Introduction
The following outlines the writing system and orthography of Thernese. Thernese can be written in several ways. The primary way of writing Thernese uses the native script called Zieh Thlrnh. Zieh Thlrnh is a featural writting system that arranges letters and diacritics into morpho-syllabic blocks. Zieh Thlrnh is typically written vertically with each syllable block forming a jellyfish. A simplified horizontal shorthand was later developed based on the vertical script. In addition to Zieh Thlrnh, Thernese can also be written using Luanese (Chinese) characters or Zieh Luon, and mixing of the two scripts is not uncommon. When using Luanese characters, Thernese often uses a native stylization that combines characters, particularly when used alongside the the native Zieh Thlrnh script. The table below showcases three ways of writing the word lieq glirn or “today” in Thernese:
| Zieh Luon | Zieh Thlrnh | |
| Luanese | Thernese | |
| 日今 | ၜ ၐ ၇ | ƨပ့ɜ ɛမုံƨ |
Morpho-syllabic and Multimorphemic Structure
In the Zieh Thlrnh system, letters and diacritics are combined into morpho-syllabic blocks. Every syllable has a vowel base or “kalq” (lit. “mouth”) with two tentacles or “bieh” (lit. “arm, tentacle”) attached, one tentacle on each side of the base (left and right). The two tentacles work together to encode the initial consonant of the syllable. Diacritics or “sieh” (lit. “stinger, thorn”) are also added to encode other information about the syllable including the presence of a nasal final, glottalization, breathiness, or a liquid medial. When written vertically, syllable blocks take on the appearance of jellyfish, each word beginning with a bell or “thanq” (lit. “umbrella”) and ending with a tail or “bieh kalq” (lit. “oral tentacle” or “mouth arm”). In the horizontal mode, the bell and tail are typically replaced with dots.
| Vertical | Horizontal |
ƨပ့ɜ ɛမုံƨ | .ƨပ့ɜ.ɛမုံƨ. |
Modern Letters and Diacritics
Modern Zieh Thlrnh is made up of 14 initial consonant tentacle configurations, 10 vowel bases, and 4 diacritics. The initial tentacle configurations are essentially encoded using a 4-bit binary system: if a curve opens towards the vowel base, it represents a 0, and if it opens away from the base, it represents a 1. The vowel bases are representative of the shape of the mouth when producing the sound of that vowel base. When no medial glide is present, it is written with a closed circle to represent an open, unimpreded mouth; if a labial glide is present, it is written with a circle opening to the side (the left) to represent rounded lips; and if a palatal glide is present, it is written with a circle opening upwards to represent the flattening of the lips. When the vowel is plain (non-rhoticized, non-lateralized), then the circle is empty; if the vowel is rhoticized, then a curve is added inside the bottom of the circle to represent the retroflex positioning or partial raising of the tongue; and if the vowel is lateralized, then a curve is added to the side of the circle to represent the tongue going up and making contact with the upper part of the mouth. In the case of /ar/, it is treated as a diphthong or combination of /a/ and /r/, and so the curve is place at the top of the circle.
| Tentacles “bieh“ | Vowels “kalq“ | Diacritics “sieh“ |
|||||
ɛဝɜ (xa) | ɛဝs (ha) | ɛဝƨ (ga) | ɛဝɛ (ka) | ɛဝɜ (xa) | ɛပɜ (ye) | ɛဒɜ (wo) | ɛဝုɜ (xla) |
sဝɜ (nga) | sဝs (tha) | sဝƨ (za) | sဝɛ (sa) | ɛစɜ (xal) | ɛဖɜ (yel) | ɛ၈ɜ (wol) | ɛဝှɜ (xah) |
ƨဝɜ (la) | ƨဝs (dha) | ƨဝƨ (ta) | ƨဝɛ (na) | ɛဓɜ (xr) | ɛမɜ (yir) | ɛခɜ (wur) | ɛဝ့ɜ (xaq) |
ɜဝɜ (va) | ɜဝs (ba) | ɜဝƨ (pa) | ɜဝɛ (ma) | ɛဗɜ (xar) | – | – | ɛဝံɜ (xan) |
Mixed Script
Classical Thernese texts are exlusively written in vertical stylized Zieh Luon. Modern Thernese, on the other hand, is primarily written using Zieh Thlrnh but may occasionally mix the two scripts. The most common application of Zieh Luon in Modern Thernese is for writing names and proper nouns, since usually the meaning behind the name will be lost without writing it in Zieh Luon. Zieh Luon is also commonly used in Thernese mathematical notation. Otherwise, Zieh Luon may also be used to help disambiguate or define uncommon technical terms that may be homophonous with more common words.