Uryuomoco language guide

Guide written by William McMillian (originally from anticarrot.com)

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Learn Uryuomoco, the Alien language spoken in the comic, El Goonish Shive, by Dan Shive!

Let's get started. These are the basic letters, used for most words. These letters work for turning English to Uryuomoco and vice-versa.

A
 = U
B
 = V
C
 = S
D
 = J
E
 = O
F
 = H
G
 = T
H
 = F
I
 = Y(u)1
J
 = D
K
 = P
L
 = R
M
 = N
N
 = M
O
 = E
P
 = K
Qu
 = W2
R
 = L
S
 = C
T
 = G
U
 = A
V
 = B
W
 = Qu2
X
 = Z
Y(u)
 = I3
Z
 = X
  1. Since "Y" sometimes isn't pronounceable by itself, a "U" is often added after a "Y" in Uruomoco. Keep this in mind when both writing and reading Uryuomoco.
  2. Qu is treated as a single letter, when both writing and reading Uryuomoco.
  3. Only treat "Yu" as a single letter when in Uryuomoco. In the word "Yummy," "Y" and "U" would be translated over as separate letters.

If you are trying to memorize Uryuomoco (A simple task), remember that if A=B, B=A. That is to say, if one letter equals another letter, the second letter would also equal the first. A=U, U=A.

Work at memorizing these letters as best you can before moving on. The best way to do this is to practice writing out and translating words. If you'd like, you may translate these as practice (cluster rules are not yet applied, so these won't translate correctly with the translator):

  • Sug
  • Jet
  • No
  • Iea
  • Cfyubo
  • Teem
  • Cakolnum
  • Coo Ckeg Lam
  • UmgySulleg Yuc Gfo Vocg Gfyumt Obol

Cluster rules

Now for the cluster rules. It gets more complicated here. This is the part you might have trouble remembering. Just to be safe, in case you didn't memorize them yet, brush up on the basic letters.

Right, we have that. But, for the sake of the words being more easily readable, if for some reason you decide to speak them aloud, Dan Shive has included rules to go with certain letter groups. All of the cluster rules that have been revealed are included here, and when writing Uryuomoco, should be applied.

  • If a Uryuomoco word would end with the letter "E", an "H" is added to the end of the word, such as in "Feveh (Hobo)".
  • If a Uryuomoco word would end with the letter "J", an "A" is added to the end of the word, such as in "Omja (End)".
  • English "TH" translates to Uryuomoco "CH".
  • English "CH" translates to Uryuomoco "SE".
  • English "WH" translates to Uryuomoco "QUO".
  • English "ING" translates to Uryuomoco "OT".
  • English "GR" translates to Uryuomoco "TUL".
  • English "SS" translates to Uryuomoco "AIS".
  • English "LL" translates to Uryuomoco "RA".
  • English "SH" translates to Uryuomoco "US".

Well, that's it. Practice writing to your friends, or even better, read El Goonish Shive and translate some of Dan's works for yourself. I haven't written any more practice sentences for you to decode, but I've touched up the previous ones with the proper cluster rules applied:

  • Sug
  • Jet
  • No
  • Iea
  • Usyubo
  • Teem
  • Cakolnum
  • Coo Ckeg Lam
  • UmgySulleg Yuc Cho Vocg Chot Obol

Have fun!