Avorentas HGV   

Avorentas HGV was designed by Attila Répai with the aim of creating an alphabet that is easy to memorise due to its small number of base signs (17). The letters can represent all the 46 sounds of Hungarian and his constructed language Avorenta without any digraphs or trigraphs. The shape of the letters was inspired by the blackletter fonts of medieval codices. It is used to write Avorenta and Hungarian, but it is also suitable for other languages that use the same sounds such as Latin, Spanish, German, Turkish, Finnish, Croatian, Russian etc. HGV stands for Háfrigvotán, the name of the script in Avorenta.

HGV has two types: Aromittáta HGV (calligraphic HGV) and Linnáta HGV (handwritten HGV).

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
• There are no distinct capital letters. Proper names are marked with the misgaren which is placed before every word of the name.
• Diacritics are based on the Morse Code. Short sounds have a dot (an esp) above the letter (normally, unaccented letters represent short sounds, but it is obligatory to use a dot on â [a] and ê [e], because the sound value of these short vowels differs from the unaccented a [ɒ] and e [ɛ]). Long vowels (eg. á) and consonants (eg. nn) are marked with a dash (śurlima).
• Vowels with a modified sound value (ö, ü, ä, ı) have an entrekík (a vertical line) at the bottom of the letter.
• Consonants are in pairs or groups of 3. In the table below, in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd line unvoiced consonants are the base forms and voiced ones have an entrekík or entreśülp (a horizontal line). In the 4th line, consonants of similar sound value are in pairs.
• Foreign texts or words (not Avorenta or Hungarian) have to be transliterated into HGV phonetically.

Aromittáta HGV alphabet

Notes

• The characters in blue aren't used in Avorenta, they can be found only in Hungarian texts.
• When there are two Latin letters under a HGV letter, the first one is the romanised Avorenta letter and the second one is the Hungarian digraph or trigraph for the same sound.
• q = [ʦ] before e, ê, é, i and í but [k] elsewhere.
• ħ / ch = [x] after a, â, á, o, ó, u and ú but [ç] elsewhere.

Numerals

The first letter of the number's Avorenta name are used as numerals. They are distinguished from letters with the śurentrelima, one line under and one above the letter.

Sample text in Avorenta

Transliteration

Forven mínâl ö-rión migat főr et anigêt uruddagánum e juvassum ájd. I míne, rázum e śamorrollánum ájdix, ellanen bidál fódio lájch epízenest.

Listen to a recording of this text

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)

Sample text in Hungarian

Transliteration (Hungarian orthography)

Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.

Sample text in Latin

Transliteration (phonetic)

Omnés hominés dígnitáte et júre liberí et parés náskuntur, ratiónis et kónskientiai partikipés sunt, qwibus inter sé konkordiai studió est agendum.

Transliteration (Latin orthography)

Omnēs hominēs dīgnitāte et iūre liberī et parēs nāscuntur, ratiōnis et cōnscientiae participēs sunt, quibus inter sē concordiae studiō est agendum.

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Linnáta HGV   

Linnáta HGV is the handwritten version of HGV. In Linnáta HGV there are capital letters too, so there is no need for misgaren. The name of the letter refers to the shape of the letter: the name of a base form letter starts with e- (eg. ep), the name of a letter with entrekík starts with a- (eg. ad) and the name of a letter with entreśülp starts with o- (eg. ov).

Sample text in Avorenta

Transliteration

Forven mínâl ö-rión migat főr et anigêt uruddagánum e juvassum ájd. I míne, rázum e śamorrollánum ájdix, ellanen bidál fódio lájch epízenest.

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

More information, including fonts, available from the Avorenta website

Other constructed scripts

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