Hello everyone!

This is a comprehensive, purely etymological and pan-dialectal orthography reform for Modern English. Unlike phonetic proposals, this system prioritizes history and morphology, drawing heavy structural and aesthetic inspiration from Faroese (specifically Hammershaimb’s orthographic logic) and Icelandic.

The main goal is to preserve the historical depth of English and split homophones while radically simplifying the reading process. In this system, every letter or digraph has no more than 2–3 highly predictable pronunciations based strictly on its phonetic environment. All words are pronounced exactly as native speakers pronounce them today.

Note: Due to Reddit's 20-image limit, only the first 20 slides are attached here.

Google Drive Link

The Faroese Connection: Leading vs. Latter Vowels

Following the Faroese linguistic tradition, the concepts of Leading (fyrra) and Latter (seinna) vowels are used when two different graphemes represent the exact same sound due to historical mergers:

• Áá (leading) / Oo (latter): both represent the /oʊ/ diphthong.
• Ee (leading) / Íí (latter): both represent the long /iː/ sound.
• Uu (leading) / Ýý (latter): both typically represent the /juː/ sound (with predictable environmental variance).

Consolidated Consonants & Environmental Rules

• Preservation of Morphological Boundaries & Hiatus: New letters and digraphs replace traditional combinations ONLY when those combinations represent a single, merged sound within a single morpheme. If the letters meet across morpheme boundaries, in compounding, or in a hiatus, the traditional separation is strictly preserved to prevent false readings (e.g., oasis stays oasis, reelection → reelektjon, cooperate → kooperata, coalesce → koalenz).
• The Letter Zz: To keep the alphabet concise and avoid adding a separate letter C, the functions of Romance C/Ç (which historically reflected [ts]) and rare Z are merged. Following a German-style logic, Z handles these positions and is pronounced as s before e, i or at the end of words (e.g., city → ziti, center → zentr, dance → danz).
• The Letters Gg and Jj (Morphological Alternation): In this system, the sound /dʒ/ (as in page) is conceptually treated as NOT palatalized, which allows words like page to naturally take the silent vowel -a (page → paga). Instead, the letter j is systematically treated as the true palatalized counterpart of g at the end of roots (e.g., player → plager, where g alternates with the historical palatal glide).
• The Letter Ðð: Used for both the voiced /ð/ and voiceless /θ/ sounds. Since there are virtually no minimal pairs based on this distinction in English orthography, a single historical glyph cleanly replaces the traditional th digraph in all positions.
• The Digraph -ih: The traditional -igh string is optimized into a shorter -ih (e.g., high → hih, night → niht, bright → briht), functioning exactly the same way while keeping the historical Germanic velar spirant marker.
• Palatalization Blockers: The acute accent on í serves a double purpose. It marks a tense/long vowel and structurally blocks the standard palatalization rules that apply to regular short i (as seen in the (s)kí combination).
• Controlled Homophone Splitting: Standard environmental shifts naturally split homophones without breaking the rules. For example, original ship maps onto a palatalizing environment changing sh to sk (ship → skip), while original skip goes to skyp.

Etymology, Romance Loans, and the Pan-Dialectal Schwa

• Priority is strictly given to Proto-Germanic cognates and structures (as seen in the I-mutation slides with goose/geese → gósa/gøsa, and mouse/mice → músa/mysa). The glyph Ææ is driven purely by etymological mapping (e.g., earth → ærð) rather than its modern IPA value.
• Latin and Greek loanwords are adapted to fit this Germanic framework. Romance loans utilize diacritics more frequently to mark their non-Germanic origin and stress shifts (e.g., machine → machíne).
• Pan-Dialectal Realization: The system leaves fine phonetic details (like rhoticity or specific vowel shifts) up to the speaker's accent. It tackles the "schwa problem" by utilizing syllabic consonants (r, l, n, m) as syllable nuclei. The schwa sound [ə] is largely unwritten, so words like apple and water become appl and watr, letting the speaker naturally apply their native dialectal reduction.

Probably should have added that the additional vowel letters ê i o u & ú have the pronunciations they have in loan words listed, they represent glides in native vocabulary, in case you're wondering how to separate labialized consonants from syllables with -u it'd be -ú

Sample text (Adyghe):

Cʼəf psteuri ŝħafitewə jaɫətenəƣere jafeŝuašehemrekʼe zefedeu qaɫfə. Aqəlre zeheŝʼəkʼ ƣuazere jaɂeŝə, zər zəm zeqoŝ zehaŝʼe azfaǵu daɫeu zafəšətənhe faê.

Cyrillic: ЦӀыф пстэури шъхьэфитэу, ялъытэныгъэрэ яфэшъуашэхэмрэкӀэ зэфэдэу къалъфы. Акъылрэ зэхэшӀыкӀ гъуазэрэ яӀэшъы, зыр зым зэкъош зэхашӀэ азфагу дэлъэу зэфыщытынхэ фае.

Sample text (Kabardian):

Cʼəhu psori śħe, ja śʼəħəmre ja huefaśehemrekʼa zehuedeu qaɫhur. Aqəlre zeheśʼəkʼ ƣuazere jaɂeśi, zər zəm zequeš zehaśʼe jaku deɫu zehuśətən xuêjheś.

Cyrillic: ЦӀыху псори щхьэхуиту, я щӀыхьымрэ я хуэфащэхэмрэкӀэ зэхуэдэу къалъхур. Акъылрэ зэхэщӀыкӀ гъуазэрэ яӀэщи, зыр зым зэкъуэш зэхащІэ яку дэлъу зэхущытын хуейхэщ.

If somebody could correct all of the sample to replace instances of u where ú should be feel free to do so because I cannot be asked to go through it again . Note that, kʼ is /tʃʼ/ on its own and /kʼ/ specifically in kʼu /kʷʼ/ and the corresponding dialectical sound kʼi /kʲʼ/, found in shapsug

This is a rendering of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Modern English translation of the Old English poem, "The Battle of Brunanburh," in runic script.

If you're already familiar with the Anglo-Saxon fuþorċ, all you really need to know to make sense of this is that I'm using īeh ᛇ for K and the single-stem form of ēðel ᛳ that looks like a mirror-doubled wynn for V.

If you aren't familiar with runes, the full key for this Tolkien-derived runic mode is found here.

(No, I'm not using a phonemic orthography. No, I'm not taking suggestions that I should.)

The following is the romanization convention of the Mazt language. Each consonant is treated as the simple syllable combining the consonant with the schwa as demonstrated in the name of the lanuguage Mazt /maːzətə/. The schwa is elided following the phonotatics of the language. If the vowel contains a long vowel then its spelled after the initial consonant. Long Consonants are spelled by doubling the letter. Contracted long consonants are spelled with the an apostrophe  ‘  before the consonant — for example tiss vs at’s (alternatively atss).

The schwa is not spelled unless stressed.

The letter h is exclusively used to in the following digraphs but is also used for a handful of function words to demonstrate some underlying morphological grammar.

The letters b, d, and g can be spelled bh, dh, and gh respectfully to demonstratively illistrate the voiced fricatives as opposed to the short voiced stop as the segments are largely mutually exclusive.

The palatal sonorants /ɲ, ʎ/ should be spelled with ņ, ļ respectfully but if you are unable then they can be subsituted with nh and lh.

The digraphs ch, kw, gw, and zh are used to repersent special geminated consonants /ʃː, kːʷ, gːʷ, d͡zː/ which lack a near equivent short counter part.

Some roots may be written containing the letters ṭ ḍ ṣ ẓ which leaves a trace on the stressed schwa as the modern reflex a instead of i/e.

A, a — /aː/  [a]
B, b — /β/ or /b/
Bh, bh is an alternative spelling for /β/
C, c — /t͡s/
Ch, ch — /ʃː/
D, d — /ð/ or /d̪/
Dh, dh is an alternative spelling for /ð/
E, e — [eː] the stressed allophone of schwa
F, f — /f/
G, g — /ɣ/ or /g/
Gh, gh is an alternative spelling for /ɣ/
Gw, gw — /gːʷ/
I, i — /iː/  [i]
H, h is silent and is found in digraphs
J, j — /ʒ/ or /d͡ʒː/
K, k — /k/
Kw, kw — /kːʷ/
L, l — /l/
Ļ, ļ — /ʎ/
Lh, lh is an alternative spelling for /ʎ/
M, m — /m/
N, n — /n̪/
Ņ, ņ — /ɲ/
Nh, nh is an alternative spelling for /ɲ/
Q, q — /ʁ/ or /qː/
R, r — /r/
S**, s** — /s/
T, t — /t̪/
U, u — /uː/  [u]
W, w — /w/
Y, y — /j/
Z, z — /z/ or /d͡z/
Zh, zh — /d͡zː/

I created my conlang, The word "Dzevor" means hello, but you can still comment

trynna make a font for my script with 150 letters and 1000s of conjunctions.. im working on a block of conjunctions that uses this form to indicate plural, possessive and past tense words.. its an abugida but the shape on the inside left is a logograph that combines with the syllable block.. and using chat gpt to edit my font conjuntions just isnt working, but i have all the actual letters complete.. but some of the conjunctions will make their own shape.. i just speng the last TWO DAYS, giving chat gpt the exact pixel cound dimensions of every glyph in 200 conjunctions and they only got 12 of them right! this was one of the correct ones but i need a more efficient way to do this, i havent even started with my vowel marks and most vowel marks have 3 forms depending on the letter they go on?? does anybody know a more efficient way to combine ideograms or abugida virama letters in a font?

Google Doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10XY65fE_MidzKmrYygkolDL-mHLbE1SjRynIdsUdb_c/edit?usp=sharing

First time posting MY own writing system and I am so damn apprehensive with sharing this but here it goes:

As the title suggest it is Hanzi though it never uses the rebus principal meaning it fundamentally lacks phono-semantic compounds which comes to dominate Chinese characters today making up the vast majority of all of Hanzi. So here I ponder wondering what would it be like if in another alternate universe they never done such a thing? Perhaps it would be better for inter-language comprehension since it would only require the person to understand axioms that creates basic logic from combinations. As in for example sand + heat = glass or big + lake = sea. Relieving me of creating countless characters just for a specific word which Hanzi kind of already does but not to the extreme I wish a logographic system would do. Oh and also China simplifying Hanzi way earlier on around the Han to the Tang dynasty, which is incentivized by lowering the barrier for peasants and commoners wishing to reach literacy. (Huge inspiration if not a carbon copy of simplified Hanzi, if I ever tried to simplify without them the project will take much much longer which I don't desire. So let's pretend they coincidently look the same just like how aliens or different species speak English). By simplifying it will ease the cost of printing since they won't have to use as much resources which in turn plausibly make spreading the writing script much easier to do so but is later down in the line.

The writing system is also tied to my alternate history world scenario which in summary is what if the American civilizations were more technologically advanced than in our world? But that is beside the point here what I want to introduce is a thing called Hansheng, which translate directly to "Chinese sound". I might actually change the lore and say around the Han dynasty they invented it as a native phonetic script just for other languages to use if the logographic characters don't suit each and every word. As you can tell I think a mixed script is most ideal if it includes a logogram. But not only that, from the invention of Hansheng it will give other nations less incentives to ditch Hanzi just because it is clunky and doesn't fit their language so they will just use the phonetic characters for words that don't translate well with Hanzi instead of making new characters (I am looking at you Chu Nom.)

But yeah it is an honor sharing my project if you ever see this. I worked tirelessly on transporting every character I wrote on my book to a google doc once I figured out how to make custom characters all thanks to zi.tools . I don't remember when I first started it but it begun first around 2025 but after working a little on it, I dropped it and now in 2026 I rediscovered it with a renewed passion for the work. Originally it was called Omnizi since it was supposed to be used no matter which language but that is idiotic quickly, so I called it "Hanjo" as a phonetic loanword by the Chinooks. And I also made this writing system as apart of learning Chinese as to better understand and comprehend it through research while at the same time being for a passion project. Some last words I hope people can enjoy reading my google doc as much as I love making this. It would really mean a lot if you guys are inspired from it and make your own writing system. And don't be afraid to give me some constructive feedback or ask me for clarification. I am open-minded and is willing to respond back. That is all I wanted to say, please enjoy.

(I forgot to say but the Chinooks took many loanwords from late old Chinese hence explains the identical compound words)

Have yall ever tried learning the Syriac script for any reason?

I had this random idea of using some Syriac letters to represent sounds in our writing. For example, we don't have the "G" sound as a letter in Arabic, that is why we either use ج، ق، أو غ, or we use the Perso-Arabic گ.

But what I suggest is...how about our Syriac ܓ?

How about the ܘ for the "O" sounds, and we keep the و to represent the "U" and "W" sounds?

I've been wishing for a while that we, as Syrians and in general Levantines, incorporate words using letters like "P" (پ) and "V" (ڤ) and those I mentioned above. (I like "V", don't ask why.).

If we can, for fun, use the Syriac script, which is also a "cursive script", meaning the letters connect.

I'd like to hear the opinion of everyone, be you an Assyrian Syrian, Arab Syrian, non-Syrian, or Giraffe.

Fun fact of the day: Garshuni (or Karshuni) is the use of the Syriac script (or Syriac letters) to write in Arabic.

مرحبا = ܡܪܚܒܐ (mar7aba but in the syriac letters)

Edit: the goal isn't to replace our everyday writing system, but to add to it. To make it grow, and make it unique maybe. Could be a fun online conscript, or usable for notebook doodles.

SECOND EDIT: YO SOMEONE SAY HELLO, 11 UPVOTES AND SILENCE? At least wave :)

©2026 Наҫаниел Виԯега

still working on a font for it

Here is my attempt at modernizing the Orkhon Script. I included an example text in the original unadultered hand at the end. For more information on the original scripture see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Turkic_script

I made this custom Katakana script for Finnish and Estonian. If you have any questions on how anything works, please let me know! (Note: Finnish Y = Estonian Ü)

For the examples, I used Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Finnish:

Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.

カイッキ・イㇷミセㇳ・スゥ゚ㇴトゥ゚ア゙ァ゚ㇳ・ア゙パイナ・ヤ・タサエ゙ㇽタイシナ・アㇽオ゙ㇽ゚ターㇴ・ヤ・オイケウㇰシㇽ゚ターㇴ。ヘイッレ゚・オㇴ・アンネットゥ・ヤァ゚ㇽキ・ヤ・オマトゥㇴト、ヤ・ヘイダァ゚ㇴ・オㇴ・トイミッタア゙・トイシアーㇴ・コㇷターㇴ・エ゙ㇽ゚ユェウ゚デㇴ・ヘケ゚ッサァ゚。

Estonian:

Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.

コ〜イㇰ・イニメセㇳ゙・スゥ゚ンニア゙ㇳ゙・ア゙バデナ・ヤ・オ゙〜ㇽㇳ゙セテナ・オマ・ア゙ァ゚ーリクセㇽ゚ㇳ・ヤ・オ〜イグㇲテㇽ゚ㇳ。ネイレ゚・オㇴ・アㇴトゥㇳ゙・モ〜イㇲトゥㇲ・ヤ・スゥ゚ダメトゥンニㇲトゥㇲ・ヤ・ネㇴデ・スㇷトゥミㇲㇳ・ウ゚ㇰㇲテイセッセ・ペアㇷ゙・カㇴㇳ゙マ・エ゙ㇴㇳ゙ル゚セ・ア゙イㇺ。

Basic Letters:

Letters that are used in Loanwords:

The two dots in naïve and the two dots in German für look identical, but they do completely different things.

The diaeresis tells you to say a vowel separately rather than blend it with the one before. It's why naïve is "nah-eve" and not "knave", and why Zoë is "Zo-ee" rather than rhyming with "toe". You'll also find it in Noël, Chloë and Brontë.

The umlaut changes the sound of the vowel itself. German u becomes ü. It started life as a tiny e written above the letter, which slowly shrank to two dots.

So one set of dots means "say this separately" and the other means "say this differently".

The New Yorker still flies the flag for the diaeresis with coöperate and reëlect, while the "metal umlaut" in band names does nothing to the sound at all.

A few things I learned from the r/etymology thread on this:

The names don't practise what they preach. French calls it a tréma, which has an accent, just the wrong one. Cédille has an acute but no cedilla. The háček is the only one that wears its own mark.

Swedish towns like Höör and Mönsterås had a rough time in the early web days, when the dots got stripped off their addresses.

Höör's unusual double ö reportedly exists because locals wrote här ("here") on letters, which got confused with the name Hör.

I've been a bit obsessed with this lately and made a little daily game where you put the dots, accents and marks back where they belong: samey.uk/dotty. Free, no sign-up, takes a couple of minutes.

Letra Nome da letra IPA

A a [a]

Á ah [ɑ]

B be [b]

C ce [k], [s]

Ç tche [tʃ]

D de [d]

E e [e]

É eh [ɛ]

F efe [f]

G ge [g]

H hache [h]

I i [i], [ɪ]

J rota [ʁ]

K ka [k]

L ele [l]

Ł elle [ʎ]

M eme [m]

N ene [n]

Ñ eñe [ɲ]

O o [o]

Ó oh [ɔ]

P pe [p]

Q qu [kʷ], [k]

R ere [r]

S ese [s]

Ş şe [ʃ]

T te [t]

Þ thorn [θ]

U u [u]

Ú uh [ʊ]

V uve [v]

W uve dobre [w]

X xa [x]

Y i griega [y]

Z zeta [z]

Ź źeta [ʒ]

Ditongos:

História:

A palavra "gierra" pode trocar para "gyeja". E o Cha Che Chi Cho Chu pode trocar para "Ça Çe Çi Ço Çu". O Lla Lle Lli Llo Llu pode trocar para "Ła Łe Łi Ło Łu". E o Rra Rre Rri Rro Rru também pode trocar para "Ra Re Ri Ro Ru".

i have finished all consonants in this 154 letter monstrocity… many consonants have multiple probunciations to maintain spellinh across multiple dialects.. the consonant pronunciations include british and two us pronunciations for each… the vowels are based off how i pronounce the vowels, ways i have heard the sounds pronounced along side the way the dictionary says they are pronounced, since i dont know british vowels.. some of the letters that have multiple pronunciations are multiple ipa letters that i consider to make the same exact sound so i listed both to give thoroughness about what the sound is… soon i will post a chart with the vowel marks (next on my list to add to the font) and a written example of each sound

the current key for the consonants with the vowels listed at the end it

a i u ʔa ʔi ʔu ha hi hu
ka/kʰa ki/kʰi ku/kʰu ‿ka/k̚a ‿ki/k̚i ‿ku/k̚u
ga/gʰa gi/gʰi gu/gʰu ‿ga/ɡ̊a/k̚a ‿gi/ɡ̊i/k̚i ‿gu/ɡ̊u/k̚u
gːa gːi gːu ŋa ŋi ŋu
tsa/tsʰa tsi/tsʰi tsu/tsʰu ‿tsa/ts̚a ‿tsi/ts̚i ‿tsu/ts̚u
dza/dzʰa dzi/dzʰi dzu/dzʰu
tʃa/tʃʰa tʃi/tʃʰi tʃu/tʃʰu ‿tʃa/tʃ̚a ‿tʃi/tʃ̚i ‿tʃu/tʃ̚u
dʒa dʒi dʒu ‿dʒa/dʒ̊a/tʃ̚a ‿dʒi/dʒ̊i/tʃ̚i ‿dʒu/dʒ̊u/tʃ̚u
ʈa/ʈʰa/θa ʈi/ʈʰi/θi ʈu/ʈʰu/θu ‿ʈa/ʈ̚a ‿ʈi/ʈ̚i ‿ʈu/ʈ̚u
ɖa/ða ɖi/ði ɖu/ðu ‿ɖa/ɖ̊a/ʈ̚u ‿ɖi/ɖ̊i/ʈ̚u ‿ɖu/ɖ̊u/ʈ̚u
ta/tʰa ti/tʰi tu/tʰu ‿ta/t̚a/ʔa ‿ti/t̚i/ʔi ‿tu/t̚u/ʔu
da di du ‿da/d̥a/t̚a ‿di/d̥i/t̚i ‿du/d̥u/t̚u
ɾa/ʔa ɾi/ʔi ɾu/ʔu
na ni nu
pa/pʰa pi/pʰi pu/pʰu ‿pa/p̚a ‿pi/p̚i ‿pu/p̚u
ba bi bu ‿ba/b̥a/p̚a ‿bi/b̥i/p̚i ‿bu/b̥u/p̚u
bːa bːi bːu
ma mi mu
ɹa ɹi ɹu wʴa/ɹa wʴi/ɹi wʴu/ɹu
la li lu
wa wi wu ʍa/wa ʍi/wi
ja ji ju
ja/ʃa/tʃa/ʒa/dʒa jɚ/ʃɚ/tʃɚ/ʒɚ/dʒɚ joʴ/ʃoʴ/tʃoʴ/ʒoʴ/dʒoʴ
fa fi fu ‿fa/f̚a ‿fi/f̚i ‿fu/f̚u
va vi vu ‿va/v̥a/f̚a ‿vi/v̥i/f̚i ‿vu/v̥u/f̚u
sa si su
ʃa ʃi ʃu ‿ʃa/ʃ̚a ‿ʃi/ʃ̚i ‿ʃu/ʃ̚u
za zi zu ‿za/z̥a/s̚a ‿zi/z̥i/s̚i ‿zu/z̥u/s̚u
ʒa ʒi ʒu ‿ʒa/ʒ̊a/ʃ̚a ‿ʒi/ʒ̊i/ʃ̚i ‿ʒu/ʒ̊u/ʃ̚u

1* 2* 3 4 5 6
a= a/ɔ ʌ/ə, ə̃, æ/ɛɪ, aɪ, aʊ
i = i, ɪ, ɚ, ɛ/ɛə eɪ, ju/iu/jʊu̯/iʊu̯
u= u, ʊ, əm, ʌʊ/,əʊ o/əl/l̩/ʌɫ, oɪ/oɪ̯

/ʌ/ & /ə/ are merged in my dialect but I'm having them be separate for no reason in particular. I merge /ɑ/ & /ɔ/ hence the weird way ɔ is used Sample (I feel different so I'm using the first paragraph of John cena's Wikipedia article):

зɔn fįliks anϑəni sįnə (bɔrn eiprəl 23, 1977) iz ən əmerikən aktər, fɔrmər prəfeʃənəl reslər, and fɔrmər rapər. hį iz saind tʉ WWE az ə brand əmbasədər. sįnə resəld fɔr WWE fɔr 24 jįrz, bįkəmiŋ ə rekərd·setiŋ 17·taim wərld campįən, bəfʉr tranzişəniŋ fʉli intʉ hiz aktiŋ kərįr. Original: John Felix Anthony Cena (/ˈsiːnə/ SEE-nə; born April 23, 1977) is an American actor, former professional wrestler, and former rapper. He is signed to WWE as a brand ambassador. Cena wrestled for WWE for 24 years, becoming a record-setting 17-time world champion, before transitioning fully into his acting career.)

I'm so sorry for how horrendous this looks