Series of "How to Create a Language". Part One: Choosing your Alphabet.

1. Creating a Language
Part One: Alphabets

2. Alphabets
• An “Alphabet”, also known as a “phonemic alphabet”, is
the writing system Europeans and Americans probably
know best.
• In Alphabets, letters can represent vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
or consonants (k, l, p,)
• In different alphabets, sounds can be achieved using
different letters. For example, the “sh” sound is created
using the letters SI in Welsh, SJ in Afrikaans, CH in French,
S in Irish, etc.
• The most widely used alphabets are the Latin/Roman
alphabet: the one you’re reading right now; or the Cyrillic
alphabet: found in Slavic countries like Russia.
• Alphabets can use diacritics to change the sounds of
vowels.
Bonjour!
Hello! Ahoj!
Здравей!

3. Wait…
• What the hell is a diacritic?
• A diacritic is an accent or symbol that is used to signify a
vowel, or a change to a vowel.
• For example! In French, “Cafe” would be pronounced
“KAF”, whereas “Café” – with the added diacritic on the E –
signifies that the silent E has now changed to a
sounded e, making the pronunciation “KAF-AY”
• It’s used in a bunch of other types of writing systems, too.
• It can mean a lotta different things, and that changes
depending on the language: changing a vowel, removing
the vowel sound, representing the vowel itself…
• Okay- Let’s continue with the alphabet types!

4. Abjads
• An “Abjad”, also known as a “Consonant Alphabet”, is
the writing system used in Arabic and Hebrew (among
others)
• In Abjads, letters represent consonants only, and vowels
are expressed through an added diacritic.
• In Semitic Abjads, most words have roots made of three
consonants. For example! K-T-B is the root for words
related to inscribing or writing in Arabic.
• By adding vowels and other consonants around these three
root consonants, you create different words within the
same field of writing; such as katîb (writer), kutub (books),
maktab (school), and kutubî (book seller).

5. Abugidas
• An “Abugida”, also known as a “Syllabic Alphabet”, is a
syllable-based writing system.
• In Abugidas, letters signify whole syllables as opposed
to specific letters; for example, letters would represent
“ka”, “sho” or “tu” instead of “k”, “s” or “t”
• Diacritics are used in Abugidas to modify the vowel. For
example, for a letter signifying the syllable “MA”, a diacritic
may be added to signify the pronunciation has changed
to “MO/MI/MU/ME”. However! A diacritic may also
symbolise a removal of the vowel entirely, making the
letter simply “M”.

6. Syllabary
• A “Syllabary” is a phonetic writing system that is very
similar to an Abugida in the way it uses letters to signify
syllables instead of specific letters.
• The difference lies in the fact that diacritics are not used
to signify different syllables – instead, entirely different
symbols are used.
• For example, in Japanese Hiragana,
the symbols for “ka/ki/ku/ke/ko” are
all separate symbols on their own,
instead of a modified version of
one of them.

7. Semanto-Phonetic
• Semanto-phonetic writing systems use symbols that
represent both the sounds of the symbol, but also the
meaning of the symbol.
• As a result of this, Semanto-phonetic alphabets often
include a very large number of symbols, generally from
several hundred to tens of thousands.
• Semanto-phonetic symbols can be classified under either:
Pictograms, Ideograms, and compound characters.

8. More Semanto-Phonetic
• PICTOGRAMS: Symbols that resemble the thing(s) they
represent.
• IDEOGRAMS: Symbols that graphically represent
abstract ideas, such as numbers or abstract nouns.
• COMPOUND CHARACTERS: Symbols that include a
semantic element, which represents the meaning, and a
phonetic element, which hints at the pronunciation. The
below example shows Chinese compound characters that all
share are a semantic element meaning “horse”.