Dingwiri alphabet

The Dingwiri alphabet was created in 1996 by Douglas Mitchell, Sr. (demitchellsr [at] hotmail.com) for use in a role-playing game. In the game the alphabet is used by a race of plant-like beings called "phloridela". Douglas, who is a game-judge, uses the alphabet as a cypher to confuse and frustrate the other players, who are unable to read it, inspite of Douglas' efforts to teach them.

The phloridela learned to 'speak aloud' from the elves of Jaia, and Dingwempi, the spoken language, is based on Elven (borrowed wholeheartedly from Tel'Mithrim's Elven Language, found at http://www.grey-company.org). Dingwiri, the written form, was designed to resemble the tunnels produced by termites in wood. It is written in a spiral fashion left-to-right around staves, spiraling counterclockwise from the center to the outer edge of a disc, or left-to-right like English on flat surfaces.

Notable features

Vowels are appended to the consonant that precedes them. They are not considered actual letters, only appendors. The IPA transcriptions listed are typical. There are variations.

The Dingwiri alphabet

Consonants

Dingwiri consonants

Wrinkli

The letters h, m/n, s/z, r, l, and w have secondary glyphs (called wrinkli) when they are used to modify dingwiri.

Wrinkli - secondary Dingwiri glyphs

Vowels

Dingwiri vowels

Numerals

Sample text in the Dingwiri alphabet

Transliteration

halya huminel ney nosdy lidha, ber bedya ji led ber phery bhorya. ron ney hony beja ber bhal ber moty dyery denna halyi ned ji bhi dil nowhy belyi.

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 Dingwiri font (TrueType format, 9K)

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