Tucyjapa Kelixal

Writing in Celestial

The Celestial alphabet has 23 letters--17 consonants and 6 vowels. Each of them has both an uppercase and lowercase form. The below tables show uppercase first, then lowercase, along with pronunciations in IPA and romanized forms (in lowercase).

Table 1: Consonants
B V C K D F H L M N P R S X Š T J
b v c k d f h l m n p r s x š t j
b v c k d f h l m n p r s x š t j
[b] [b] [k] [t͡ʃ] [d] [f] [h] [ɭ] [m] [ɲ] [p] [ʀ] [s] [ʃ] [ʃ] [t] [d͡ʒ]

Table 2: Vowels
A E Y I O U
a e y i o u
a e y i o u
[æ] [ɛ] [i] [i] [o] [ʊ]

As is evident by the letters in the above tables, Celestial has several letters that have identical pronunciations. These each follow particular orthographic rules for where they appear in any word.

Bb and Vv
Bb is only ever used at the beginning of words, but never when followed by an Ii. Vv is used in all other scenarios.
For example, while badir and minavin are correct, bin and ebekren are incorrect.

Yy and Ii
Yy is used at the start of words; it is also used when an Ii would follow a Cc, Kk, Ff, or Tt. Ii is used in all other scenarios.
For example, while ynra and coliš are correct, itu and kihad are incorrect.

Xx and Šš
Xx is used at the start of words; it is also used when an Šš would be followed by an Aa or an Ii. Šš is used in all other scenarios.
For example, while xunu and mušuk are correct, hacuvex and šujan are incorrect.

Some letters in Celestial have pronunciation changes when they are placed together. These can be found below.

Table 3: Sound Changes
au ei ou ue ui
au ei ou ue ui
[æʊ] → [wɑ] [ɛi] → [eɪ̯] [oʊ] → [wʌ] [ʊɛ] → [weɪ̯] [ʊi] → [wi]

Note that there are some instances where pronunciation is different without these changes--make sure you note them!

The below tables show Celestial punctuation and numerals, along with their romanized equivalents. Celestial uses a base 10 number system, as in English.

Table 4: Punctuation
. , ! ? : ; ” “ $ ( ) -
. , ! ? : ; ” “ $ ( ) -

Table 5: Numerals
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Writing Numbers in Text

Writing Celestial numbers in text form is possible as well. After nine, while numbers become a little trickier, they still follow a predictable pattern. Past one hundred billion, numbers are rarely written out in text or spoken out loud.

Table 6: Text-form Numbers
Celestial Romanization English
nef nef zero
ema ema one
xol xol two
miš miš three
daf daf four
juc juc five
vin vin six
men men seven
raš raš eight
fok fok nine
enef enef ten
enef-ema enef-ema eleven
enef-vin enef-vin sixteen
xonef xonef twenty
xonef-daf xonef-daf twenty-four
minef minef thirty
danef danef forty
enšonef enšonef one hundred
enšonef-ranef-vin enšonef-ranef-vin one hundred and eighty-six
fošonef fošonef nine hundred
enminef enminef one thousand
endanef endanef ten thousand
enjunef enjunef one hundred thousand
envinef envinef one million
enmenef enmenef ten million
enranef enranef one hundred million
enfonef enfonef one billion
emenef emenef ten billion
emavinef emavinef sixty billion
emenminef emenminef one hundred billion
enjunef-miminef-xošonef-menef-raš pit daf enjunef-miminef-xošonef-menef-raš pit daf one hundred and three thousand two hundred and seventy-eight point four