The Wiqa ([ˈwi:tʃʌ]) script was created in 2023 by Scott Printz to write his conlang of the same name. It was inspired by Hangul, Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and human speech anatomy.
Wiqa is unusual in how it divides syllables. Unlike most abugidas, in which consonant-vowel units represent consonants followed by vowels (CV), Wiqa symbols represent a vowel preceding a consonant (VC). This feature is ideally suited for the polysynthetic Wiqa language as most morphemes begin with a vowel and end with a consonant. This unusual onset-rime arrangement is shared with the Khom and Zhuyin Fuhao scripts.
Notable features
Type of writing system: featural, orientational abugida
Direction of writing: horizontally left to right and down
Used to write: Wiqa
Symbol orientation indicates which vowel, if any, is attached. There is a semi-vowel symbol and one diacritic for marking diphthongs.
Wiqa can also be written using the Latin alphabet.
Wiqa Alphabet with Featural Details
Notes
The direction of a symbol denotes the position of the tongue, as seen in profile, when producing the attached vowel sound. A downward pointing symbol has an ‘a’ vowel, leftward for the ‘i’ vowel, rightward for the ‘u’ vowel, and an upward symbol has no vowel.
The approximants never have an attached vowel and hence they do not rotate.
The dash diacritic depicts the base segment of the [a] symbol. This converts the symbol below from being associated with the [i] or [u] vowel to the [ai] or [au] diphthong respectively.
The semivowel will manifest as either [w] or [j] depending upon the environment of the preceding consonant and following vowel.
All symbols have bilateral symmetry making it even easier to learn than Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics.
Comprehensive Wiqa Symbol Table
Latin Alphabet for Wiqa
Notes
Most letters are standard for English speakers but with a few exceptions: ‘q’ represents [tʃ], ‘x’ represents [ʃ], and ‘y’ represents the diphthong [ai] and ‘o’ represents [au].
Stops and fricatives are unvoiced unless in a cluster when they tend to be voiced. Any stop or fricative that is doubled is always voiced, e.g. ‘kk’ > [g].
Sample text
Transliteration
wiqa sumihjupa ytu, akika usula koqinuskwistax.
Translation
Though they don't share words, the chicken and the fox understand each other.
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