Linglese

Linglese is a hybrid writing system created by Ling (凌) which uses adapted Chinese characters to write the English language. It is very similar to the Japanese writing system, though can be far less intelligible to Chinese or Japanese speakers. It was created as a tool for studying the etymology of English words and of Chinese characters.

Linglese contains 31 letters, 26 of which can be mapped directly to the 26 letters of the English alphabet; the remaining 5 letters correspond to the digraphs ch, ng, ph, sh and th. There are two forms to each Linglese letter: the hard form and the soft form, which analogically resemble the uppercase and the lowercase in English, or katakana and hiragana in Japanese.

Though the approaches used to adopt Chinese characters can vary depending on the user, it is highly preferred that Chinese characters are mapped to English words with the consideration of the etymology and characters' origins, not of the corresponding meanings in modern Chinese and English speech.

The name Linglese is written with three Chinese characters:

The first is the creator's name, Ling.
The second is "angle" because the English people were known as the "Angles" who inhabited a hook shaped coast.
The third corresponds to the suffix "-ese", indicating a writing system

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: in vertical columns from right to left and top to bottom, or from left to right in horizontal lines.
Used to write: English

Linglese alphabet

Sample texts

Sample text in Linglese

Transliteration

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Download fonts for Linglese (Linglese Regular provided by Spappz)

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