Orthography 0.1 Throughout its history, Seqel has been written in a variety of scripts. These have included Phoenician, Seqel, Aramaic, Greek, Arabic, and Latin. Hebrew has also been used at times, though not within a defined period. Phoenician 1.1 Seqel was first written around the turn of the 2nd millennium BC, using the Phoenician alphabet. This system proved rather inefficient for Seqel, and many letters had to represent more than one phoneme. Later, diacrits were used to distinguish phonemes. Seqel 2.1 Shortly after adopting the Phoenician alphabet, Seqel adapted a cursive form of Phoenician to fit Seqel. It contained 26 consonants, as opposed to the 22 consonants of Phoenician. 2.2 24 of the letters were derived from Phoenician; 2 of them, representing / / and /ɣ/, are of unknown origin and likely were created from scratch. 2.3 The cursive script was eventually adapted into a linear script, whose more simplistic strokes were more efficient for carving and pens used at the time. 2.4 Seckellians sometimes use the Seqel script today, though usually for artistic purposes. Aramaic 3.1 Seqel used Aramaic from the 8th century BC until the end of the 1st century AD. Greek 4.1 Beginning in the 3rd century BC, use of Greek to write Seqel grew gradually. It was not until the end of the 1st century, however, when use of Greek was clearly dominant in writing Seqel. Seqel continued to be written in Greek until the 19th century. Arabic 5.1 Many Seckellians used Arabic to write Seqel starting in the 10th or 11th centuries, though it never appeared to be dominant for more than a decade or so at a time, due to the popularity of the Greek and Latin scripts. Greek was often considered a more efficient system for writing Seqel, and later Latin came to compete with both Greek and Arabic. Arabic fell out of use almost entirely in writing Seqel by the 19th century. Latin 6.1 Seckellians began to use the Latin script in the 17th century and remains in use almost universally today. Two scripts developed: print and shorthand. 6.2 The shorthand script included diacritics and special characters not occurring in most languages using the Latin script, and was considered easier for handwriting. The printed script did not contain these and its aim was to be easy to print in the standard printing press. Hebrew 7.1 Hebrew was never used prominently to write the Seqel language. It is also not known if Hebrew was ever used to write Seqel before the 20th century. However, since the mid-20th century, many Seckellians have opted to write Seqel in Hebrew, especially youth in informal situations. Overview 8.1 The following table is a general overview of the scripts used for Seqel: IPA Latin A v Latin B v Greek Arabic Hebrew φ ‫ف‬ ‫ב‬ g g g γ ‫ج‬ ‫ג‬ d d d δ ‫د‬ ‫ד‬ b b b π ‫ب‬ ‫פף‬ t, s t, s t, s τ, ς ‫תש‬ k k k κ ,‫ت‬ ‫س‬ ‫ك‬ h h h ἡ ‫ه‬ ‫ה‬ ʈ ʈ t` / th θ ‫ط‬ ‫ט‬ q q q κκ ‫ق‬ ‫ק‬ ð dh dh δδ ‫ذ‬ ‫ז‬ β/ Phoenician Seqel-1 Seqel-2 Aramaic v ‫כך‬ s s s ξ ‫س‬ ‫ש‬ ʃ š / sh sh ψ ‫ش‬ ‫ש‬ ł lh σ ‫ص‬ ‫ס‬ z z z ζ ‫ز‬ ‫ז‬ /ʐ ɭ lh` / rh σσ ‫ض‬ ‫צץ‬ ɣ/ʁ gh gh ὠ ‫غ‬ ‫ע‬ ʕ/ h ʕ h ἠ ‫ع‬ ‫ע‬ x kh kh χ ‫خ‬ ‫ח‬ ħ ħ hh ἐ ‫ح‬ ‫ח‬ m m m μ ‫م‬ ‫מם‬ n n n ν ‫ن‬ r r r ρ ‫ر‬ ‫ר‬ l l l λ ‫ل‬ ‫ל‬ w/ v w w ὐ ‫و‬ ‫ו‬ j y y ἰ ‫ي‬ ‫י‬ ‫נן‬ ʐ ɼ rh ῥ a a a α aː ā aa ᾶ ɛ e e η ɛː ē ee ῆ i i i ι iː ī ii ῖ o o/ō o/ ow ο u u u υ uː ū uu ῦ ə ə ε ‫ر‬ ‫ا‬ ‫א‬ ‫ي‬ ‫י‬ ‫ي‬ ‫י‬ ‫و‬ ‫ו‬