About
The purpose of this site
Syllabics.net is a tool to aid in the preservation of Aboriginal and Indigenous languages. Using this tool you can easily develop materials in syllabics as well as Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) even if you do not have access to a syllabic keyboard layout. It should also work from any computer, tablet, or mobile device without needing to install any fonts or additional software.
Why I developed this site
My main inspiration for developing this site was to help me easily type in Western Cree Syllabics without the need of a special keyboard or font. However, I also wanted to make it publicly available to help others in their language preservation endeavours. I have therefore released it for public use. It doesn't look pretty (see note below) but it works.
Dialects other than Western Cree
While I typically only work with Western Cree dialects I decided to add other dialects to this site as well. I had already created the conversion software for Western Cree, so it was fairly easy to add the language rules for other dialects.
However, as I am not as familiar with other syllabic languages I did my best in researching the language rules on Wikipedia and other language sites. If you notice any mistakes with any of the converters or syllabic tables please let me know. Also, if you need a converter added for your specific community or area I would certainly be willing to add it for you. Also, if you are a linguist and can confirm that one of the other dialects has been implemented correctly I would be grateful to hear so!
Unicode fonts
The syllabic fonts used on this website are Unicode fonts. You should therefore be able to copy any syllabic text from this site and paste it into any application on any system provided that that system has proper Unicode font support. Unicode fonts should be used when at all possible over the older font methods.
Older font methods do not have the consistency that Unicode has. With an older font method if you created a syllabic document using a specific font and wanted to distribute that document to other people those people would need to have that same font to be able to read your document correctly. This was a hassle for both creator and recipients of any such documents or applications. Unicode eliminates this problem by having a unified system for all characters of all the world's languages including Indigenous languages. Therefore all a person needs to have on their computer is any Unicode font capable of displaying Aboriginal syllabic characters and the syllabics will show up correctly.
Why doesn't this site look pretty?
My main reason for designing this site was to allow me to type up syllabic characters quickly. I don't really like design as I am not very artistic and it takes me a loooooooong time to figure out what looks good. It was originally not meant to be public, but figured others might be able to benefit from it so I released it in its current state. And even though you might not be able to tell, it does look better than it would have if I hadn't released it to the public. :)
A Syllabics Game?
I am currently working on a game to help teach Syllabics. Right now it isn't very usable, but if you want to take a sneak peak have a look: Syllabics Game.
A Syllabics Worhsheet Generator?
Here is a syllabics worksheet generator that I had started a while back. I had not finished it, but if finishing it would be of help to you, please let me know. See Syllabics Worksheet Generator