kủımōı ru lî chỉaq da. Chẻo tỏı hó chà hê chẻo tỏı báq pỉachēo ba.

A recording of this text by David Douglass

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

See the Hoelāı script in action:

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