So I'm still writing the story that I posted the first several chapters of on here a year or so ago, and I'm getting so in depth with the cultures in the story that I'm making a language for them. I've come a long way with it over the past several months, but one thing that keeps giving me trouble is romanization (spelling their words with the letters English uses).

So I need the help of some people on the outside that speak English (especially helpful if you only speak English, but multilingual people who offer feedback are still extremely helpful as well). If you don't want to hear the details --though it explains a lot-- just skip on to the bolded text.


So this language uses a syllabary, which if you don't know, is a set of sounds that are assigned characters rather than an alphabet like English uses. For example, the Japanese word 日 (nichi) is spelled in kana with two characters に(ni) and ち(chi). Words are spelled phonetically because the language uses preset syllables instead of using letters to make various sounds to produce syllables.

The language I'm making does this. This necessitates the making of it's own characters (that and the setting in the story makes using our letters impossible), which in turn necessitates the making of a romanization.


What I need help with
Here's a list of the vowel sounds that this language I'm making uses (along with example words in case you need them). I need the romanization of these sounds to be obvious to English speakers, and being the maker of the language, it all makes sense to me not matter how I romanize it because I know it. Hence the need for outside input.

Set 1:
a = uh
e = eh
i = ē (as in key)
o = o (owe)
u = oo
ai = ī (eye)
au = ah
ei = ā (as in hay)

Set 2:
a = ah
e = eh
i = ē (as in key)
o = o (owe)
u = uh
ai = ī (eye)
ei = ā (as in hay)
ou = oo


Set 3:
aa = a
e = eh
i = ē (as in key)
o = o (owe)
u = oo
ai = ī (eye)
ei = ā (as in hay)
a = uh


Which of these make the most sense to you? Feel free to mix and match them, or offer any suggestions, just don't pair any vowels with consonants to produce the sounds.

Thanks so much for any and all help.

There really isn't any particular preference to me. Have you read Tolkien? You could perhaps study Elvish using the guide on Wikipedia. Tolkien no doubt invested a lot of time figuring things out, writing them out on paper, making subtle and important corrections as he went on. To make a deep language, you've gotta go deep. If you're wanting something simple, it might be best simply to borrow from another author's established language and alter it in minimal ways.

Of course, either way, there's going to be some borrowing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvish_languages_(Middle-earth)

supernerd117 : First off, thank you for replying to this. I had just accepted that I wasn't getting any feedback so I'd have to just make the decisions and hope for the best.

To clarify on a few things that I failed to note in the opening post, I'm making two languages, but only one will be a full language. The other will have just enough words and grammar worked out to fill the space when it makes sense to use it in the story, which is why I'm not too concerned with it's finer points like I am with the other.


That said, the language I'm seeking feedback on is meant to be extremely simple, and intuitive. As such I want the Romanization to be the same. While Tolkien's languages were well done from all that I can see from the outside, their English notations were anything but intuitive to an English speaker. For example gh making a th sound. They also employed diacritics, which from my own experiences and from consulting with others, I have found tend to intimidate English speakers that don't speak multiple languages, or have an interest in the study of language as a whole. In light of that, I want to avoid diacritics altogether, otherwise I could use them and easily solve the problem. In fact I was using them for a while, but it looked a bit offputting.


Bear in mind that this isn't a high fantasy story where people tend to go to look for things like artlangs, but a low fantasy, almost slice of life kind of story.

I suppose since the language has no dipthongs, yet the Romanization will likely end up combining vowels to signify certain vowel sounds that don't exist as a single letter in English, that I could go ahead and use vowel-consonant combinations for sounds like ah and uh, but Idk.


Anyway, thanks for the information. I'll continue to consider the options.

It is fantastic to know that you're very dedicated with this project of yours. When I write creatively, I always thought about how troublesome making a ficticious language would be. 

Set 3 made the most sense to me because the phonetics are almost homophonous with the language I am studying, Japanese, so it's more due to personal experience for me. I do agree with supernerd's point of inspiration, which i find would be the easiest way to start--study other authors' materials. Best of luck with your writing, sir.