Author: Adam Moore (LÆMEUR) <adam@laemeur.com>
Date: March 29, 2014
RUDIGRAPH
RUDIGRAPH IS A SIMPLE MULTILINGUAL ORTHOGRAPHY DEFINED BY FIVE RULES · THE FIVE RULES IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW THIS PARAGRAPH · CLARIFICATIONS OF THE RULES APPEAR LATER THIS DOCUMENT
RULE 1 · ONLY PHONOGRAPHIC GRAPHEMES ARE USED
RULE 2 · GRAPHEMES HAVE ONLY A SINGLE FORM
RULE 3 · WORDS IN A SENTENCE ARE DEMARCATED BY HORIZONTAL SPACE
RULE 4 · SENTENCES WITHIN A PARAGRAPH ARE DEMARCATED BY A UNIMARK
RULE 5 · PARAGRAPHS ARE SEPARATED BY VERTICAL SPACE
RUDIGRAPH IS A REDUCTIONIST ÆSTHETIC APPLIED TO LANGUAGE
THE LIMITATIONS OF RUDIGRAPH ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE IMPOSED BY EARLY TELEGRAPH CODES BUT RUDIGRAPH IS NEITHER ANACHRONISM NOR HOMAGE · RUDIGRAPH IS NOTHING TO DO WITH ENCODING IN A MECHANICAL SENSE
RUDIGRAPH IS A SET OF ELECTIVE CONSTRAINTS WHICH STEER CONSCIENTIOUS WRITERS TOWARDS NEW COMPOSITIONAL PATHS
YOU MAY SEE RUDIGRAPH AT FIRST AS VERY CLOSE TO SPOKEN LANGUAGE · TAKE FOR AN EXAMPLE THE FACT THAT IN SPEECH THERE IS NO CLEAR DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN PROPER AND COMMON NOUNS · IN RUDIGRAPH THERE IS NO CLEAR DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN PROPER AND COMMON NOUNS BECAUSE IT LACKS CAPITALIZATION · FURTHERMORE IN SPEECH THERE ARE NO DISCRETE SIGNIFIERS FOR QUOTATION OR IRONIC WORD USAGE · IN RUDIGRAPH THERE ARE NO QUOTATION MARKS AND THUS IT IS ALSO WITHOUT DISCRETE SIGNIFIERS FOR QUOTATION AND IRONIC WORD USAGE · IN RUDIGRAPH EACH SENTENCE MAY BE SEEN AS A SPARE REPRESENTATION OF THE LEXEMIC CONTENT OF AN UTTERANCE
RUDIGRAPH IN TRUTH IS VERY FAR FROM SPOKEN LANGUAGE · A FUNCTION OF PUNCTUATION IS THE VISUAL EXPRESSION OF IMPORTANT NONLEXEMIC INFORMATION THAT IS PRESENT IN SPEECH · TAKE FOR AN EXAMPLE THE FACT THAT IN SPEECH WE CAN COMMUNICATE THAT A SENTENCE WITHOUT INTERROGATIVE WORDS IS A QUESTION BY INFLECTION · IN WRITING WE CAN COMMUNICATE THE SAME BY TERMINATING THE SENTENCE WITH A QUESTION MARK · IN RUDIGRAPH WE CAN DO NEITHER OF THESE THINGS · RUDIGRAPH PROVIDES ONLY THE MEANS TO REPRESENT AND INDIVIDUATE WORDS AND SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
IN RUDIGRAPH MEANING IS DERIVED FROM WORDS ALONE · THIS CAN BE CHALLENGING
WRITING IN RUDIGRAPH IS AN EXERCISE IN LEXICAL PERSPICUITY
RULE CLARIFICATIONS
RULE 1 · NUMERALS AND LOGOGRAMS AND ALPHABETIC LETTERS AND SYLLABIC CHARACTERS AND ABJAD LETTERS AND ABUGUIDA CHARACTERS ARE PERMITTED GRAPHEMES IN RUDIGRAPH · GRAPHEMES WITH DIACRITICAL MARKS AND DIGRAPHS ARE ALSO PERMITTED · ALL PUNCTUATION SAVE THE UNIMARK IS FORBIDDEN
RULE 2 · RUDIGRAPH FORBIDS THE USE OF MULTIPLE FORMS FOR THE SAME GRAPHEME · FOR ALPHABETIC WESTERN LANGUAGES THIS MEANS THAT GLYPHS SHOULD BE ALL MAJISCULE OR ALL MINISCULE IN A SINGLE TEXT · FOR JAPANESE THIS MEANS THAT GLYPHS SHOULD BE ALL HIRAGANA OR ALL KATAKANA
RULE 3 · THERE ARE NO CLARIFICATIONS FOR RULE 3 AT THIS TIME
RULE 4 · RUDIGRAPH MAKES AN ALLOWANCE FOR A SINGLE PUNCTUATION MARK · THIS MARK IS CALLED THE UNIMARK · THE ÆSTHETIC PREFERENCE OF THE AUTHOR IS FOR THE UNIMARK TO BE A MIDDLE DOT BUT THE GLYPH USED FOR THE UNIMARK IS INCONSEQUENTIAL SO LONG AS IT IS CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT A TEXT · THE UNIMARK SHOULD BE TREATED AS A LOGOGRAM AND SURROUNDED BY THE SAME HORIZONTAL SPACE THAT SURROUNDS WORDS
RULE 5 · THERE ARE NO CLARIFICATIONS FOR RULE 5 AT THIS TIME
CONSIDERATIONS IN THE ABSENCE OF PUNCTUATION AND CASE
THERE IS NO COMMA IN RUDIGRAPH · THIS MAKES COMPLEX AND COMPOUND SENTENCES DIFFICULT TO PARSE · FOR CLARITY THE WRITER MUST USE CAREFUL AND UNAMBIGUOUS PHRASING OR AVOID THESE TYPES OF SENTENCES ALTOGETHER · LISTS ALSO BECOME DIFFICULT TO REPRESENT WITHOUT OVERUSE OF THE CONJUNCTION AND
THERE IS NO APOSTROPHE IN RUDIGRAPH · THIS NECESSITATES NEW THINKING ABOUT HOW TO REPRESENT POSESSION AND CONTRACTION · THE AUTHOR SUGGESTS THAT THE USE OF CONTRACTIONS SHOULD BE ABANDONED ENTIRELY IN RUDIGRAPH · POSESSION CAN BE INDICATED PHRASALLY AS IS DONE IN UNCONTRACTED FRENCH
THERE IS NO HYPHEN IN RUDIGRAPH · THUS THERE CANNOT BE HYPHENATION OF COMPOUND WORDS · THE GERMANIC CONVENTION OF CONCATENATING COMPOUNDS IS SUGGESTED INSTEAD
THERE IS NO CASE IN RUDIGRAPH · THIS MAKES THE DIFFERENTIATION OF COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS DIFFICULT · WRITERS MUST MITIGATE THIS AMBIGUITY BY CONSCIENTIOUS INFERENCE AND CONTEXT MANAGEMENT
SOME WORDS ON DESIGN
RUDIGRAPH WAS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AS BEING ENTIRELY WITHOUT PUNCTUATION · THIS FIRST CONCEPTION MAY BE CALLED PROTORUDIGRAPH · IT WAS A FOUR RULE SYSTEM · THESE ARE ITS RULES
RULE 1 · ONLY PHONOGRAPHIC GRAPHEMES ARE USED
RULE 2 · GRAPHEMES HAVE ONLY A SINGLE FORM
RULE 3 · WORDS ARE SEPARATED IN A SENTENCE BY HORIZONTAL SPACE
RULE 4 · SENTENCES ARE SEPARATED BY VERTICAL SPACE
PROTORUDIGRAPH WAS QUIT BY THE AUTHOR BECAUSE VERTICAL SPACING OF SENTENCES PRODUCES UNATTRACTIVE ETIOLATED AND DISTENDED DOCUMENTS · REMEMBER THAT RUDIGRAPH IS AS MUCH AN ÆSTHETIC EXERCISE AS A LINGUISTIC ONE · VERTICAL POSITIONING IN LIEU OF VERTICAL SPACING WAS TRIED AS A REMEDY TO THE UGLY SPARSENESS RESULTANT OF THE FORMER BUT IT TOO PROVED UNDESIRABLE · TYPESETTING OFT REQUIRES THAT LONG SENTENCES BE PRINTED ON MULTIPLE LINES WHERE THEY WILL NOT FIT INTO THE WIDTH OF A GALLEY OR PAGE · IT CAN BECOME DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE WHERE A SENTENCE TERMINATES WHEN VERTICAL POSITIONING OF TEXT IS AS LIKELY TO BE THE WORK OF THE AUTHOR AS IT IS OF THE TYPESETTER
WHY
RUDIGRAPH IS FUN · RUDIGRAPH LOOKS GOOD · IF YOU ARE INCLINED TO THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT WHAT YOU WRITE THEN RUDIGRAPH WILL MAKE YOU THINK EVEN MORE CAREFULLY · RUDIGRAPH KNOCKS VERBAL CRUTCHES OUT FROM UNDER YOU · THIS JUST MIGHT HELP YOU FIND YOUR FEET