Opsíbdañox

The Opsíbdañox [ˈo̞pθibd̪ɑɲo̞ʃ] or [ˈɔfs̪ivd̪ɑɲɔʃ] (also known as the Lavondu script or Möxali alphabet) was a system of writing used to write several languages in Fountainhead from the 9th century onwards.

The name is a Möxali construction based on the word upsib "write" with the honorific suffix -yox, yielding a meaning of "sacred writing" or "revered writing".

History
The Opsíbdañox was developed by Lavondu scribes in the 850s AGS and started to see real use around 860. The construction of the script was ordered by First Governor in The Foreign Villages Koxĭya and was the first project to be completed using the system of Zúnton, the political mechanism used to achieve the societal restructuring of T'ugü known as Tuvöblin.

Opsíbdañox was primarily designed to write Möxali, the Alöbi-Xiri mixed language which arose in Lavondu communities in T'ugü in the centuries prior. It was intended to be universal and extensible, thus was also able to write Alöbi and other dialects of T'ugü with little ambiguity. This proved extremely successful, with the script being adopted by many other languages throughout Western Fountainhead in the tenth century, notably becoming the standard writing as far as the Ansang Islands.

Letters
Basic consonant glyphs come in two forms, used in conjunction with different vowels: binabödet (A-glyphs), used with back vowels and misabödet (E-glyphs), used with front vowels. The form chosen to transcribe a particular consonant is determined solely by the frontness of the vowel in the host syllable. For example, byaxlij is syllabified as [byax].[lij], a back syllable followed by a front syllable, thus is rendered ⟨BA-YA-XE-LE-JE⟩. The consonants p t c s f are written with the same glyphs as their voiced counterparts b d j z v.

Letters are written with one or two strokes, beginning with the kadan "head" and ending at the jíken "tail". Consonant letters additionally feature a loop added at the tail, called the ínon "eye".

Binabödet
Binabödet “deep/dark letters” are used to write consonants in syllables with back vowels a o u ú.

Misabödet
Misabödet “clear letters” are used with front vowels e ö i í.

Anabödet
Anabödet “open letters” are vowel letters which transcribe null-onset syllables. In the Outer Möxali dialects, which don’t have a phonemic glottal stop, the anabödet are used in place of Q- letters. For example, Inner Möxali qelos [ʔe̞.l̪o̞θ] "daytime" has the standard spelling ⟨QE-LA-SA⟩, while the Outer Möxali variant elos [ɛ.l̪ɔs̪] is more typically rendered ⟨E-LA-SA⟩, with the E anabödet.

Diacritics
The basic, most common form of the Opsíbdañox is fairly defective, lacking precise distinctions between vowel qualities and consonant voicing. In more formal texts, several diacritics were often used to unambiguously distinguish these features.

Kivane
The kivane “hanger” transcribes Möxali’s coda n, which phonetically yields a nasalised and lengthened preceding vowel. Though it was initially created as a diacritic which attaches to a previous syllable, it came to act as a letter in its own right, and was the only diacritic to become adopted into common writing of the general populace. In the Ansang variant of the script, a similar diacritic is used to mark prenasalisation, and may have originated from a non-standard use of the kivane.

In formal writing, the ínon of the kivane is usually positioned above the centre of the preceding glyph.

Fyadñude
Fyadñude “distinguishers” may be used to specify vowel qualities. Front rounded vowels like ö or Alöbi’s ü could be written by attaching the -O and -U diacritics to a misabödet consonant, or in the case of a null onset, the E and I anabödet.

Vikvínon
The vikvínon “other eye” is used to distinguish p t c s f from b d j z v.

Dídok
The dídok “talon” distinguishes í ú from i u, and changes form in the presence of a vikvínon.

Ansang
The script was first brought to Ansang at the turn of the 10th century AGS, quickly becoming the most common mode of writing throughout the archipelago. "In [899AGS], ships from the Lavondu people are sighted in the horizon, it landed in the island of Yuge, from there, the local king was warned, a group of unknown people came from the sea, no one knew who they were or what language they spoke, to be more surprised they acted with peaceful acts, making native Ansangs believe they don't come with fire but with hands. We provided them with housing and food, food they seem to not know of, they had a weird type of stick they used to scratch in some surface they call it suxbʼa. In some years they would review and teach their language, and their script in which we have adapted to write our mother tongue." It is used as the main script in the Yuŋe and Ansang languages, in which it is typically referred to as Opsib'id'añox, a transliteration of the native Möxali name.

Binabödet

Binabödet “deep/dark letters” are used to write consonants in syllables with back vowels a o u ú.

Misabödet
Misabödet “clear letters” are used with front vowels e ö i í.

Anabödet
Anabödet “open letters” are vowel letters which transcribe null-onset syllables.

Conventions

 * B-SET (back-set) it is a set of consonant + vowel that allows us to write consonant + a back vowel like /o/ and /u/.
 * F-SET (front set) it is a set of consonants + vowel that allows us to write consonant + a front vowel like /i/, /e/, /a/ and /ɨ/.
 * There's no way to mark which vowel follows the consonant, the reader must rely on context and knowledge of Ansang language that shows us that are many different words that are different in essence.
 * Voicing and other features this script cannot differ between voiced and voiceless consonants, but voiced consonants are always prenasal in Ansang so it boils down that is not useful to have such distinction; L consonant are both /r/ and /l/, the reader must rely on context; D consonant are both /ɗ/ and /t͡s/, again it rely on context.
 * The glottal stop and gemination the glottal stop in 600AGS Ansang was essential, up 800AGS it lenited to /∅/ in initial and final syllables, but stayed intervocalically.
 * The consonant Z is to represent /ɲ/ alone and /ᶮɟ/ with the nasal letter before it e.g.:  /ᶮɟo/  /ɲi/.
 * A CVC syllable was written CV-CV, where the two vowels (V) were the same: ye-ye-ta-ka [jɨjɨtok] 'to leave'