Sadalian (新德書)

The Sadalian Script was invented by Wong "Sadale" Cho Ching as a phonetic script for Cantonese, a variety of Chinese. Sadale invented the script out of boredom and because he was curious about what Chinese would look like if it was a phonetic script. He chose Cantonese as it is the form of Chinese he is most familiar with. The prototype of the script was developed in 2016, and after several revisions, the design was finalized in 2023. Sadale mainly uses the script for artistic purpose.

Notable features

Type of writing system: featural
Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines.
Used to write: Cantonese (廣東話)
It has its own numeral and punctuation symbols
All of the 1620 characters can be typed out by using the Sadalian Font on any text editor with font ligature support
It is registered as Unicode codepoints in Under-ConScript Unicode Registry: U+F2000-U+F267F
Self-Proclaimed language code: QSS

Character Structure

Sadalian character structure

Notes

Each character is composed of symbol for initial, middle, and possibly final phoneme.
Tones can optionally be written on the top-right corner of each character for disambiguation.

Initials

Sadalian initials

Notes

The gray rectangle is for showing the position of the symbol only. It is not written.
For p, f, t, s, ts, y, k, h, kw and w, the tiny slash/backslash is attached to the end of the left-most vertical stroke of the middle phoneme.
If there is no initial phoneme, write out the null initial phoneme.

Medials

Sadalian medials

Notes

If there is no middle phoneme, write out the null middle phoneme. Particularly, it is used for "m" (唔) and "ng" (五, 誤, 吳, etc.)
For o and u, the short vertical stroke is attached to the initial phoneme. When it is used with b, p, d, t, dz, ts, g, k, gw or kw, the short stroke is attached to the top. Otherwise, the short stroke is attached to the bottom.

Finals

Sadalian finals

Notes

If there is no final phoneme, do not write it out.
The final phoneme is attached to the center of the leftmost vertical stroke of the middle phoneme.

Tones

Sadalian tones

Notes

The tone is only written when disambiguation is needed. It is written on the top-right corner of the character.

Punctuation

Sadalian punctuation

Notes

The punctuation is generally written at the bottom-right corner of the preceding character. If there's no preceding character, write it at the bottom of the beginning of the text. If the previous character is a tone marker, it can be written right below it.

Numerals

Sadalian numerals

Notes

Sadalian has a base 10 numeral system. The numerals 10-15 are only used in specific cases, such as representing hexadecimal digits, and 10, 11, and 12 can be used for writing clock hours.
The number #10 can be used for replacing the leading "10". For example, when writing "100", it can be written either as "#1 #0 #0" or "#10 #0". The latter saves a digit, which can be helpful for cases like displaying a countdown from 100 to 0 using only two digits.

Download a font for Sadalian

Sample text

Sample text in Sadalian

Transliteration (Cantonese - Traditional Chinese)

人人生出嚟就係自由嘅，喺尊嚴同權利上一律平等。佢哋具有理性同良心，而且應該用兄弟間嘅關係嚟互相對待。

Transliteration (Cantonese - Simplified Chinese)

人人生出嚟就系自由嘅，喺尊严同权利上一律平等。佢哋具有理性同良心，而且应该用兄弟间嘅关系嚟互相对待。

Transliteration (Yale Romanization)

Yàhnyàhn sàangchēutlàih jauhhaih jihyàuh ge, hái jyùnyìhm tùhng kyùhnléih seuhng yātleuht pìhngdáng. Kéuihdeih geuihyáuh léihsing tùhng lèuhngsàm, yìhche yìnggòi yuhng hìngdaihgāan ge gwàanhaih laih wuhsēung deuidoih.

Translation (English)

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)

Links

Information about the Sadalian Script
https://sadale.net/en/sadalian
https://sadale.net/qss/ranyy

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