[Guide] How To Read Tenno Scriptures

[BenzinNinJa]

Since some dedicated (and presumable pretty smart) people from the community practically cracked the code to the written Tenno language, and DE releasing the "Tennobet", I decided to make a guide for all to enjoy.

 

If you haven't already, I'll advice you to read this:

https://warframe.com/news/tenno-language-decoded

 

It actually explains most of what I'm going to explain here.

 

The basics

First we have the Tennobet

 

At first it can be a bit unfamiliar to look at, especially because it's not set up from A to Z, like we would normalle read an alphabet. Alteast I thought it was.

 

What I found most important when deciphering the Tenno scribbles is this, located at the bottom right of the picture above:

 

What this means is that vowels (or their sounds) are written above the consonants, and that everything is written with an unfamiliar slant.

My username would be written as:

 

This is because you read it from left to right. but have vowels (vowel sounds) on top and consonants at the bottom.

 

DE has kindly provided a bunch of examples, that are nice for practising this on:

 

The first line translates into modern English as "you are the hope amd future of the Tenno", so it has a typo, but that's no big deal.

It reads out as  ".eeooh awr dhuhh, hopa amd feeoochoor, awf dhuhh tehno.", if you use the pronounciation examples found in the Tennobet, which (to me) looks like absolute gibberish, but when you know what it's supposed to say, you can sort of sound it out if you read it out loud.
I have also been told, that swapping M for N is a common mistake within the Tenno scriptures found in the game.

 

If you've decided to try and decipher the first couple of sentences yourself, you've probably noticed, that they all seem to begin and end with a Period Spacer. I have no idea why this is. Maybe it's similar to Spanish, where questions seem to begin with an upside-down questionsmark, ¿ and end with a upright one, ?, but that is just me guessing.

 

Seperating cosmetics and letters

If we move on to the spelling of "Hayden Tenno", we'll find that it doesn't look like the other writings, and at first it can be hard to figure out what is letters(symbols), and what's not.

 

Here we have the entire thing:

If we remove the cosmetic part of it, we get this:

 

We are then left with the cosmetics looking like this:

 

If we take the 2nd example with cosmetics, we get the word Evolution.

Since we know, that the words are writting from left to right, it becomes simpler to eliminate the confusion of the cosmetic parts.

 

Try it out yourself:

 

Not working for you?

Here's the answer:

Letters/Symbols

 

Cosmetics:

 

Numbers

Numbers seem to be straight forwards left to right business. No stacking one above the other, or any new and unfamiliar way to read them. The only thing you really need to do, is memorize the symbols for the numbers 0 to 9.

 

If there's anything missing, that's not explained propperly, or something you want added, leave a comment or send me a message.

 

Also, mad props and shoutouts to the people who got so far in cracking the code, that DE decided to release the missing pieces.

 

-Krux- has made a Tenno-font for your typing pleasure!

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/340866-tennobet-font-package-and-understanding

 

Dyslexy also did a font, check it out!
https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/339630-orokintenno-font-v2/

Edited November 9, 2014 by BenzinNinJa

[Llyssa]

Your last pic  needs to be changed. Zero is a ` not a blank space.

[Shifted]

I cracked the grineer and corpus languages, but this is next level.

 

Thanks for making this thread, it will definitely help. Worth learning it just because of how badass it looks (which makes it pretty good tattoo material, too).

 

 

EDIT:

Some photoshopping and I came up with this:

 

Edited November 15, 2014 by Shifted

[unknow99]

 

(by me.)

[BenzinNinJa]

Your last pic  needs to be changed. Zero is a ` not a blank space.

 

Whoopsie.

 

Now, much better.

Edited November 1, 2014 by BenzinNinJa

[Zurion]

Now all that's left is for someone to create a TTF or OTF file for this :D

[Llyssa]

Now all that's left is for someone to create a TTF or OTF file for this :D

Already underway by a few people.

 

Current theorem on how it translates to the keyboard: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/337709-tenno-font/

[MikaKyubi]

If anyone is interested, here is a link to a Photoshop file in my Dropbox.  I basically took the time to isolate each character from the Tennobet image DE provided and make them a layer in Photoshop.  Anyone who wishes may use this perhaps as something to make vector art from for this, or use as the basis for a proper font, or make brushes, etc.  Have fun!

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63430134/Tennobet2.psd

 

Enjoy, all!

[TheLastZanerian]

Trying to write this by hand reveals a few issues:

 

1. The slant ends up being a bit more pronounced than in the original font.

2. "M" and "H", and "N" and "L" are hard to distinguish... with "N" and "L", placement of the small "tick" is important (middle of the bar on L, towards the left on N).

3. The difference between the font and handwriting is real. That said, unlike the Grineer font and the Corpus font, this one can be feasibly handwritten.

4. On an unrelated note, someone at class tried to peek at my notes to find her place in the lecture after a nap... the look on her face was priceless

 

If I get the chance, I'll write at length on some inane topic, and photograph the results for the Tenno Community.

 

Kudos DE, for such a well-designed writing system. Who's the linguist?

[AMO_17]

Thanks for this post! This has helped me with an art piece I started a night ago! 

[Landernight]

I have a question about how the letter A is written in tennobet. Looking at the first example "You are the hope and future...", the A in "are" uses the tennobet for the "aw" sound, while the A in "and" uses the one for the tennobet "A". Was that just a typo in the given example? I'm asking mainly because the way the capital "a" in the tennobet font package from -Krux-'s post uses the "aw" symbol...I'm just a little confused on that ;-;

[BenzinNinJa]

I have a question about how the letter A is written in tennobet. Looking at the first example "You are the hope and future...", the A in "are" uses the tennobet for the "aw" sound, while the A in "and" uses the one for the tennobet "A". Was that just a typo in the given example? I'm asking mainly because the way the capital "a" in the tennobet font package from -Krux-'s post uses the "aw" symbol...I'm just a little confused on that ;-;

 

The differense in how "A" is written is due to the "Tennobet" not being an alphabet as such, even though the name would imply it.

Think of it more as a collection of sounds. You litterally have to spell the word the same way as you say them.

[Ratohnhaketon435]

I'm confused about the usage of "k" and "kh" and also why the comma/emphasis spacer is used so often

Edited January 10, 2016 by Ratohnhaketon435

[BenzinNinJa]

I'm confused about the usage of "k" and "kh" and also why the comma/emphasis spacer is used so often

 

The sound from the "k" and "kh" symbols are very different. Use "k" for that form K-sound you make by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth in the middle of your mouch, while with the "kh" sound your tongue never really touches the roof of your mouth, and the sound is made further back.

 

The comma/emphasis thing has been elluding me ever since they published the Tennobet. I have no idea what it's used for.

[(XBOX)Vaktalor]

i might attempt using the language for a concept sometime but i need to thoroughly study it thanks for making this thread