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The Unker Non-Linear Writing System, often shortened as UNLWS (/ˈʊnɪlvs/), is an engineered language developed by Alex Fink & Sai.[1][2][3] Partially inspired by Heptapod B from Story of Your Life, it consists only of a semasiographic writing system, with no spoken form. One of its unique features is its non-linearity, designed to be truly 2-dimensional as opposed to most languages, which are fundamentally one-dimensional.[4]
![A picture of handwritten UNLWS text, roughly translatable as: "I, the writer, intend to [[wikt:grok|grok]] the language this message is written in." or more simply, "I intend to deeply understand UNLWS."](/wiki/File:Better_unlws_temp_example.jpg?lang=en)
Naming
"Unker" is the Early Middle English form of the (now unused) dual possessive pronoun, meaning "both of our", in this case referring to Alex Fink & Sai, the creators. Non-linear follows from the language's innate structure. While "Writing System" is part of the name, it is a full-fledged language in itself and not simply a script.
Basic Structure
Each piece of text in UNLWS is a combination of glyphs and their connections via binding points, which are essentially one or more predicates.[5] This means it can be thought of as a fundamentally verb-less language. [3]
By default, every relation in UNLWS is realis, with ways to specially indicated irrealis relations.[6]
Recursion is possible with the help of stacks, which behave as if connecting to the same glyph on two different parallel levels.[7]
Tense
UNLWS includes tense and aspect markers, but they are completely optional, making it one of the rare languages where a message can truly be independent of tense.
David J. Petersen (who worked on fleshing out Dothraki and High Valyrian for the Game of Thrones TV series) said of the language:
"Certainly the most famous example of [a conlang not governed by time] is the Unker Non-Linear Writing System (UNLWS) created by Sai and Alex Fink, but it’s far from an abstract or surreal conlang. Rather, it’s a sincere attempt to create a fully functional and useable language that takes full advantage of a 2D space."[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b "A Surreal Conlang, page 18" (PDF).
- ^ Advanced Language Construction. p. 59.
- ^ a b "How To Not Verb, page 18" (PDF).
- ^ "The Conlang Atlas of Language Structures".
- ^ Advanced Language Construction. p. 60.
- ^ "Sai's website detailing the grammar and structure of UNLWS".
- ^ Advanced Language Construction. p. 61,62.