Caiuen

Cáiuén (才文)   
Cáiuén

Cáiuén is the creation of Pangus Ho, who uses it to write
his con-dialect of Chinese,
Cáiŋŷ/才语
(Cáiŋŷ/才语), but with modifications it’s actually
suitable to write any Sino-Tibetan language, including standard Chinese.

Notable features

  • Each syllable is written in a block consists of 3 parts:
    1. tóu/头
    (tóu/头) the initial consonant
    2. zoŋ/中
    (zoŋ/中) the tone and the initial vowel
    3. uêi/尾
    (uêi/尾) the final vowel and consonants
  • Each part consist of exactly 20 characters (which makes them symmetric),
    so they can be built up to 8000 syllables.
  • The parts can be arranged in at least 3 styles:
    Cáiuén styles

Cáiuén

Cáiuén script

Notes

  • A stripe (-) means zero consonant or zero vowel. For example the
    syllable “ân” is written ân
    (-, -ˆ, an);
  • “ə” is not pronounced unless it appears after /i/ and /y/. “e”, “eh”
    and “an” are pronounced /ɛ/, /ɛʔ/, and /ɛn/
    respectively if they appear after /i/ and /y/, otherwise they are pronounced
    /ʌ/, /ʌʔ/, and /an/. “z”, “q” and “x” are pronounced with
    /ɕ/ when they appears before /i/ and /y/, otherwise /ʂ/.
  • 44, 24, etc are tone sandhi. 1 is the lowest
    tone while 5 is the highest. 24 means from mid-low tone
    rises to mid-high tone, etc.

Sample text

Sample text in Cáiuén

Sample text in Chinese characters

Sample text in Chinese characters
Xuêi Diào Go Tóu
[Sǒng] Su X̌h

Transliteration

Méŋ ŋyeh gî x̀
iôu, bâ ziôu uèn qiŋ tian.
Buh z tian shàŋ gioŋ gyeh, gim xìh x̀
hó nián.
ŋuô ỳh zéŋ foŋ guei ky̆,
iòu kiôŋ kióŋ lóu ŋỳh
ŷ, gau qǔ buh xěŋ hán.
Kî û nòŋ qiŋ îŋ, hó
s̀ jài rén gián.
Zuân zu gǒh, di kî hù, zǎo ú mián.
Buh iŋ iôu hèn, hó x̀ qáŋ
hiǎŋ biêh x́ yán.
Rén iôu bei huan lî héh, ŋyeh iôu
im qíŋ yán kyeh, ĉ x̀ gû nán qyán.
Dàn ŋyàn rén qáŋ giôu,
qian lî giòŋ zán gyan.

  • Post category:Languages
  • Reading time:4 mins read