Phonychos script

The Phonychos script is one of the three writing systems that collectively make up the Ynglyan code. The simplest of the three scripts, it is also arguably the easiest to study, not because manuscripts recorded in it are particularly common but because those that do exist have been the subject of episodes of sustained scholarly attention. These episodes are all historical, and the resulting scholarship is difficult to find without help, but scholars who can find it, and who are willing to put in the study required of its demanding orthography, can develop an understanding of it.
It is thought that the three scripts that make up the Ynglyan code are interrelated. Experimentation with the other two scripts, informed by this one, has been used to reconstruct some small fraction of the code, though a shortage of primary texts and professional jealousy among researchers makes this research difficult.

System

The Phonychos script is an impure abajd of 38 letters. As an abjad, all of these letters represent consonants, creating a range of phonemes not possessed by any organically-derived Zolian language. The precise differences between some of these phonemes, particularly those surrounding plosive sounds such as that of the letter T, has not yet been settled by scholars, making the precise pronunciation of many words a matter of ongoing debate. As an impure abjad, the script also incorporates a complex system of diacritics to indicate vowel sounds. This makes it exceedingly difficult to read at sight; even after considerable study scholars can typically read only twenty to thirty words per minute. Whether this was the case among the Ynglyan clerics who (presumably) devised the code or not is not clear.
Unlike the other two scripts making up the code the Phonchyos script is written horizontally, from left to right. Surviving manuscripts display careful calligraphy; the handwriting of three or four individual scribes has been identified. Most known manuscripts are written in Sapphire ink; whether this is linguistically or ceremonially significant or not is not clear.

History of study

The Phonychos script is named after Horphyod Phonychos, a scholar from Chogyos who claimed to have been struck by the similarities between an antique folio he purchased at great expense in Elpaloz and a case of letters he discovered among his late great-grandmother's effects. The letters were written in calligraphy in the modern Chogyan dialect, and similarities with the script in the folio were such that he was able, he claimed, to decipher the latter writing. He attributed these similarities to the fact that his great-grandmother - never actually named in any of his writings - was a member of the Bruised Ones and had undergone tutelage at the Temple of Yngylas at Elpaloz. He published very little of his methodology, apparently concerned that his professional secrets might be stolen, though he did publish a lexicon of several hundred words, mostly dealing with matters related to the social life of young single women.
The script was also a subject of study by the Lunar Society of Pholyos whose members discovered the Analects of Sphay in the Star Tower. Over some years of dedicated study, during which they appear to have consulted Phonychos's work, the society was able to expand their understanding of the script to the point where members occasionally sent each other letters written in it as a method of maintaining secrecy. These letters are known to have been foliated and the resulting volumes have been known to find their way into the hands of rare book dealers in Pholyos. The known letters of the society make unambiguous reference to a full grammar of the script but this book has yet to resurface.

Manuscripts 

Known primary manuscripts are rare, though given the activity of the Bruised Ones it is possible that such material is resting in family archives or crypts in Chogyos. It is also widely suspected that the Brotherhood of Rooks hold manuscripts in the script, although this could be said about a lot oft things.
The Analects of Sphay were originally partly written in the Phonychos script. The fact that these writings have been anonymously translated into the modern Pholyan dialect makes it obvious that somebody somewhere at least believes they can read this script fluently. The rarity of these texts, both in their original language and in translation, makes it ruinously expensive to conduct any translation work, so research proceeds only very slowly.  By far the greater part of this cost is acquiring the original pre-Wesmodian manuscripts, and searching for such manuscripts in locations known to have been sacred to Ynglyas, such as the Indigo Tower is one of the central endeavours of research into the cult.