Kzinti Linear Script

[Lord Other]

Hello folks,

In association with my Baton Rouge class post I have been working on developing a alphabet and number system for the Kzinti (a species based on Larry Niven's Known Space works, appearing in "The Slaver Weapon") that would be cogent with previous works, yet "fill out" some missing pieces for us cat lovers. The number system is Octal, or base eight, (as Kzinti only have three digits and an opposable thumb on each hand - Cravendale cats in space) so counting up from 0, goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20.. and so on. The design of the numbers I drew from the side of the engine nacelle of the Giant Killer, which appeared in the syndicated Star Trek comic, "The Wristwatch Plantation" in 1982, and is shown below.

The lettering system, Heroes' Tongue Linear Script, would seem to have made its first appearance in the Speculative Grammarian in 1993, and although the author is credited as Arthur Saxtorph, I have some lingering doubts as to that being his actual name. Nonetheless, the format and structure are cogent and as you can see I have built upon that work and added other characters based on the work of Roger Kuiper. There is a True Type font that is available with this character set for those with interests and/or sympathies with the Kzinti. With that said, here is the Heroes' Tongue Linear Script. Enjoy!

 

[Atolm]

Awesome!
That ship is rather slick as well

 

[Lord Other]

Speaking of the Giant Killer- using the glyphs as shown emblazoned on its hull as numbers has the advantage of not having to reconcile the stylings between the "dots and commas" for Kzinti lettering. As such the Giant Killer's registry number would be 1+1364. My take on that is this: The plus sign acts as a dash in Heroes' Tongue, to separate the registry type (such as NCC) from the actual registry number (in much the same way we use a minus sign for a dash). The thought process I had in mind for the registry type is that "ships of the line" such as battleships, dreadnoughts, and the like would have no registry type prefix. Thus if lets say a Kzinti battleship named Blood Drinker would just have a number in the mid to upper hundreds, with no prefix.

Warships, Kzinti vessels ranging from heavy types akin to a battle cruiser or heavy cruiser to light vessels such as destroyers, scouts, and escorts would have a "1" prefix before the registry number. The registry number for the Giant Killer, a Kzinti warship built in or about the year 2271 has a registry in the thousands range (1364). In the TOS era, Kzinti warships in service probably would have registries running from 600 to 1300, maybe even lower, depending on when you want to say this registration system was adopted, and how large a force of Kzinti vessels you believe are in service.

Type "2" vessels are support craft, such as customs cutters, corvettes, couriers, interceptors, and police vessels like the Traitor's Claw. I would imagine the registry numbers for these vessels would be much higher, possibly in to the tens of thousands, depending on the size you attribute to the Kzinti domain, and how well funded their forces would be with treaty limitations.

The last type, type "3" would be reserved for merchantmen, research vessels, mining ships, and salvage vessels and the like- in essence any non-combatant Kzinti vessel outside of the scope of the previous types.

Finally, some notes on grammar pertinent in the creation of ship names for Kzinti vessels. In regards to verbs converted into a person or thing that performs an action- an agent noun (which is handled in English by adding -er or -or suffix to a word), this would seem to be handled in Heroes' Tongue by adding "i" before the last vowel in the word. Thus the verb "su", to slash, becomes "siu" for slasher. For example the name Giant Killer would be Kchee Hrowizihtt'ss- the "i" is added before the last vowel, "h" in the Kzinti word kill. Adverbs derived from nouns with the -ful suffix would appear to eliminate the vowel ending if any, and add the suffix -rr to the same effect. Thus "kzaii" for the Heroes' Tongue word for vengeance, becomes "kzarr" for vengeful. To show verbs that perform a continuing action, as with the -ing suffix added, going from smile, talk, and walk to smiling, talking, and walking respectively, convert the last consonant to "a", unless the verb ends in "r", then you would remove it from the end of the verb, or if it ends in "j" you would add -za instead. If a verb ends in "ee" you add -ye, and if the verb ends in a "ya" or " ' " you would remove the "a" if present and add a -c or -ic instead. If it already ends in a "a", no change would appear to be necessary, at least given the examples I've found.