Reonji

Reonji is a hieroglyphic writing system inspired by the Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese scripts and invented by Leonid Eliseev, who started working on it in 1990. He tried to make his script compact, convinient and fast to use.

Initially he made it as a script for a constructed language with no pronouncation and a structure close to English. Later he gradually adapted it to write Russian, though it contains many constructions with no analogues in Russian. He uses it for his private notes.

Notable features

Type of writing system: hieroglyphic.
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines.
Number of characters: about 800.
Used to write: Russian.
The characters are all small ideograms with a simple shape and can be drawn by hand in a square 5x5 mm.
There are two types of characters: ideogram (full-sized), and auxilliary characters (small size), which represent the prepositions, prefixes, suffixes, conjunctions, etc.
Every ideogram character represents a meaning. The character itself doesn't have a pronouncation, but is used for writing several words and sometimes inherits the pronouncations from them.
There are three ways of word formation:

- By using grammatical constructions inherited from the protolanguage.

- Prefix + radical [+ suffix]. Prefixes are writen with same characters as prepositions, but in the upper position. Often the meaning of the resulting word is far from meaning of radical character. This way typical for Russian.

- By combining two or more characters. This combination is used for particular words that are not linked phoneticaly with components. This way was inspired by Japanese kango and many of the words are calques from Japanese.

- Often the same word can be written using all this ways.

Reonji characters

Word forms

Reonji word forms

Auxilliary characters

Reonji auxilliary characters

Sample text

Russian version

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

Transliteration

Vse ljudi rozhdajutsja svobodnymi i ravnymi v svoyom dostoinstve i pravakh. Oni nadeleny razumom i sovest'ju i dolzhny postupat' v otnoshenii drug druga v dukhe bratstva.

English 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)

If you have any questions about Reonji, you can contact Leonid at: reonid@yahoo.com

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