Ïšrhot-Ïlýrhonid

The Ïšrhot-Ïlýrhonid was the writing system, or Ïfon-Šïrëhot, in place in the Heta-Alšewharžar. It is named for the Ïlýrhonid Tribe, which most likely developed it sometime before the earliest extant records. The Ïšrhot-Ïlýrhonid remains the first script of which there exists substantial information, and it is the basis of many of the principal texts, including all of those in the Gaðërïŋ-Heta-Alšëwharžar. It was used most often with the Ïwë-Ïrhïd language.

The Ïšrhot-Ïlýrhonid sought mainly to record the audible sounds made through each symbol, which indirectly incorporated information about the manner in which this sound was produced. As such, the Ïšrhot-Ïlýrhonid remains by far the easiest to translate to Ïšrhot-Mëtaŋ, the phonetic script used in this database.

To make the symbols, a number of the claws on a single foot were dragged across soft clay or a similarly markable material. To induce variations in these claw markings, three key movements were used:

• The inward/outward movement of each claw; each of the eight claws could be independently controlled in this fashion.
• The flexing of the muscles in the leg itself, which, due to their anatomy, would induce a rotating motion in the foot and thus in the resultant markings.
• The use of another separate foot to move the writing surface in a left-right direction as the claws were in contact with it, further warping the resultant markings.

The end result of these three motions in combination would be a dizzying array of possibilities regarding the types of lines, curves, and loops created; however, the most common version of the script would recognize only 18 distinct symbols, which would be used by themselves or in combination with others to represent the audible sounds heard in speech.