Whether you want to send secret messages to friends or just explore subjects like writing and linguistics, learning how to invent an alphabet can be a fun and educational experience! There are lots of reasons to work on your own writing system - a big one is if you are an author in a genre like science fiction and fantasy! - and this How-To will give you the basics of creating your very own alphabet.

In order to get started, you will need some kind of base language which you're looking to depict with an alphabet. Remember, the simplest definition of an alphabet is "a system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things."http://www.thefreedictionary.com/alphabet This means, of course, that you'll need a collection of sounds or things to represent! For the purposes of this How-To, we'll take the traditional English alphabet and focus on the basics of creating new symbols for the same letters. Of course, you can apply the principles to other languages - maybe even one you've already invented!

With that being said, you'll need a familiarity with the English alphabet (and maybe some scrap paper and a pen or a pencil) in order to use this How-To.

(Note: There are many different kinds or categories of alphabets, of which ours is just an example.http://ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html And, technically, English utilizes the Roman or Latin alphabet.http://ancientscripts.com/latin.html This alphabet is an example of what amateur linguist Lawrence Lo has called a "consonant and vowel alphabetic" system.http://ancientscripts.com/latin.html As you might have guessed, this means that each symbol was used to represent either a consonant or a vowel sound. Other alphabets, like Phoenician or Hebrew for example, utilize symbols only for consonant sounds (these are known as "abjads" for what it's worth).http://ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html Still others use symbols to stand not only for certain sounds, or groups of sounds, but sometimes for whole objects as well.)

The first logical step (as noted above) is to figure out which base language you're going to use. As mentioned, we'll be using English as our base language for simplicity's sake. But, there are some other items you might want to address before you roll up your sleeves and start designing characters and symbols. The first thing is to consider the ease of reproduction.

Overall, inventing an alphabet shouldn't take a very long time, but it will of course depend on how elaborate your symbols are - the more detailed and intricate, the longer it will take you to reproduce each one. Consider how long it must have taken to reproduce the very intricate alphabet of the ancient Mayans, even if there was some kind of shorthand version!http://ancientscripts.com/maya.html

So, you should also think about whether you want a rapidly-writable alphabet, or if you'd rather work with more artistic symbols (at the cost of writing speed). Of course, if you're designing an alphabet which uses symbols to represent not just sounds, but all kinds of ideas (like Egyptian hieroglyphics or even Sumerian cuneiform) then you might necessarily have to use complicated designs. But, this kind of approach isn't covered in this How-To. Rather, we're focusing on just replacing the basic 26 characters of the (adapted) Latin alphabet used for English.

A final note is to consider if an how cursive handwriting may figure into your designs. Will you have separate symbols for cursive letters, or is your alphabet cursive in its own right?

Now that you've figured out whether you want a sleek, fast alphabet or a pretty, slower one, you can start imagining what kind of symbols to use given those criteria.

You may have your own ideas, and it's definitely worth trying them out on scrap paper and making any modifications that you think might be necessary. However, if you aren't quite sure what you'd like to do, it's always useful to look at existing alphabets - historical and invented alike - to get some inspiration. An excellent beginner's resource is to look at the linguistic work of JRR Tolkien.

You might consider the historical runes used by the Vikings and other Norse cultures, an altered version of which was popularized by Tolkien in his famous Lord of the Rings books for various languages spoken by the race of dwarves. He called it Cirth.http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cirth.htm But Tolkien also invented another (rather elegant) system of writing various Elven languages, called Tengwar.http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar.htm Notice how these strokes appear designed to be written with a brush or quill, almost like the calligraphies found in China, Japan, and even some Arab cultures. You can also see how both Tengwar and Cirth are fairly systematic, with all the symbols being more or less variations on a few simple designs.

Other excellent places to find inspiration are the various forms of the ancient Greek alphabet, which could be carved into stone or clay as well as written with ink on papyrus scrolls.

The bottom line is to explore and be creative; you'll need to pick 26 symbols to do a straight replacement of the Latin/English characters A-Z, and you may wish to include symbols for the numbers 0-9 as well. So, that's 36 symbols that you'd need when all is said and done. Though you might also consider how to represent things like periods and question marks as well as other kinds of punctuation.

A final suggestion is this: don't overlook doodling! Sometimes great ideas can happen when you least expect them.

This final step should not be overlooked, even though you've done the "hard" part of how to invent an alphabet. As with almost any product or idea, what you've created should be tested and evaluated to make sure it's something that you're happy with.

So, try to take some sample sentences or paragraphs and see how they look once they are transliterated into your new alphabet. Consider aesthetics and the overall impression you get of your block of text - does your alphabet have calligraphic appeal (i.e. does it look pretty when it's used)? How easy was it to do the transliteration (the process of replacing letters?) How do these fit in with the "goal" of your alphabet from before?

If you're happy with everything, then you should think about how to be creative with your new alphabet. Consider using it to make interesting and original crafts as gifts, such as mixed media collageshttp://mixedmedia.us/ or even book art. Remember, in the fine arts, almost anything is fair game! Perhaps you're into stamps or printmaking and can use your alphabet with those hobbies!

But if you're not quite satisfied with your final product, don't despair! Just revisit steps 1 and 2 above and keep testing! Eventually, you'll come up with something that fits with your interests and your aesthetics.

That's it - hopefully you're well on your way to developing your own alphabet. But remember, the tips here are just for one kind of alphabet (simple symbol replacement). There are all kinds of languages and writing systems you can use, so keep inventing!