by Ian Fallis

“Karia” in contemporary Inamali

Syllabaries sound a bit like some kind of a treat, don’t they?

But they’re actually a way of writing a language. Sort of an alphabet for languages that are written syllable by syllable.

That’s how Inamali, one of the primary languages in the series, The Day Magic Died, is written. But I had no intention of ever writing anything using an Inamali syllabary. Then along came the map.

There’s a map that Karia finds in the first book, The House in the Old Wood, that has some writing on it that looks sort of like what she identifies as Old Inamali. You’ll find out in the second book, Karia’s Path, that this is written in another language altogether.

I asked the artist who drew the map for the first book to draw that map for the second book. She agreed to, but I needed to give her the words, written the way I wanted them written.

Oh.

I had no idea how the words were supposed to be written.

“Inamali Ili, Inamali kri” in contemporary Inamali

So this weekend I sat down and created three syllabaries: One for contemporary Inamali, one for Old Inamali and one for the other language.

I did that because the three languages are related, with Old Inamali serving as a sort of transition from the other language to contemporary Inamali.

I’ve included some examples here of what contemporary and Old Inamali look like.

“Inamali ili, Inamali kri” in Old Inamali

The phrase is one you’ve encountered in the first book. You’ll find out what it means in the second book. And the completion of the syllabary, so the artist can draw the map that will accompany the book, is another step toward having the second book ready to be published.

What do you think?

Tags: Inamali, Karia's Path, The House in the Old Wood