kanaalletters

Kanaalletters are the letters of the Kanaal writing system, used to render the sounds of the Kanaal language. In linguistic and conlang discussions, they are described as a hybrid between a syllabary and an alphabet, designed to provide clear phonemic representation while remaining relatively compact in writing. The term is chiefly used in discussions of constructed orthographies rather than in natural-language orthographies.

Most kanaalletters encode either a consonant–vowel (CV) syllable or a single vowel. A subset is reserved for final consonants and modified vowels through diacritics or combining marks. The shapes of kanaalletters are generally simple and can be cursive or geometric, with a preference for horizontal arrangement in text blocks. Orthographic rules typically specify which letters appear in initial, medial, and final positions and how diacritics alter their pronunciation.

The kanaal writing system and its kanaalletters are primarily documented in experimental linguistics and fiction communities, with no universally adopted standard. In practice, learners encounter example words, sentence patterns, and reading exercises, while font designers create digital representations and input methods for keyboards. Some projects publish open-source fonts and keymaps to support writing in Kanaal.

Compared with single-script alphabets, kanaalletters emphasize syllabic units and may use diacritics to indicate tone, length, or voicing. They are often discussed alongside related scripts in studies of constructed languages and writing systems. Example letters include ka, ki, ku, ke, ko; ta, ti, tu, te, to; na, ni, nu, ne, no; ha, hi, hu, he, ho, with extensions to indicate aspirated or lengthened vowels.