Timescript

Timescript was designed by Jacqui Fashimpaur in 2021 for the puzzle "Time of Your Life" in the puzzle hunt Matt and Emma's Carnival Conundrum. It encodes phrases in looping 2D animations and uses movement as a critical feature. Timescript is phonemic in that symbols represent categories of similar sounds, but it is not featural; the symbols were designed primarily to look varied and attractive, with consideration for which ones would commonly appear together. Timescript is more decorative than practical and gives writers a great deal of freedom to design their animations like moving calligraphy.

Notable features

Type of writing system: phonemic alphabet with syllabification
Used to write: English
Each contiguous moving part represents a single syllable, and they are ordered by the period of their animation (fastest to slowest).
Each symbol on a moving part represents a consonant sound, while the movement direction and type indicate its vowel sound.
Timescript phrases can only be read while they're moving.
Many features are flexible, allowing writers to make creative decisions for emphasis, intonation, or aesthetic appeal.

Each syllable has a central (not necessarily visible) stem, along which the symbols for its consonant sounds appear in order with a single orthogonal line marking the position of the vowel sound. These all move together in a manner corresponding to the syllable's vowel. The table below illustrates all of the currently defined vowel sounds, presented following the K sound to demonstrate reading order.

Timescript - Vowels

	OH [o/oʊ] go, home, four		AY [eː/eɪ] day, same, care
	EH [ɛ] set, end, bell		EE [i] week, fear, seem
	AH [ɒ/ɔ/ɑ] odd, dawn, start (optionally move down for caught rather than cot)		AI [aɪ] time, kite, fire
	OO [u/ʉ] soon, tool, moor		OW [aʊ] how, fowl, sour
	UH [ʌ] run, love, up		OY [ɔɪ] toy, boil, point
	schwa * [ə/ɜ] seven, work, middle		A [æ/a] and, sat, rally
	U * [ʊ] full, book, good		IH [ɪ] sit, him, fill

* If all consonants have rotational symmetry, readers will have to try both possible reading directions.

Timescript - Consonants

P, [p] pig	B, [b] bat	D, [d] dog
N, [n] nose	M, [m] mouth	NG, [ŋ] lung
T, [t] tear	G, [ɡ] gear	Y, [j] year
S, [s] soon	Z, [z] zoom	F, [f] far
V, [v] vain	TH, [θ] thin	DH, [ð] the
SH, [ʃ] shoe	R, [ɻ/r] red	ZH, [ʒ] vision
K, [k] kick	J, [dʒ] jump	W, [w] walk
L, [l] low	H, [h] high	CH, [tʃ] check

Sample text

Sample text in Timescript

Transliteration

Those who've read the Book of Ages never admit to it.
From "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang

Further Information
https://www.jacquifashimpaur.com/timescript

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