<p>You seem to be confusing sounds with their representation in writing; similarly, countries and languages are not equivalent either.</p>

<p>There is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet" rel="nofollow noreferrer">inventory of sounds</a> that are used in human languages; though most languages only use a small portion of it. If you are aiming for an international language, you should probably select those sounds that are common to most or all languages. I believe that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona" rel="nofollow noreferrer">toki pona</a> comes close to that.</p>

<p>Representing these <em>sounds</em> in writing is a completely different matter. Because different languages use the same letter to represent different sounds, your best bet might be to make up a completely new alphabet; then you don't have any pre-conceived notions of pronunciation to struggle with. On the flip side, everybody then has to learn the letters and how to pronounce them, which makes your language harder to learn.</p>

<p>In your question you also touch on morphology: that is a whole different field, which you should probably put in a separate question.</p>

<p>So, to summarise:</p>

<ul>
<li>each language has an inventory of sounds it uses, these are called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>phonemes</em></a>.</li>
<li>phonemes are represented in writing by letters; this is not a 1:1 mapping, and also
depends on accents and dialectal variation.</li>
<li>Letters can have diacritics (such as the dots on top of the <em>&uuml;</em>) &mdash; these usually make them separate letters from the base form.</li>
<li>the letter-phoneme mapping is arbitrary; there is nothing inherent in the letter that determines how it should be pronounced.</li>
</ul>

<p>In general I would recommend that you read up on some of the concepts of linguistics, as that would make it easier for you to express what exactly you want to achieve. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T07:03:57.767Z
2019-09-24T07:03:57.767Z
Oliver Mason
<p>I was reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_auxiliary_language" rel="nofollow noreferrer">International Auxiliary Language</a>, but I don't like their setups.</p>

<p>Because, mostly, they use Latin alphabets!</p>

<p>And that, my friends, cause confusions!</p>

<p>No matter what the letter was intended to be pronounced, EVERY country (especially those use uses Latin alphabets such as English, German, French, Spanish, etc.) WILL pronounce it in their own way!</p>

<p>'J' is pronounced 'h' in Spanish, 'z' in French, 'y' in German.</p>

<p>Many country also have different pronunciation for 'H' and 'R'.</p>

<p>Other than that, many countries are even "incapable of" pronouncing letters such as 'RR' in Spanish or 'Ü' in German!</p>

<p>Due to those drawbacks, the invented language bound to be less efficient than it was intended to be!</p>

<p>So, I was thinking, is there a way to overcome such drawbacks!?</p>

<p>First of all, the most obvious approach is to find a set of alphabets that "Nobody had in common"! At least, find those letters that are used by "only one country"! Such as some letters in Greek alphabets (As far as I know, Greek are the only country that use Greek alphabets).</p>

<p>Second, I think it's better to divide that alphabets into 2 group. First group are those letters that "every people in every country know how to pronounce". I think it's good to base it on Japanese, because Japanese has the least amount of pronunciations as far as I know. I believe they are the easiest language to learn pronunciation-wise.</p>

<p>This group of letters build up the "basic and conceptual words", where all other words are the "combination product" of these words. You can think it as the "building block" of the words.</p>

<p>Thus, I think it's better to make the words "a word a syllable" such as Chinese. And 1-syllable words made from the "Basic letters" are the "building block" of the words. More complicated words are the combination of these "basic conceptual words". Such as "Refrigerator" are actually "Electronic Ice Box" in Chinese.</p>

<p>I also think it's better to make the letters "phonetic"! 'A' is always pronounced 'a' NO MATTER WHAT! Unlike English, 'A' has 2 million ways of pronunciation!</p>

<p>The second group of letters are those pronunciations that "All the countries in the world that <strong>COULD EVER MADE</strong>! I know this might sounds like far fetching, but the idea is "Easy for everybody to learn such language. And for those who are familiar with the language, it will be easy for them to learn <strong>EVERY LANGUAGE</strong>"!</p>

<p>You can think it as "The first group letters are the intersection of the pronunciations of every language, and the second group are the union of the pronunciations of every language".</p>

<p>And the second group of letters are only used for those more advanced, probably grammatical, concepts. Which is "Unnecessary for basic conversations but critical for literature".</p>

<p>So, my question is:</p>

<p>Are such ideas feasible? What's the ups-and-downs, pros-and-cons of my ideas? Did I miss something? What else should I pay special attention to?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T08:02:40.430Z
"Are such ideas feasible? What's the ups-and-downs, pros-and-cons of my ideas? Did I miss something? What else should I pay special attention to?" This is all very broad and is mostly asking for opinions. Can you think of any ways to make your inquiry more objectively answerable? Otherwise this is likely to be closed.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T08:04:01.967Z
One solution is just to use IPA. Then it's simple and unambiguous what the sounds are.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T08:05:15.460Z
@curiousdannii Yes, that was my thought as well! :)
Oliver Mason
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T09:21:24.903Z
@curiousdannii Could you do me the honor and help me out!? I'm kind of at lost here! Appreciated!!!
PiggyChu001
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T09:44:55.627Z
@PiggyChu001 see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPA_chart_2018.pdf
Oliver Mason
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T09:47:54.783Z
@curiousdannii I'm familiar with that chart, I just don't know how to "rephrase my question so it's NOT opinion-based". Could me be so kind and point me to the right direction!? Appreciated!
PiggyChu001
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T11:55:26.043Z
Unfortunately you have written an opinion piece and you ask for more opinions. This is not the way this question-and-answer site is designed to work. Take the [tour](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/tour) of this site and look in the [help center](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/help) for help about asking questions.
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-27T03:25:17.937Z
You might get a better response at https://www.reddit.com/r/conlang/ , which tends to more freeform discussion.
Anton Sherwood
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-03T19:22:07.650Z
'j' can be pronounced as [ʒ] by french speaker not as [z].And in spanish it is [x] not [h].
USERNAME GOES HERE
<writing-systems><auxlangs>
International Language
# International Language

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-09-24)

I was reading [International Auxiliary Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_auxiliary_language), but I don't like their setups.

Because, mostly, they use Latin alphabets!

And that, my friends, cause confusions!

No matter what the letter was intended to be pronounced, EVERY country (especially those use uses Latin alphabets such as English, German, French, Spanish, etc.) WILL pronounce it in their own way!

'J' is pronounced 'h' in Spanish, 'z' in French, 'y' in German.

Many country also have different pronunciation for 'H' and 'R'.

Other than that, many countries are even "incapable of" pronouncing letters such as 'RR' in Spanish or 'Ü' in German!

Due to those drawbacks, the invented language bound to be less efficient than it was intended to be!

So, I was thinking, is there a way to overcome such drawbacks!?

First of all, the most obvious approach is to find a set of alphabets that "Nobody had in common"! At least, find those letters that are used by "only one country"! Such as some letters in Greek alphabets (As far as I know, Greek are the only country that use Greek alphabets).

Second, I think it's better to divide that alphabets into 2 group. First group are those letters that "every people in every country know how to pronounce". I think it's good to base it on Japanese, because Japanese has the least amount of pronunciations as far as I know. I believe they are the easiest language to learn pronunciation-wise.

This group of letters build up the "basic and conceptual words", where all other words are the "combination product" of these words. You can think it as the "building block" of the words.

Thus, I think it's better to make the words "a word a syllable" such as Chinese. And 1-syllable words made from the "Basic letters" are the "building block" of the words. More complicated words are the combination of these "basic conceptual words". Such as "Refrigerator" are actually "Electronic Ice Box" in Chinese.

I also think it's better to make the letters "phonetic"! 'A' is always pronounced 'a' NO MATTER WHAT! Unlike English, 'A' has 2 million ways of pronunciation!

The second group of letters are those pronunciations that "All the countries in the world that **COULD EVER MADE**! I know this might sounds like far fetching, but the idea is "Easy for everybody to learn such language. And for those who are familiar with the language, it will be easy for them to learn **EVERY LANGUAGE**"!

You can think it as "The first group letters are the intersection of the pronunciations of every language, and the second group are the union of the pronunciations of every language".

And the second group of letters are only used for those more advanced, probably grammatical, concepts. Which is "Unnecessary for basic conversations but critical for literature".

So, my question is:

Are such ideas feasible? What's the ups-and-downs, pros-and-cons of my ideas? Did I miss something? What else should I pay special attention to?

**Tags:** writing-systems, auxlangs

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "Are such ideas feasible? What's the ups-and-downs, pros-and-cons of my ideas? Did I miss something? What else should I pay special attention to?" This is all very broad and is mostly asking for opinions. Can you think of any ways to make your inquiry more objectively answerable? Otherwise this is likely to be closed.  
> **username_1**: One solution is just to use IPA. Then it's simple and unambiguous what the sounds are.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 Yes, that was my thought as well! :)  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Could you do me the honor and help me out!? I'm kind of at lost here! Appreciated!!!  
> **username_2**: @username_0 see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPA_chart_2018.pdf  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I'm familiar with that chart, I just don't know how to "rephrase my question so it's NOT opinion-based". Could me be so kind and point me to the right direction!? Appreciated!  
> **username_3**: Unfortunately you have written an opinion piece and you ask for more opinions. This is not the way this question-and-answer site is designed to work. Take the [tour](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/tour) of this site and look in the [help center](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/help) for help about asking questions.  
> **username_4**: You might get a better response at https://www.reddit.com/r/conlang/ , which tends to more freeform discussion.  
> **username_5**: 'j' can be pronounced as [ʒ] by french speaker not as [z].And in spanish it is [x] not [h].  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-09-24. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

You seem to be confusing sounds with their representation in writing; similarly, countries and languages are not equivalent either.

There is an [inventory of sounds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) that are used in human languages; though most languages only use a small portion of it. If you are aiming for an international language, you should probably select those sounds that are common to most or all languages. I believe that [toki pona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona) comes close to that.

Representing these *sounds* in writing is a completely different matter. Because different languages use the same letter to represent different sounds, your best bet might be to make up a completely new alphabet; then you don't have any pre-conceived notions of pronunciation to struggle with. On the flip side, everybody then has to learn the letters and how to pronounce them, which makes your language harder to learn.

In your question you also touch on morphology: that is a whole different field, which you should probably put in a separate question.

So, to summarise:

* each language has an inventory of sounds it uses, these are called [*phonemes*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme).
* phonemes are represented in writing by letters; this is not a 1:1 mapping, and also
  depends on accents and dialectal variation.
* Letters can have diacritics (such as the dots on top of the *ü*) — these usually make them separate letters from the base form.
* the letter-phoneme mapping is arbitrary; there is nothing inherent in the letter that determines how it should be pronounced.

In general I would recommend that you read up on some of the concepts of linguistics, as that would make it easier for you to express what exactly you want to achieve.


---

