The Orokin Script, or Tennobet, is largely based upon English but apparently also contains extra characters for certain phonemes including diphthongs ("io") and digraphs ("th" and "sh"). Consonants are diagonally slanted and are written left to right, while vowels and accents are written above. Some vowels and numbers resemble polarity symbols. There is also a thematic undertone to the letter construction reminiscent of Bushido calligraphy; the straight segments suggest power sword strokes and the arcs suggest fencing flourishes where each letter represents a lesson in movement. There are no live excerpts of the Orokin script to demonstrate how it is spoken.
There is frequent variation in both the direction of writing as well as the vertical orientation, this variation may likely be an artifact of texture placement or simply the mirroring of textures commonly used in the video game industry.
Alphabet[]
Official cipher.
Official examples of deciphered script.
Officially referred to as the "Tennobet," the alphabet is a featural alphabet with a pattern between the shape of the letter and the sound represented, making it similar in that respect to the Korean alphabet as well as the Elvish script used by J.R.R. Tolkien. In this type of alphabet, characters become more complex as they build off of the characters of related sounds. Orokin letters are built upon a stem structure using the "M" character 
as the most basic form, and a set of modifiers are attached to the stem to change it into a different letter.
Consonants and Compound Sounds[]
Pairs of sounds that differ from one another in only one way will typically have only one difference between the characters, such as "T" 
and "TH" 
(both produced right behind the teeth, but one is produced with a short burst of air while the other is produced with prolonged friction). As a result, "TH" resembles "T" with the simple addition of a small vertical stroke 
in the middle of the stem. Other pairs that differ from one another, in the same way, are P 
/ "F" 
, "B" 
/ "V" 
, "D" 
/ "DH" 
, and "K" 
/ "KH" 
. Note that this pattern changes for the S 
/ "SH" 
, Z 
/ "ZH" 
, "M" / "N" 
, and "H" 
/ "L" 
pairs, where the same dash does not indicate adding friction but instead indicates that the sound is produced with the tongue moved further back into the mouth. The only pair distinguished by a vertical dash that does not follow either pattern is "J" 
/ "CH" 
, which are different only in whether or not they feature the use of the vocal cords.
Most of the other sound pairs that are differentiated only through the use of vocal cords share a similar general shape. These include "T" / "D" , "TH" / "DH" , "S" / "Z" , "SH" / "ZH" , and "K" / "G" 
. The pairs that seem to defy this pattern are "P" / "B" and "F" / "V" , suggesting that this connection is not as consistent. However, it can be noted that "K" , "G" , "KH" , and "NG" 
, which are all produced in the throat, also all feature a similar shape. This leaves the only consonant character without any phonetic matches to be the one representing "R" 
. Also, the "W" and "Y" sounds are not included among consonants, but are instead considered to be variants of "OO" and "EE" 
respectively, and are therefore listed among the vowels.
Vowels[]
Vowels are smaller than consonants and placed above the consonants as though they are diacritics or accent marks. In this way, the alphabet is similar to the Arabic alphabet.
Each vowel is written based on its sound rather than how it is written in English. However, it can be noted that the sounds which are commonly associated with English letters E and I feature vertical lines ("EE" , "IH" 
, "EH" 
, and "AYE" 
), while those associated with the English letter A seem to favor diagonal lines ("AH" 
, "AE" 
, and "AW" 
), and those associated with English letters O and U feature more pronounced curves ("OO" , "OH" 
, "UH" 
, and "OW" 
).
Character Similarities[]
Other interesting visual similarities between characters that are not necessarily part of the featural patterns:
- "H"
is simply an "M" but only half as long. - "T" is an "M" with an "R" added at the left end.
- "Z" is a "D" using the right end of the lower loop of a "D" with an "R" tacked onto the left end.
- "P" is a "Z" with the right upper bar (which makes up the "M" ) removed.
- "B" is a "D" with a single hook added to the end of the "lower loop."
Writing[]
All writing in the Orokin alphabet is either written in correct American English or closely written phonetically in the English language with some exceptions due to missing sounds.
- "W" sound (as in win) and "WH" sound (as in what) are converted to ("OO")
- "Y" sound (as in yes) is converted to ("EE")
Examples[]
- Warframe is written as ("OOor-freym")
- Evolution is written as ("Ev-uh-loo-shuhm")
- Odd substitution of "N" with "M" for unknown reasons (possibly a typo by the developers)
- Guide is written as ("Guhyd")
- Flight is written as ("Flihyt")
- An example of a word written letter-by-letter from English if treating ("IH") as an "I"
- Notice how the pronunciation differs from English if spelt this way: "Flihyt" vs. "Flahyt"
- An example of a word written letter-by-letter from English if treating
- Observatory is written as ("Uh b-ser-vah-tawr-aye")
- Secret is written as ("Seh-kreht")
Tabulated Ciphers[]
Matching Orokin alphabet to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English pronunciations.
| IPA | Tenno Alphabet Equivalent |
English Examples |
|---|---|---|
| p | |
pen, tip |
| b | |
but, web |
| t | |
take, cut |
| d | |
dad, do |
| tʃ | |
chat, nature |
| dʒ | |
joy, giant, edge |
| k | |
cat, kite, queen |
| g | |
go, get, gutter |
| f | |
off, fate |
| v | |
voice, of, favorite |
| θ | |
thing, teeth |
| ð | |
that, soothe |
| s | |
same, city, sass |
| z | |
zoo, rose |
| ʃ | |
she, sure, emotion |
| ʒ | |
genre, pleasure |
| h | |
hat, heaven |
| m | |
man, jam |
| n | |
no, brain |
| ŋ | |
ringer, sing, drink |
| l | |
loss, please |
| r | |
run, very |
| w | No equivalent | win, we |
| j | No equivalent | yes, yawn |
| hw | No equivalent | what, when |
| x | |
loch |
| IPA | Tenno Alphabet Equivalent |
English Examples |
|---|---|---|
| eɪ | |
day, gate, date |
| ɒ | |
clock, yacht* |
| ɔ: | |
door, board* |
| æ | |
pat, bat |
| ɜ | No equivalent | bird, curt |
| ɪ | |
pit, in, fish |
| ɛ | |
pet, bed |
| i | |
bee, need |
| ʌ | |
run |
| ʊ | |
put |
| u | |
food, dude, through |
| aɪ | |
bye, night, my |
| oʊ | |
tow, woe, dough |
| aʊ | |
now, foul |
| Symbols | Tenno Alphabet Equivalent |
|---|---|
| 0 | 
|
| 1 | 
|
| 2 | 
|
| 3 | 
|
| 4 | 
|
| 5 | 
|
| 6 | 
|
| 7 | 
|
| 8 | 
|
| 9 | 
|
| . (period) | 
|
| ? (question mark) | No equivalent |
| ! (exclamation mark) | No equivalent |
| , (comma) |
|
| : (colon) | No equivalent |
| ' (apostrophe) | No equivalent |
| - (hyphen) | 
|
| @ (at sign) | No equivalent |
| # (pound sign) | No equivalent |
* ɒ and ɔː are British English (RP) vowels and are not represented in American English (GA). They are replaced with the 'ah' and 'oh' sounds in GA.
| RP | GA | |
|---|---|---|
| Clock | klɒk | klak |
| Yacht | jɒt | jat |
| Door | dɔ: | dɔr |
| Board | bɔ:d | bɔrd |
Weapon Resemblance[]
There are several weapons of Tenno and Orokin origin that take on the look and design of several Tennobet letters, it is yet unknown as to whether or not their design resemblance has any significant value to the lore behind the weapon.
These include but are not limited to:
- Ceramic Dagger ("N" )
- Cronus ("N" )
- Dakra Prime ("DH" )
- Destreza ("J" )
- Destreza Prime ("CH" )
- Dual Raza, holstered ("G" )
- Dragon Nikana ("N" )
- Pangolin Sword ("M" and "O" )
- Paris Prime ("G" or "NG" )
- Skana ("M" )
- Venka ("F" or "P" )
- Heat Sword and Heat Dagger ("ZH" )
- Vasto and Akvasto ("T" )
Known Deciphered Scripts[]
Warframes[]
Trinity's helmet script
Loki's thigh
Orokin Tower Tileset[]
Orokin Void room script
Orokin Void hallway script
Orokin Moon Tileset[]
Stealth Test banner
Clan Dojo[]
Dojo Observatory console
Dojo Research Lab consoles
Grineer Research Lab door
Corpus Research Lab door
Infested Research Lab door
Tenno Research Lab door
Great Hall door
Dojo Observatory door
Dojo Barracks door
Dojo Garden door
Dojo elevator door
Dueling room door
Trophy room door
Drydock doors
Drydock floating platform crates
Relays[]
Message board in the Relay's lobby
Floating text in Relays
Welcome sign
"Lotus is our friend" signs
"Tenno uphold balance" signs
"Tenno Protector" signs
"Tenno Is The Shadow And Light" signs
"Void Is Blood Of Tenno" signs
"You Are The Future" signs
Kiosk for turning in Prime parts
Weapons[]
Nikana sheath
Magnus barrel
Strun stock
Tigris stock
Cedo Barrel
Warframe Cosmetics[]
Guide of the Lotus shoulder armor (Mantle of the Lotus)
Izvara Syandana
TennoCon Syandana and Chestplate
During Quests[]
Miscellaneous[]
Founder T-shirt script
Update 18.0 (2015-12-03) patch notes
Flashing near 
Mind Controlled enemies
Original Prime Access banner
Media[]
References[]
External Links[]
- Official Tenno Language, unveiled by Digital Extremes on 30 October 2014.
- TennoTyper, an English to Warframe text translator developed by Clarvel. Original Post