Machine-Script
From Rice Boy Wiki
Machine-Script is an invented writing system, created by Evan Dahm for use in Rice Boy and Order of Tales. In the comics, it is the writing system of the Machine Men. Like Seen-Script, it is phonetic, meaning that each written grapheme in the script should correspond to a spoken phoneme.
Machine-Script found in Rice Boy and Order of Tales can be found transcribed or translated on the Machine-Script translations page.
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Origin
Initially, Machine-Script began as a meaningless, decorative writing system, much like the writing in the Book of Spatch. It was used to label the Black Teeth gate-- first seen on p144-- and later the gate's keyhole, on p246. Partway through Rice Boy, Dahm decided to formalize the script, bringing it to the same level of intelligibility as Seen-Script. The results of this transformation can be first seen on p405, although it mostly had an effect on Order of Tales, which featured a large amount of Machine-Script text in Machine Dominion.
Dahm provided some of his notes on formalizing Machine-Script to Assetbar on 1 April 2009 (seen to the right),[1] while Order of Tales was still being serialized. This then allowed readers to easily decode the Machine-Script writing that appeared later in that story, which was a contrast to the fan-driven efforts to decipher Seen-Script.
Appearance
As the written language of the Machines, Machine-Script is accordingly angular and blocky. Letters are all roughly the same dimensions (with the exception of the glides /j/ and /w/), which gives the appearance of regularity. The actual design of each letter does not appear to correspond with an outside fact (such as articulation, like with Seen-Script) or with other letters; there is are no particularly notable internal consistencies of letter shape. Letter appearances do not change due to style, which is a stark contrast to Seen-Script with its multiple variants.
Machine-Script is written left-to-right, either horizontally or vertically. Alternatively, it can be written in a strange sort of reverse order (or possible a kind of boustrophedon). This can be seen on the Black Teeth gates, where the two words, "Omo's Spawn", are read word-internally right-to-left (that is to say, the letters run from the right to the left) but the words themselves are read left-to-right. This may be unique to the gates themselves, or this may be due to the post-hoc clarification of their reading; Evan created the design itself before working out the mechanics of Machine-Script.
Like Sahta Script, Machine-Script does not indicate word boundaries, or acknowledge them when ending or beginning lines of text. Coupled with the fact that voicing is not indicated by Machine-Script letters, this creates some difficulty for English transcription.
Vowels
Consonants
