One other fun part about sorting out the PokéLatin alphabet is seeing which languages and scripts any particular PokéLatin character comes from. Some of them are obvious, others less so, but I definitely would like to sort out what their inspirations were and share them with you.
Until I get some pictures up, I can at least share a few observations; the following are easily recognized, albeit in various rotations or are flipped:
- There are obviously Latin characters in it, such as: Y = Y, M = M, V = V, X = X
- The Old English character eth can be seen, albeit with its uppercase letter backwards: D = Ð, O = Ꝺ/ꝺ
- Some appear to be Greek, such as: E = Ξ, B = Σ, + = Ψ
- Cyrillic is used, particularly: L = Г, Y = Ч, W = Ф, R = Я, # = Л
- Japanese katakana characters include: 9 = ラ, A = ム, 7 = ル
- As do Korean hangul characters like: K = ㅅ, T = ㅔ, V = ㅈ, 9 = ㅋ
- Quite a few ancient Germanic/Norse runic alphabet appear: B = ᛊ, C = ᚲ, R = ᚱ
- And finally it looks like these Hebrew characters were worked in: P N G = פ א ק
Of course it’s worth noting that these scripts share some characters between them—like Greek, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets all share similar characters—as well as how many of these comparison are similar albeit flipped or rotated. Fundamentally, however, it appears as if the whole goal of GPLA is to not be a completely new alphabet on its own, but to be a unique mix of all of the world’s major scripts, to further underline the universality and common ground we all share in our humanity.
Eventually I plan on making a handy little picture guide covering all the different inspirations for these characters, so keep an eye out for it here!