On Microsoft Vista correct rendering of all OpenType features in both the BabelStone Goblin and BabelStone Goblin Vertical fonts is seen in basic text editors such as Notepad and BabelPad, and also in Internet Explorer version 8 (when not in compatibility mode, and the HTML document is well-formed and has a valid DOCTYPE declaration). However, as not all systems and/or applications support the advanced OpenType features used in the font, I have also mapped the digraph and ligature glyphs to the PUA at U+E000 to U+E027. ![]() ![]() Thus any sequence of Goblin text can be represented at the character level by means of the letters A-Z and/or a-z, the ampersand sign (or the plus sign for an alternate form of the and character), and the two format characters ZWNJ & ZWJ. For example, the character sequence will be transformed into the special SEE ligature glyph by the font. In addition to these contextual substitutions which the font applies automatically, there are a number of optional ligatures that the font only applies if explicitly requested by connecting the letters with a ZWJ (ZERO WIDTH JOINER) character. across word boundaries, or in the case of Polar Bear's letter where luck has been written as four letters). You may use a ZWNJ (ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER) character to inhibit this behaviour where it is not wanted (e.g. Likewise, the font automatically generates special glyph forms for doubled letters. the font automatically transforms the character sequence to the AI glyph, etc.). In my font I map the twenty-six Goblin letters corresponding to A-Z to the Basic Latin letters A-Z and a-z (there is no case distinction in Goblin), and contextually generate the glyphs for letters corresponding to digraphs in English (AI, AU/AW, CH, CK, EA, EE, EI, EU/EW, GH, LL, NG, OA, OI, OO, OU/OW, PH, QU, SH, TH, WH) using OpenType technology (i.e. Unlike most fictional writing systems, Tolkien's Goblin script is not a mere substitution cipher for the English alphabet, but has forty-three individual phonetic letters, an and sign, a letter reduplication mark and a complex system of ligatures. Polar Bear's Christmas Letter as Rendered using the BabelStone Goblin Vertical font in IE8 the double f of lots of fun) alternatively you could use ZWSP, but although ZWSP works OK in plain text editors such as Notepad and BabelPad, it causes layout problems in more sophisticated applications such as Internet Explorer. Note that Polar Bear's letter does not separate words, but I have used ZWNJ as a word separator in the test file in order to inhibit unwanted ligaturing across word boundaries (e.g. The html file that I used is available here, if anyone wants to test it on their system. The fonts may be downloaded for free from my website.Īs discussed previously, Internet Explorer version 8 supports the vertical left-to-right layout that Mongolian, Manchu, Phags-pa and Goblin require, and so I have been able to reproduce quite accurately the layout of the above letter using the vertical version of my font in IE8. ![]() As I do not know how to combine vertical and horizontal glyph layout in a single font, I have found it simplest to create two versions of my font, BabelStone Goblin for horizontal layout, and BabelStone Goblin Vertical for vertical layout. Like the Mongolian, Manchu and Phags-pa scripts, Goblin is normally written in vertical columns running left-to-right across the page, but it can also be written horizontally left-to-right. Tokien's The Father Christmas Letters (1976) Polar Bear's Christmas Letter from J.R.R. ![]() Taking a Christmas break from Tangut, this year I have finally found time to create a font for the Goblin Alphabet used by the North Polar Bear in the Father Christmas Letters. It has become a Christmas tradition for me to read to my children Raymond Briggs' Chronicles of Father Christmas and J.R.R. Thursday, 1 January 2009 Moon Runes and Goblin Alphabet
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