The MyLanguage Alphabet

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This is an alphabet that I originally used for a language I started making up a while ago (eighth grade?). I no longer have the dictionary for that language (blame computer), but I still remember the alphabet (which should be usable for just about any language, at least if you add enough letters). It is an attempt to create an alphabet that makes sense, though I didn't know as much about how sounds are produced as I do now. I have made some changes since then; what's shown here is mostly the original.

The alphabet is phonetic; it is not based on the spelling in any other language. My intent was to have these spelling rules:

Each letter makes exactly one sound, and makes that same sound each time it occurs.
Each sound has exactly one letter for it.
There are no silent or double letters.
There are no sounds that are not written.

The first rule is not entirely correct since I was wrong about a few diphthongs.

The transliterations shown are what I used when I first thought up the alphabet. Some of them (specifically q, x, and most of the vowels) come from a phonetic way of spelling things that my grandpa thought up (which in some ways influenced this alphabet). Not all of the transliterations show the actual sound of the letter; be sure to look at the Pronunciation column when seeing what sound a letter makes.

The alphabet is divided into several types of letters that share characteristics. The names for these types were what I originally called them, before I learned their actual names.

The letters

Vowels

When I decided on these vowels, I was convinced that the main thing that determines what vowel is which was the shape of one's lips (it's actually where the back of the tongue is). I got this order for the vowels by attempting to put the vowel with one's mouth most open first. I may have made replacements for these at one point, but these are the ones I can remember (they're the original vowels). Note that the number of sides in each shape increases by one for each vowel except oo.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
a	a	Like the a in apple	æ
e	e	Like the e in end	ɛ
y	y	Like the ea in eat or the y in yank	i, j	Can also be written as Y.
i	i	Like the i in in	ɪ
u	u	Like the u in jump or the a in about	ə~ʌ	Can also be written as U.
o	o	Like the a in father and the o in top	ɑ	Can also be written as O (the first one's an octagon; the second one's a circle).
w	w	Like the o in who or the w in winter	u, w

See below for more vowels

Whispers

Unvoiced vowels.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
h	h	Like the h in he	h	This was originally H.
W	W	A voiceless w sound	ʍ	Apparently some people use this for words like what. Also can be written as ʰw.

Vowel-like

These are the liquids. The symbols for the first two come from the fact that these symbols were easily available in the program I was using when I made up the alphabet (this is also where u and w come from).

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
l	l	L	l
r	r	English R	ɹ, ɚ
R	R	Like a Spanish r, or like the tt/dd in latter/ladder in dialects where they're pronounced the same	ɾ	Not in the original alphabet. A rolled r (Spanish rr) can be written ~R.

Vowel-like (2)

Nasal consonants.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
m	m	M	m	Represents two lips that are closed.
N	N	The ng in singer and the n in finger and sink	ŋ	Similar to m, but with your mouth open.
n	n	N	n	The diagonal line represents the tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

Click-like

Voiceless plosive consonants

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
p	p	P	p	The point represents when one's lips are closed; the other end represents when they're open.
k	k	K	k	The vertical line represents the movement of the tongue.
t	t	T	t	The vertical line represents the movement of the tongue.

Voiced click-like

Arrowheads are added to voiceless letters to make the letters for voiced consonants.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA
b	b	B	b
g	g	G	g
d	d	D	d

Hisses

Voiceless fricatives.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
f	f	F	f	The top line represents one's teeth; the bottom one represents one's lower lip.
q	q	Voiceless TH, as in bath	θ	Vertical line represents teeth; horizontal line represents roof of mouth; diagonal line represents tongue. I'm not sure if it should go here; it may be a plosive (click-like).
s	s	S	s
c	c	SH	ʃ

Buzzes

Voiced fricatives.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA
v	v	V	v
x	x	Voiced TH, as in bathe	ð
z	z	Z	z
j	j	Like the s in vision	ʒ

Clicks

These are the clicks that were used in MyLanguage. The set of clicks isn't taken from some other language (i.e., there are probably not enough clicks for any other language that uses clicks). In MyLanguage, clicks may be used before a vowel in the same syllable; doing so results in an N sound being said at the same time as the click.

Appearance	Transliteration	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
K	K	A click in which one's tongue starts touching the roof of one's mouth and then quickly moves down and slaps on the bottom of said mouth		I don't know of an IPA symbol for this
Q	Q	A click in which one's tongue touches the top of one's top teeth and then quickly moves away	ǀ
'	'	A click in which one's tongue starts touching the roof of one's mouth and then quickly moves away but doesn't slap against the bottom of the mouth	ǃ	This sound is used in contractions in MyLanguage.

Sound combinations

Some sounds are not shown above because they're made using a combination of two or more letters.

Diphthongs (vowels)

These are all falling diphthongs, i.e., the main vowel is the first letter in the combination. The only sound in English that could be considered a rising diphthong is the u in university, which would be yw.

Combination	Pronunciation	IPA	Comments
aw	Like the ou in out	aʊ
ey	Like the a in ape	eɪ	The e sound is actually slightly different than an ordinary e sound.
oy	Like the i in ice cream	aɪ	The first sound might be slightly different in this diphthong.
ow	Like the o in donut	oʊ	I think this is actually a separate sound, rather than this diphthong. ʷo would probably be more accurate.
owy	Like the oi in oil	oɪ	See previous comment
wu	Like the oo in book	ʊ	This I think is also a separate sound.

Consonants

Combination	Pronunciation	IPA
tc	CH	tʃ
dj	J	dʒ

Spelling rules

Mostly words are spelled phonetically. Each syllable in a word is separated by a -, and each word is separated by a _.

Accents and main vowels

Each syllable has a main vowel (the most stressed sound in the syllable), indicated by an accent mark. Vowels that occur before the main vowel are generally pronounced as glides (like the y in yank or the w in watermelon); if there are vowels after the main vowel in the same syllable, the vowels become a falling diphthong. The accent marks, from most to least stress, are:

Stress level	Appearance	Comments
3	a	Goes around the letter
2	a	Goes through or behind the letter ("behind" means that it's not visible in enclosed portions of certain letters
1	a	Goes above the letter; can also be written S
0	a	Goes above the letter.

The main vowel need not be a vowel; for example, in the second syllable in little, the main vowel is l, which is generally not considered a vowel. (Note that there is an exception to the rule that each syllable has a main vowel for syllables that consist only of a click sound.)

Note that I sometimes omit these due either to laziness or due to it being more difficult to get them on a computer.

Miscellaneous modifiers

Not all of these are used in any language I know. All of these are placed above and to the left of the letter they modify.

Modifier	Description	Comments
ˣ	Stop sound	Use on click-like consonants to indicate that the person should put his/her mouth in the position to make the sound, but stop the sound (unreleased stop, IPA / ̚/).
ʰ	Make a vowel, vowel-like, or nasal voiceless	Need higher resolution. This one should have arrowheads; it's where the symbol for h comes from. Arrowheads represent voice, and X represents not: not voiced. (IPA / ̥/)
E	From here to the end of the syllable should be echoed	This is used in MyLanguage to mark plurals. The echo is quieter than the original syllable, but at the same pitch (unlike an additional unstressed syllable, which would be at a slightly lower pitch).
~	Repeat a sound rapidly several times	Used for rolled R, see above.
ʷ	Make a sound with one's lips rounded, like OO.	(IPA /ʷ/)

Symbol	Equivalent	Meaning
_	space	Separates words
,	comma	Pause within a sentence
,	period	Ends sentences; this is a comma with a primary stress marker, indicating that it's more of a pause than just ,
?	question mark	Placed at the beginning of questions; I'm not sure if I remember this right

Other letters I made

Later, I added some more letters to the alphabet. Unfortunately, I don't remember what any of them looked like. None of them were used in MyLanguage. The sounds I remember creating letters for:

Once I figured out that vowels were mostly determined by the back of one's tongue rather than one's lips, I redesigned the vowels based on that knowledge.
At one point, I added letters for bird sounds, different letters for different pitches. The letters were made to look like simple bird heads.
At one point, I either made, or thought about making, letters for fricatives based on the letters for plosives. p (/p/) and b (/b/) would become bilabial fricatives (/ɸ/, /β/); k (/k/) and g (/ɡ/) would become velar fricatives (/x/, /ɣ/); t (/t/) and d (/d/) would become some sort of fricative made with the tip of the tongue that (I thought) wasn't the same as any of the sounds I already had; possibly this is a non-sibilant alveolar fricative (/θ̟/, /ð̟/), or a sound between an alveolar and a postalveolar fricative.