The Tenctonese alphabets were created by Joe Hawthorne, a sign writer in the Fox art department, and were most likely based on Pitman Shorthand. The alphabets are used in the Alien Nation movies, book and TV shows to write various signs. The signs are generally in English and transliterated into the Tenctonese alphabet, rather than in the Tenctonese language. The numerals were developed by Pete Chambers, president of the Alien Nation Appreciation Society.
The Tenctonese language was originally created for the 1988 Fox film Alien Nation. The first version of the language was invented by a USC film school graduate Van Ling, who used sounds from such languages as Chinese, Samoan and German to make Tenctonese sound Alien to English speakers.
The version of the Tenctonese language used in the TV shows was created by Kenneth Johnson and his daughter Juliet. They used a lot of English words spelt backwards or with their syllables scrambled.
The font used on this page was created by Jeff Lee (http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff).
Thought-provoking, witty and entertaining, this action-packed blend of science fiction and police drama finds Los Angeles the new home of 300,000 humanoid extraterrestrial. When a gang of these Newcomers kills a police detective's (James Cann) partner, he sets out to solve the crime with his new partner (Mandy Patinkin) - the L.A.P.D.'s first Newcomer detective. But the unlikely pair soon uncover a far more dangerous threat to society.
Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
An introduction to the Tenctonese alphabets (includes free fonts)
http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/tencton/
Bureau of the Tenctonese language
http://www.tencton.com
Information about Alien Nation
http://www.scifi.com/aliennation
Constructed scripts for: Ainu | Arabic | Chinese languages | Dutch | English | Hawaiian | Hungarian | Japanese | Korean | Lingala | Malay & Indonesian | Persian | Tagalog / Filipino | Russian | Sanskrit | Spanish | Taino | Turkish | Vietnamese | Welsh | Other natural languages | Colour-based scripts | Tactile scripts | Phonetic/universal scripts | Constructed scripts for constructed languages | Adaptations of existing alphabets | Fictional alphabets | Magical alphabets | A-Z index | How to submit a constructed script
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