#Star wars conlang

[colonelcaroldanvers]

New Star Wars Community!

Hi y'all! I have created a new community for worldbuilding within Star Wars. Since it's still in beta, I need to manually invite people - if you're interested in joining, please reply to this post or DM me for an invite :) I'd love to get some good discussions going!

[corriegardenia]

Amatakka - How to Write in the Tattooine Slave Language

For anyone not running in these particular fanon circles, Amatakka is the fake language of the star wars slave people, Amavikka, like Anakins family at birth. It was originally made by @fialleril, adapted by a whole lot of fan authors like @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning, and grew a life of its own from there.

It has a community dictionary with several hundred words, (https://at.tumblr.com/booklindworm/amatakka-dictionary/0dvnmuhlusq3) and a very basic phoneme dictionary (https://conworkshop.com/view_language.php?l=AMAT ), but absolutely no script, other than the vague idea that it'd be written in the Tusken script... which also does not exist. This is my attempt.

(The conlang fundamentally can't be separated from the slave experience, if anyone is disquieted and wants to step off. The way canonical star wars treats slavery is... weird at best; this is supposed to be a language of empowerment. I'll link some folktales at the end!)

In spite of being a communal conlang for an oral language, and my linguistics training being... sporadic, and mostly based on what helped me pick up my current four languages, and two pick-and-drop-and-pick-again languages.

I'd start with something like the inuktitut script (https://youtu.be/xW4hI_METac ). Amatakka is very polysynethic, and the idea of basing my script cataloguing an extant language off of another script cataloguing an extent language tickles me. But a lot of sounds have a specific cultural meaning that is used almost every single time that sound is used in the entire conlang. (Which is desperately impressive, considering it was primarily created by one author, extended by another, and then absorbed into damn near every fan work concerning Tattooine, but I digress.)

For that, i'd use something like Japanese's mixture of three writing systems: kanji, complex and symbolic pictograms; katakana, phonetic representations of loan words; hiragana, phonetic representations of original Japanese words.

In my Amatakka script, I'd put certain heavily symbolic sounds, like ur (wrong) ama (mother, heavily connected with their main goddess) and ani (rain/freedom) into 'kanji', which allows them to be represented as a concept even if the pronunciation changes a little (ani as raindrop and an- as rain, anumakkar as rainstorm, all symbolic of freedom)

Then, I'd put the remaining sounds in an inuktitut based system of syllables, based on the conlang dictionary of phonemes and an analysis of the Google sheet collection of amatakka words.

A system like this seems to fit the language we have well, which would make sense as - both in Canon and in fandom - the words came first, then the writing down of them. Multiple 'kanji' with one component being the same could represent different words, like how levrukka and er-amma are both names for ar-amu, and 雨、雪、電 (rain, snow, electricity) all contain the same radical. (There are probably better examples from folk more fluent in Japanese than me).

Example of this in practise, Depurekta, a slave who enslaves others. This is made of dep, chain, plus ur being something like twisted / wrong-but-less-morally-judgemental, which together is the word for slave owner, plus ekta, healer, one who heals the chains that bind.

Lets look at just that ur in the middle. It appears in japur, a scraggly and twisted native tree where ja- is being native to tattoine; also in kotovur, skin hunger, where ko- is mere skin contact; kusur, sarlacc, where kus- is nourishment; murek, a purple that also symbolises wealth and otherness, where me- is you, yourself; nuro, judge, where no- is son <twisted son who cooperates with slavers judgements>; tovur, starvation, where though we don't have a translation for to- specifically we have torazu and toris, both forms of edible seed; urs-gillig, a tusken relic cave, where I imagine gillig is a regular cave.

This said, when placed inside larger words, ur loses its symbolic meaning, eg shursu, root or foundation, where shulku is suitability; suru, puddle, where sudu is spinning/whirling air movement; kurra, strengthening food where ku- itself is nourishment; kurio, with the same root, appears more in line with ur as a symbolic sound.

(The third person pronoun tur has interesting connotations in this model, but I digress.)

So! Depurekta would probably be fully kanji, with ur being one radical in the kanji for depur, since that's such a key word for the amavikka people.

Kotovur, skin hunger, would have that ur kanji after an inuktitut style descriptive of its first two syllables, with ko- possibly getting its own kanji, as it is also used in words relating to skin contact with less desperate connotations.

Murek, purple associated with otherness, would probably be entirely inuktitut with the kanji in the middle.

Perhaps the system would, in the interest of becoming compact, turn into a hybrid model, with the symbolic pictogram in the middle and small lines off of it representing the inuktitut syllables, so that the whole word could be compressed small and hidden. Amatakka is an oral language, so any amount of writing they do have is likely to be hidden and special, like japor snippets or carvings worn close to the heart.

I am NOT planning on fleshing out the entire writing system, because that would take either hours of manual labour or an understanding of how to make a database spit out the symbolic sounds in words, both of which are not possible for me right now. I MAY write some of my favourite words, after my exams. I only have experience with the celtic and romance language families, barring a spattering of Greek, my Japanese, and English as my native tongue. I'd love to see someone else try and puzzle out how to write in amatakka; this is my attempt.

And, for those who are curious, the folk tales promised - I absolutely recommend a deep dive!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678835

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3510809

https://archiveofourown.org/works/206521

(This one is a good sample of amavikka culture, but is part of a larger fic. Its a good larger fic!) > https://archiveofourown.org/works/18538078?view_full_work=true https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087303/chapters/45669586

[dapurinthos]

help i got sucked into star wars linguistics and remembered vulgar exists and it is SO HELPFUL it even compiled me a little dictionary of the handful of words i've compiled from lightsaber styles, moves, names of places/animals/etc on tython (because vulgar will also analayse words to show frequencies of consonant and vowel sounds.

so. uh. i guess i have a star wars conlang now?

it's called:

tython-jen /taɪʒɒn'ʤen/

which is a compound from:

taizhan /taɪʒɒn/ n. new home; also spelled tython

jen /ʤen/ n. word

& with words such as:

a'yi /a'ji/ prep. with, of

je'i /ʤe'i/ adj. mystic

maqa /maqa/ v. debate, argue

makaši /makaʃi/ [/maqa/ + /ʃi/] n. to argue with a blade

padawa'an /padaʋa'an/ [/pata/ + ʋa'an] n. learner, student

pata /pata/ n. raw

tai /taɪ/ num. two; n. new

wa /ʋa/ v. to learn, to know

zhan /ʒan/ n. shelter, heart

-'an /an/ suff. one who [verbs], that which is [adjective]

so, uh, that's where i wandered off to. because i wanted a moment in galaxies wherein ari gets drawn back post-autistic shutdown by translating & conjugating words in different languages to get their bran back on track.

[holoki-mistletoe]

have fun y'all

completely unbiased bingo card where i fit all the boxes

[booklindworm]

Mando'a Dialects in- and out-of-universe

Outgame (irl) there are several different versions of Mandoʻa: The Shadows of the Empire Soundtrack version (Notron Cant), the Republic Commando Soundtrack version (Jesse Harlin's text), the Old Republic version (as seen in SWtOR or KotOR), the Republic Commando Novels version (Karen Traviss' version), the Mandoa.org version (their forum members made up a lot of extra vocabulary), several different tumblr versions, and the Disney version (as in the TV-series Star Wars Rebels). They all have distinctive similarities (the Notron Cant is an exception), but unfortunately, they also all somewhat differ. Since Karen Traviss published her Mandoʻa version online, complete with a dictionary, the Mandoa.org version and most tumblr versions are based on her version. Her version in turn is vaguely based on Jesse Harlin's version-the first Mandoʻa on file, so to say. I myself see them as different dialects or development stages of the same language.

See, Karen Traviss' Mandoʻa and also most of Mandoa.org's Mandoʻa uses Basic (i.e. English) grammar with a Mandalorian vocabulary, so I call that version Soldiers' Pidgin. It's obviously (ingame) a creole language that came into existence after the Mandalorian diaspora. It is this Soldiers' Pidgin that Kal Skirata taught his children (the Nulls) and possibly also the language that the Alphas taught other, younger clones (e.g. the CC class or the ARC-troopers) as a "secret" language to hide from the Kaminoans. If it was used by the clones in such a way, the GAR should have its own dialect. The different internet versions of Mandoʻa all seem to be based on Karen Traviss' dictionary, so I see them as different dialects of the Soldiers' Pidgin. The same reasoning can be applied to Disney's Mandoʻa.

The language of Vode An, Graʻtua Cuun, Darasuum Kote, etc. on the other hand uses a grammar that differs from Basic. It is an older form of Mandoʻa, probably the Mandoʻa spoken on Mandaʻyaim before the Excision - seven-hundred years ago. It's a lot more interesting (for me, at least). I propose calling it Classic Mandoʻa. It has its own grammar; it has a similar vocabulary as Soldiers' Pidgin, but with distinct and sometimes varying pronunciations (sometimes depending on the rhyme or rhythm of the song); it has a lot of epitaphs and kennings and references and can have very flowery phrasing. It's used, in or around the time of Palpatine's Empire, predominantly in older songs and poems. An irl-equivalent could be Shakespearean English.

We can probably view the (archaic) tOR version as vaguely translated into modern Mandoʻa (Soldiers' Pidgin, probably) since there is exactly no way that the language changes so little in over 3000 years. I also propose that the Basic back then has very few similarities to the Basic that's spoken during the Skywalker Wars.

Missing is a sort of current, modern version of Classic Mandoʻa. I think that is (sadly) very realistic. A society that is so broken up by something like orbital bombardment would likely, over the centuries, develop several different creole versions and try to keep their original language as unchanged as possible, leading to exactly the combination described above.

Here are some other people's thoughts:

[cinerins]

Could I get some input from those who know Mando'a? I've been assembling an armor & gear guide for our group and needed to come up with some words I couldn't find in any dictionary.

Handguard – Bes'gaan -> following the example of kneeguard = bes'lovik (metal+knee) Skidplate – Ru'cabur -> since codpiece is ven'cabur, but would something else make more sense? Flak vest – Pel'bur -> or any "soft armor"; I felt it would make sense to draw a distinction between that and kute? Utility belt – Bir'tay -> my understanding of "bag/pocket/many" + "hold/keep/storage" ...so, something that holds a bunch of stuff/pockets?? Cowl (Cape/Cloak/Poncho) – ??? -> honestly I was a little shocked there doesn't seem to be a word for this. My immediate thought would be going in the direction of hukaatir ("to cover") or hodasal ("camouflage") and hodar ("to deceive, fool") but I could also see something in relation to protection/defense

I'm still on the fence for what to call gloves. Boots exist, so I'd think there's something, especially since they can be made from some kind of armorweave as well...

Let me know what you think!

[dedalvs]

I've been wondering if it would be possible to have a sign-language that would work between two or more alien species with different hand-shapes (numbers of joints and digits and such). Would such a language even be possible, or would it suffer from its users lacking a shared physiology?

On a side note, it was lovely to find this blog. Your work is fantastic and never fails to liven up a setting

Chances are it would not, and a secondary medium would have to be chosen—and I have a great example. In the grand scheme of things, humans are aliens to non-humans, and I happen to know of a sign language created for radically different beings called Rikchiks. Humans can't sign the Rikchik language: It requires 7 tentacles. We can't even approximate it. What we can do, though, is (a) understand it by looking at it, and (b) communicate with Rikchiks by using the written form of the language. It's not nearly as fast, but it's possible. The same would be true for a Rikchik using a human sign language: possible for them to understand, but they wouldn't be able to sign it back effectiely (they don't have hands, and so can't do handshapes).

Hopefully that makes sense. Remember that you can always understand a language without necessarily being able to use it perfectly. Han and Chewbacca from Star Wars are a nice example of that.

[adragonsfriend]

Amatakka: A Learning Guide!

For anyone interested in learning Amatakka (or just about the language & culture) but finds the various spreadsheets either intimidating or incomprehensible, Learning Amatakka: Berim Takkarie is a written guide designed for learners! It includes recordings of spoken Amatakka, notes on Amavikka culture, neat charts, and more.

From the Preface:

"Learning Amatakka is a guide designed for a learner of Amatakka to be exposed to the depth and breadth of Amatakka vocabulary and grammar, and with a little luck, become somewhat conversational."

"Berim Takkarie means Song Dialect [referring to the dialect endemic to much of Tatooine], for the language of hearth and home, which recalls the musical stories of the very eldest grandmothers, and an endless search for water."

Chapter 1 is currently posted, and it focuses on learning to introduce oneself, and a whole bunch of notes on gender. Many more chapters are in the works, and the guide is open to comments and questions!

A guide to @looseleafteeaves dialect of Amatakka is linked within this one.

Many thanks to @emotionalsupportjedi, who accidentally inspired this entire project by asking 'teeaves if they could recommend a place to start learning Amatakka! Please enjoy this ongoing textbook. And even moreso thanks to 'teeaves and @whywouldiknow-that for their contributions so far.

[phoenixyfriend]

Heck I had to put together some Mando'a. Again. Annoying.

Can i get some opinions from people who regularly do Mando'a things in their fics?

Adaki’ur = Ad (child) + akior (to bring, to call forward) + ‘ur (suffix from baar’ur, the word for medic) = midwife

Non-canon, spliced together from canon words. Using Ar. as the short address, like Br. for Baar’ur or Dr. for Doctor.

Another option suggested by a friend is Akiad'ur, but I feel like that doesn't work for me? Like it should go more Akio'ad'ur, but I'm not a fan of doing multiple apostrophes in Mando'a words.

I don't love doing homebrew Mando'a in fics but it was sort of necessary and I don't want to publish without working it out since I have a feeling I'll be using it again in the future.

[ranahan]

Mando’a adjectives give me a headache

Mando’a has two different adjectival suffixes: -la and -yc. If a language has two different suffixes like here, I would assume that they have developed from different sources (for example, an ancestral adjectival or adverbial suffix, past participle or a passive voice in Ancient Mando’a) and/or have different meanings, or different distributions. But for the life of me, I can’t determine what’s the difference here.

Maybe they’re phonetically determined, like a lot of Mando’a prefixes? Nope. Both occur seemingly equally after nearly every vowel and consonant in the language, both with and without a beten. Which makes sense, because phonotactically Mando’a allows the vowel /i/ after pretty much everything, and is equally lax about allowing the liquid /l/ after any other consonant or vowel too (when it comes as its own little syllable -la).

Maybe one encodes an agent and one the patient of the action, e.g. enraged vs. enraging. Nope.

One is a state or a quality and one is a change or a participle of an action? Or perhaps an active vs. stative distinction? You’d think that a pair like oya’la ’living’ and oyayc ’alive’ would be a clue. But nope.

One is deverbal and one denominal? Nope.

Maybe it’s to do with the transitivity of the verb form? Well, I haven’t tried, but whatever it is, I doubt that it’s that deep. Traviss is not a linguist.

Pretty much every distinction that I have tried to split the adjectives between, they seem to fall equally on both sides. They really do seem just random.

And that seems like a wasted opportunity to me. You could do something useful with a feature like this! And I’m honestly thinking that if I can’t crack the code here, I might just completely rework how adjectives work in my version of Mando’a and make them do something grammatically useful.

So. Any words of wisdom or comments or ideas? Do you see a pattern here that I’m missing? A common distinction I haven’t tried yet? Or for the revisionists: What distinction would you find useful? What distinction do you think Mandalorians would find important? Like, toss me some wild ideas. I’ll take anything at this point.

[linguisticdiscovery]

Why I hate conlangs

A conlang (constructed language) is one that was consciously created for some purpose—usually either fiction or global communication—rather than one that developed naturally (Crystal 2008; Wikipedia). Some well-known examples include: Dothraki, Valyrian (Game of Thrones) Esperanto Na’vi (Avatar) Quenya, Sindarin (Lord of the Rings) Klingon (Star Trek) Atlantean (Atlantis: The Lost…

[project-shereshoy]

Numbers

What's 6 in Mando'a? What about 501st? How do you say "execute order 66"? In this blog post, we'll cover the Mando'a cardinal and ordinal number system, how to make any number from 0-9,999 and other words useful when discussing number and math. Sources are indicated with symbols (^ *) and listed at the bottom.

Numerals

Mando'a uses a base-5 numbering system supplemented with base-10 suffixes. This means 1-5 are unique words along with 0, 10, 100, and 1000. All other numbers are a combination of those words. As it stands, KT Mando’a allows us to count up to 9,999. Here are the counting numbers:

0 - naas^ (literally "nothing") 1 - solus (prefix: sol) 2 - t'ad (prefix: ad) 3 - ehn (prefix: ehn) 4 - cuir (prefix: cur) 5 - rayshe'a (prefix: she) 6 - resol (prefix: rol) 7 - e'tad (prefix: tad) 8 - she'ehn (prefix: shen) 9 - she'cu (prefix: shek)

For the tens place numerals (20, 30, 40, etc), add the “tens” suffix -’eta to the prefixes above above. 0 and 1 do not act as prefixes for counting purposes. 10 is a unique number (ta+raysh aka "two fives").

10 - ta'raysh 20 - ad'eta* 30 - ehn'eta* 40 - cur'eta* 50 - she'eta* 60 - rol'eta* 70 - tad'eta* 80 - shehn'eta* 90 - shek'eta*

For the hundreds place numerals, the principle is the same. Add the “hundreds” suffix -’olan to the original numbers. Like 10, 100 is a unique number.

100 - olan* 200 - ad'olan^ 300 - ehn'olan^ 400 - cur'olan^ 500 - raysh'olan* 600 - rol'olan^ 700 - tad'olan^ 800 - shen'olan^ 900 - shek'olan^

For the thousands place numerals, the pattern continues. The suffix for “thousands” is a conjunction between the suffixes for “ten” and “hundreds”, -’eta’olan. This makes it literally “tens of hundred”. 1000 is an exception to the rule and is instead “ten hundred”.

1000 - ta’raysh’olan* 2000 - ad’eta’olan^ 3000 - ehn’eta’olan^ 4000 - cur’eta’olan^ 5000 - she’eta’olan* 6000 - rol’eta’olan^ 7000 - tad’eta’olan^ 8000 - shen’eta’olan^ 9000 - shek’eta’olan^

More Numbers

To fill the gaps in the above list, simply write out each place with a space between. Eleven (11) is ta'raysh solus*. Two hundred-sixty-three (263) in English is ad’olan rol’eta ehn^ in Mando’a. "Execute order sixty-six" becomes "Ke narir haar’ke’gyce rol’eta resol".

Ordinals

To turn a numeral into an ordinal (1 to 1st or 10 to 10th), add the descriptor suffix -yc. Theoretically this should also work with the suffix -la, but -yc is the one explicitly acknowledged in the KT dictionary. The last (singles) place numeral receives the descriptor suffix. E.g. she’olan sol'yc (501st) or cur’etayc (40th)

Other Useful Words

Soletar, verb, "to count" Sosol ti, phrase, "equal to" Majycir, verb, "to add" Te'habir, verb "to remove or take out" aka subtract

There's no ready answer for "multiply" or "divide", though creative use of tatugir "to repeat" could work in some cases. Fractions might be verbally represented as solus be ta'raysh "1 of 10" or some other prepositional combo that can also represent division. "Mathematics" also doesn't have a dedicated word, but "to calculate" is mirdir.

"But do Mandalorian space-barbarians really need to know math--" Yes. Ballistics. Logistics. Counting pay. Math is everywhere, it is inescapable. Inevitable. Evil Essential.

Sources

Words without source symbols are from officially published works by Karen Traviss, namely the Republic Commando novels. Reference this index to see the book & page number.

Asterik* words are from the lexicon Karen Traviss published digitally, which is hosted as-is on Mandoa.org without alterations (or corrections).

Carat^ words are derivations from the canon words' established patterns. As such, if you want to go with a different interpretation, have fun! These are suggestions and I ain't a cop. We'll answer follow-up questions on how they're derived, but we're not interested in arguing merits of one interpretation over another.

[lightsaber-dorphin]

I’ve been thinking about how Mando’a has a lot of glottal stops and how people probably wouldn’t pronounce them correctly when speaking quickly. I had the idea of an “accent” Mando’a speakers develop if they rush their words a lot.

Usually mispronunciating glottal stops would make a Mando’a speaker harder to understand or make them sound rushed and harried. But sometimes people, like, get good at it. When that happens they are said to have “soldier’s accent” (“joh’ika* be verde” or “joika be verde”). It’s not joh’ika be verde if the person is tripping over their words and can’t be understood.

Despite the name, it is most often seen in restaurant cooks, nurses, etc. after busy shifts. The work rush version usually goes away once the person gets to sit down and breathe. Long term joh’ika be verde develops gradually when someone spends most or all of their time in an environment where speaking quickly is encouraged, even outside of rushes. That version is more of an “accent” and seen in soldiers and holonet gamers.

Outside of the expected settings, joh’ika be verde gives the impression that someone has never relaxed or had a normal conversation. In casual settings it’s considered hashing the vibe.

Idioms I made up from this:

“Gar jorhaa’i sa gar kih’ru’cuyi o’r akaan” / “You sound like you were just in a war” as an equivalent to “you look like you just went through a war.” (I added kih/small to ru’cuyi/were for kih’ru’cuyi/‘recently were’ because there’s no “just” or “recently.”)

“digu gar betene” / “forgetting your sighs” as an equivalent to “tripping over your words”

*there wasn’t a Mando’a word for accent, so I added the diminutive to joha/language

[dapurinthos]

so i finally got around to actually reading @dedalvs's the art of language invention for the purposes of its purpose (nine years later. this is why you buy the books, people! that giant pile is going to be read). i have copious highlights and notes on paper and here are some of the replies i had for parts of the book.

(i always get a kick out of when someone positions themselves as the ‘default’ for pronunciations because i have some quirks in my pronunciations, like the absence of the cot-caught (lot-thought, also father-bother which makes me go ??? those aren’t even near the same vowel) merger present in nearly all canadian english (most north american english, really) in my vowels. that was a fun day in linguistics class (everyone else: /kʰɒt/ /kʰɒt/. me: /koːt/ /kɔːt/).)

anyway, select passages behind the cut as to not crowd up your flist dash.

oh hildegard. you would have loved the bardcore version of 'hips don't lie'.

this is the gospel truth. go look at how japanese verbs function. they’re categorized as godan, ichidan, and irregular. how are they categorized? like a nightmare. godan verbs are ones that end with -u and move through the whole fucking vowel row of the hiragana chart, which is why they’re called ‘five-level’ verbs. u want to know where this vowel change takes place? oh it’s not a suffix or a prefix. nooooo it’s in the middle of the word (only the end when it’s the -u form). kikanai > kikimasu > kiku > kikeru > kikou, for the base godan verb bases (negative, polite, dictionary form, potential, volitional conjugations).

ichidan bases are easy in comparison. the -ru ending is the only thing that changes. and then there’s the godan ones that disguise themselves as ichidan verbs.

the irregular ones are fine. they're normal. there are only two of them — suru: 'to make'; and kuru: 'to come'. they're like particles so you get things like kaiten suru: 'to rotate, spin', where it's made up of the noun kaiten: 'revolution, rotation' and my verb friend suru: 'to make', so it's literally 'to make' + 'rotation'.

i took one look at japanese godan and ichidan conjugation, kidnapped the way the irregular verbs work (suru: to do/make/etc, kuru: to come; used like particles, after an action & such, like kaiten suru: to rotate, spin, lit. rotation + to do/to make), and then backed away slowly, not making eye contact. this was the correct choice. i also believe it was why i chose not to go further in my japanese study when i was eleven/twelve-ish. that and it was impossible to study japanese in a 20 000-person town excuse me unincorporated community in southern ontario during the previous millennium.

this poor caribou. i need to work this word into my vocabulary immediately.

i have the opportunity to do something really funny with what the word for the number four will be in taizhan-jen, in the grand tradition of four = death like: sì/sǐ (mandarin), sei3/sei2 (cantonese), shi for both (japanese), tứ/tử (vietnamese), sa for both (korean). like how i decided andobi (the name of a mountain range on ando) was a compound of ando + obi, so obi now means 'mountain', 'fixed/firm' and adding the adjectival suffix gets obi'i: 'steadfast'.

[mandoalinguist]

Dictionary with IPA

This is a link to a dictionary I'm compiling from the pinned resources with IPA as well as some coded pages to help find frequency of phonemes and clusters to help me continue to expand the lexicon

[kookyburrowing]

Adventures In Clonelang Part 1: How The Fuck Do They Sound

Hi. Hello. I’m finally starting on this gigantic horrible project for real. So first up is phonetics! Because in order to make a language I need to know how it sounds.

Overview

It’s pretty similar to english but with some exceptions—it includes a glottal stop and like Mando’a has no “f” or “x.”  Unlike Mando’a, it makes frequent use of “z” and related sounds.  Also, it does NOT have “Q” because “Q” is nonsense. 

Vowel Sounds

A, E, O, U - this spelling indicates short vowel sound. These are the same as in English. 

Exceptions: “I” is pronounced as a long “E,” and “O” is always long.  “E” can also sometimes be pronounced as a long “A” in Mando’a loan words.

AA, II, OO, UU - this spelling indicates a long vowel sound, except with “O” where it indicates “Ooh”.

Vowel doubles:

AU - Pronounced “ow.”

AI - Pronounced “eye.”

AY - Pronounced like the “ay” in the English word “way.”

Consonants

B, D, G, H, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, W, Y, Z: pronounced the same except for G and Y.  G is only a hard G, while Y is only used in conjunction.  

Consonant doubles: 

ZH: Soft “J” sound.

DJ: Hard “J” sound.  

CY/C: “Sh” sound.

Notes

This is a very basic draft of the sounds. I think the language should have at least some influence from te reo Māori, so I have tried to include some influences from there but my knowledge of the language is very, VERY limited so some of this will change as I learn more. If anyone has any advice on that score it would be greatly appreciated—I’d rather be told I’m wrong now than later once I’ve done a ton of work.