Draft:UNLWS

Submission declined on 21 May 2025 by SportingFlyer (talk).

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Declined by SportingFlyer 3 days ago. Last edited by SportingFlyer 3 days ago. Reviewer: Inform author.

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Comment: I don't see any reliable independent secondary sources here at all. SportingFlyer T·C 01:18, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

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^[4], designed to be truly 2-dimensional as opposed to most languages, which are fundamentally one-dimensional.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Recursion is possible with the help of stacks, which behave as if connecting to the same glyph on two different parallel levels.^[8]

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]

Other Non-Linear Constructed Languages

There are other, independently created non-linear constructed languages such as:

Ouwi^[9]
Pinuyo^[10]^[11]
Harpelan^[12]
Rikchik^[13]
The experimental writing system of Ithkuil 2^[14]
Glide^[15]

There are also a few such languages partially or fully inspired by UNLWS:

Rāvòtifsimpábàb'ádi or Rāvòz for short^[16]
An untitled 2D writing system (U2D)^[17]
Orthona^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b "A Surreal Conlang, page 18" (PDF).
^ Advanced Language Construction. p. 59.
^ ^a ^b "How To Not Verb, page 18" (PDF).
^ "Are Languages Alive? - Dr. William Edward Hahn, Subhosit Ray PhD, Misha Klopukh".
^ "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.
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 22:19-24:53".
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 18:52-20:59".
^ "Pinuyo".
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 20:59-22:19".
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 16:08-18:52".
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 12:31-16:08".
^ "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 10:06-12:30".
^ "The Rāvòtifsimpábàb'ádi Project".
^ "An untitled 2D writing system".
^ "Orthona".

External links

A talk by Alex Fink & Sai at the 7th Language Creation Conference

[Petersen-1] "A Surreal Conlang, page 18" (PDF).

[2] Advanced Language Construction. p. 59.

[verbless-3] "How To Not Verb, page 18" (PDF).

[4] "Are Languages Alive? - Dr. William Edward Hahn, Subhosit Ray PhD, Misha Klopukh".

[5] "The Conlang Atlas of Language Structures".

[6] Advanced Language Construction. p. 60.

[saisite-7] "Sai's website detailing the grammar and structure of UNLWS".

[8] Advanced Language Construction. p. 61,62.

[9] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 22:19-24:53".

[10] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 18:52-20:59".

[11] "Pinuyo".

[12] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 20:59-22:19".

[13] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 16:08-18:52".

[14] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 12:31-16:08".

[15] "Schuyler Duveen, How to Design a 2-D Non-Linear Writing System, at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, 10:06-12:30".

[16] "The Rāvòtifsimpábàb'ádi Project".

[17] "An untitled 2D writing system".

[18] "Orthona".

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