Tachydactylic

by Simon Whitechapel

Like Rebbuqqan, Tachydactylic, or juggling script, was employed in the underground Temple of the Toad-Goddess Rebbuqqa at Imbaqmosor, where the three great gems of the goddess — a ruby, an emerald, and a diamond — were sempiternally juggled on the toadhead altar by naked batrachomorph priestesses. Although the three gems themselves were not used to convey the script except in emergencies, as when a priestess felt faint or ill whilst juggling and needed to hand the gems over prematurely, the priestesses who practised their juggling with replicas elsewhere used Tachydactylic for silent prayers and hymns.

The version of Tachydactylic presented is the simplest possible and has been adapted to English phonetics. Plosives are symbolized by a standard three-ball juggle performed to one of three heights with the hands held either in the normal position or further apart:

=p; =b; =t; =d; =k; =g

Vowels are symbolized by two balls juggled in the left or right hand while the third ball is tossed in the right or left hand. The balls are tossed to one of three heights:

=a; =e; =i; =o; =ô; =u

Semi-vowels and aspirates are symbolized by one ball being tossed vertically in each hand, while the third ball is tossed repeatedly between the hands. With balls of three different kinds — ruby, emerald, diamond — there are six possible variants:

=j; =w; =l; =r; =h; =hh

The final variant, hh, symbolized by ruby tossed vertically in right hand, emerald in left, while diamond is tossed between them, turns plosives into fricatives when performed after the three-ball plosive juggle:

=f; =v; =s; =z; =x;

© 2007 Simon Whitechapel

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