Dwarven script

The Dwarven script is the writing system of the Dwarven Koiné language as well as its various dialects, Temple Dwarven and was also the writing system of the Classical Dwarven language. It is the only exant member of the Dwarven family of scripts, having superseded the Old Dwarven script it evolved out of, and having outlived the Stélhelm script, which became extinct in the first century AEKE.

Vowel signs
Just like the Old Dwarven script, these vowel signs were largerly optional, as the Dwarven script is an abjad. A notable defect of these optional signs is the fact that they do not mark vowel length at all - for long vowels, the usage of matres lectionis is preferred, however, there is no mater lectionis to represent or  at all (which exists exclusively in loanwords).

Consonantal nature markers
These signs represents whether the consonant was historically light, neutral or dark in Old Dwarven. Unlike in Old Dwarven, these signs no longer alter the pronounciation of the consonants themselves (except for the sibilant fricatives), but instead alter the way vowels are pronounced after the said consonant.


 * In Classical Dwarven, the vowels appeared exclusively after historically light consonants, being formerly the allophones of  in those contexts. In contemporary Dwarven, they evolved into.
 * In Classical Dwarven, the vowels appeared exclusively after historically neutral consonants, being formerly the allophones of  in those contexts. In contemporary Dwarven, they evolved into.
 * In Classical Dwarven, the vowels appeared exclusively after historically dark consonants, being formerly the allophones of  in those contexts. In contemporary Dwarven, they evolved into.

Base consonant markers

 * Historically, the letters represented actual dorsal approximants  and their labialized allophones, in addition to being used as matres lectionis for the vowel sounds . During the transition from Old Dwarven to Classical Dwarven, the non-labialized dorsal approximants became silent, while their labialized counterparts became fully phonemic. During the transition from Classical Dwarven to Contemporary Dwarven, the labio-dorsal approximants  merged with the voiced bilabial fricatives , creating a new set of labiodental approximants.
 * This means that the letters that historically stood for dorsal approximants either represent vowels, labial approximants , or the absence of a consonant before a vowel (in Old Dwarven, all syllables had to begin with a consonant, and could only consist of one vowel).
 * It is important to note, that unlike in Old Dwarven, whether a consonant is dark or light is no longer phonemic, but allophonically depends on the vowel that follows it. Consonants are dark before (and after) the Classical Dwarven or their Contemporary Dwarven counterparts, light before (and after) the Classical Dwarven  or their Contemporary Dwarven counterparts.
 * Because of the merger of the Classical Dwarven and  in Contemporary Dwarven as, the same vowel can occour after both light and dark consonants, making the contrast phonemic before this single vowel.

Consonant-articulation markers
One of the main deficencies of the Old Dwarven script is that it fails to cater to the increased number of consonantal phonemes of Classical Dwarven and Contemporary Dwarven. These optional consonant-articulation markers aim to fix this issue - however, they are optional, as in text without loanwords, the exact pronounciation of consonants can be largerly deduced from context, with historical voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives when following a vowel, historical voiceless stops becoming voiced stops after vowels (but only when the stop isn't followed by another voiceless stop), voiceless fricatives before other voiceless stops, etc.

A susch, these are mostly used in loanwords and onomatopoeia.


 * Ävim represents "progressive nature" in the articulation of consonants. In Classical Dwarven, this meant that the letters that normally stand for were to be pronounced as, when the letter was written with this diacritic. The same diacritic is also used on the letters representing , so that they represent only postalveolar shibilants , never alveolar sibilants  (as the letters would represent both without this diacritic).
 * In Comteporary Dwarven, historical has merged with the semivowel, producing a new labiodental approximant.
 * Shětět represents "regressive nature" in the articulation of consonants. In Classical Dwarven, this meant that the letters that normally stand for were to be pronounced as, when the letter was written with this diacritic. The same diacritic is also used on the letters representing , so that they represent only alveolar sibilants , never postalveolar shibilants  (as the letters would represent both without this diacritic).
 * Ftan represents the fricatization of stop consonant. In Classical Dwarven, this meant that the letters that normally stand for were to be pronounced as.
 * In comteporary Dwarven, have become, while  merged with  to form.
 * Ftan may have been borrowed from the Stélhelm script.