Vro Brunzgyhof Writing

Vro Brunzgyhof is written in an angular script, originally intended for carving; its characters resemble swords, if sometimes defective ones. In fact, the normal term for to write (on any medium) in Vro Brunzgyhof is rjyhttyh kkhet: literally, to carve swords, though vryto kkhet to carve language is also used.

The characters are written from left to right and down the page. Characters are written "blade" first, then "guard", then "pommel". Although now written as well as carved, cursive forms are generally not used, except perhaps in private notetaking. The only common variant which may be for speed of writing is the use of a stroke slanted toward the sword point instead of a "hooked guard". In decorative script, the characters may be drawn as if true swords.

Alphabet
The Vro Brunzgyhof alphabet is as follows:

B P V F M

D T Z S N IH I JYH YH JY Y

JH CH ZH SH JEH EH JE E JUH UH JU U

G K GH KH JAH AH JA A JOH OH JO O

Q QH

R

In contrast with the Latin alphabet spelling used on the MUSH, the spelling is phonemic rather than phonetic (since the correct pronunciation can be worked out from this by any speaker of the language, this is not a problem). So, for instance, karg- stone, which is kark in the nominative and kargyt in the accusative, is spelt KARG in the nominative and  KARGT in the accusative.

Punctuation
Various punctuation marks are used; all are arrangements of dots (or very short lines). Usage of them varies greatly, except that the single dot is consistently used between words. Heavy punctuation generally has more dots. The most common arrangement are shown below.

Numerals
The numerals from one to twenty are

The numerals from 20 to 400 by twenties are

(Note than 20 can be written either in units as or in scores as .)

One unit of each set may be combined additively. The units and scores may be written in either order (if only one character is needed, to represent the number, only that one is written). In continuous text they are written in the order they are to be spoken:


 * fifty-five, five and fifty

In accounting, etc., digits are written in descending order of significance.

The basic system can only represent numbers up to 420 (the same is true of the language), but a workaround exists which can allow the representation of larger numbers. Symbols representing the the units the numerals represent can be written above or below the numerals (this is why the characters are flat in comparison with letters); these symbols usually span the units and scores digits. Many different symbols are used for different units, few of them standard, but underlining is used universally to mean units of 400. Thus four digits, two of them underlined, can represent numbers to 160,000 (actually just over, because of the second 20 character).

In accountancy, or in general adding columns of numbers, etc, the indicators of these units are usually placed only at the top of the column. Zeros is never written in connected text, but in columns punctuation, usually is used as a placeholder. If extra clarity is needed (as for, instance, sero as a total in accounts), is the character of choice.

Fractions may also be represented by defining fractional units. Since expressing the denominator with a number is common, a form strikingly like our fractions is to be found (though often using something other than a line as a separator, and commonly with the denominator over the numerator).