Keburi

Keburi script was devised by Latvian biologist and amateur-linguist Jurģis Šuba in 2016. The word ķeburi in Latvian means ‘scribbles’ or ‘srawls’. The script was inspired by the Uniskript project (which itself was inspired by Korean Hangeul script), in which shapes of characters are related to articulatory organs and reflect the pronunciation of the sounds they refer to. Such "pictographic" scripts may be favoured by people who may experience difficulties in relating the phonemes with meaningless shapes of traditional (e.g. Latin) letters. Alternatively Keburi script may serve as a tool for teaching phonetics and reading to children not yet familiar with letters.

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: from left to right (but may also be written otherwise as users prefer)
Used to write: any language
The symbols consist of basic shapes and diacritical markers

Basic shapes

The basic shapes are simplified illustrations of the main articulation patterns or organs (e.g. lips, tongue, throat, relative position of the tongue). Long vowels and consonants may be written as elongated shapes.

Keburi basic shapes

Markers

The markers, denoting specific articulation patterns, are added to the basic shapes and therefore serve as links from phonemes to graphemes.

Keburi markers

Set of commonly used letters

Additional basic shapes and markers, following the "sound-pictographic" principle, may be introduced to form new symbols as required by users’ language.

Keburi alphabet

Sample text

Sample text in the Keburi script

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)

Download a font for this script

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