Correllian Alphabet Font

This text document accompanies the Correllian Alphabet.ttf file. It is intended to explain where I placed the characters as the font was developed.

Since the Correllian Alphabet is essentially a phonetic alphabet, there were challenges applying it to a keyboard designed for Latin letters. I tried to consider the end user (myself among them) in placing these characters on the keyboard. I did my best to make it easy to use and hopefully somewhat intuitive.

If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to Rev. Silthoron at [url=mailt:silthoron@aol.com]Silthoron@aol.com[/url].

I hope you enjoy the font.



Character Placement

Vowels

The characters with phonetic values representing long vowel sounds have been placed under the shifted key for that vowel.

The characters with phonetic values representing short vowel sounds have been placed under the un-shifted key for that vowel.

The exception is the Latin letter “O”. In this case, the same Correllian character was used for both.

Consonants

The characters representing single consonant sounds have been placed under both the shifted and un-shifted keys for that consonant.

The exception here being the exclusion of the Latin letters “C” and “Q”. These letters have no independent phonetic values. The Correllian Alphabet, being primarily intended for phonetic usage has no definition for these Latin letters.

Special Phonetic Characters

The special phonetic characters in the Correllian Alphabet represent values such as “th” and “ng”. These characters have been placed under the shifted keys at the top of the keyboard. They are seen on the keyboard as the keys from the tilde and exclamation point to the underscore and plus sign. They are arranged somewhat alphabetically according to their Latin spelling.

Punctuation

The Correllian Alphabet contains characters representing the comma, period, hyphen, and a word space. These are placed on the keyboard under the comma, period, hyphen, and vertical bar respectively.

Numerals

Since dates, and similar situations, require the use of numerals in the Correllian Alphabet, a basic set of Arabic numerals was placed under the appropriate keys on the keyboard.

Usage

The usage that immediately led me to consider this project was that of computer generated art. Specifically, Correllian characters were needed in a sigil design. This led to the product we have now. Most graphic editors allow the insertion of text characters into designs. This font simplifies that process tremendously.

As the Correllian Alphabet is intended to be used in vertical columns, rather than horizontally, most word processors are ill-equipped to handle it properly. I do understand from others’ comments that Front Page might be set to work in this fashion. I am personally unfamiliar with this software.

My initial thought, and probably the way I will use this font in documents is in Excel. Being a spreadsheet, it is ideally suited to dealing with the vertical nature of this alphabet. If you are aware of other software that will allow vertical columns of text, please let me know and I will update this text file accordingly.

Acknowledgements

I’m going to take a moment here to express my gratitude to four people who led to the creation of this font and the successful completion of this project. The influence of these four people in this project overlaps hopelessly in trying to name them chronologically. And the level of influence is such that the removal of any from the list might have resulted in this project never happening. So, I will mention then in the chronological order they entered my life.

Rev. Aine Massie. She was my First Degree Mentor and later my friend. She has been a cheerleader and confidant from my first months in the Tradition. She kept me going when my patience faltered and she was one of my early sounding boards for this project. In fact, I was on the phone with her when the idea struck me.

Rev. Don Lewis, HP. Without the faith our chancellor placed in me, I might never have been working on a sigil design or have the need for this font. He, too, has been a cheerleader when times were tough. He also provided valuable advice about the placement of certain characters on the keyboard.

Rev. Ghost Dragon. This wonderful lady has designed a beautiful sigil for the Celtic Cross. She thought to add the name of the shrine to the design and struggled to create the characters in a graphics program. It was this need that led me to begin a search for a font, and lacking one, to create it.

My thanks go out to each. I am proud to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. I am proud to call the Correllian Tradition my home and my family.

Many Blessings,

Rev. Silthoron, Shrine Keeper
Temple of the Celtic Cross