Fanmade Pony Alphabet

[Crunchypuff 152]

So I know in the show there has been some appearances of written language, whether it be some sort of hieroglyph-like unicorn language or simple squiggles, but I thought....why not make my own? This will just be a simple typography change, kind of like the daedric language from the elder scrolls series, or wingdings or something.

I wanted to make letters that are friendly to all species of pony at least, something that can be easily written with say, hooves dipped in ink, no magic levitation of writing utensils required.

This is what I've got so far, it omits some letters like q that can be substituted for easily, and replaces c with the ch sound, since the letter c can be replaced with s or k in any other situation as far as I know. I also got rid of y, so now pony is spelled poni I guess lol

Each letter can be written with the front of a hoof (or the back in the case of vowels), I don't know too much about horse/pony anatomy, so let me know if this looks off.

Thoughts? I'm still thinking of changing things, like adding letters back, and changing how it looks. I just thought it would be fun to think about how a different species would write in our language.

[Brony Number 42 9,900]

I like it. I wish there were more symbols. A lot of them are the same symbol in a different angle. If there was just 1 letter by itself, then you couldn't tell the difference between D G P R S.

What if a hoof shape was old ponish? We know earth ponies and pegasi can hold things with their hooves. Maybe they can use pens, and this font has evolved into something new.

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

That’s really cool!! 

[Savygriffs 5,019]

This is really neat!! 

[Jesse Terrence 2,963]

31 minutes ago, Metal Brony 42 said:

I like it. I wish there were more symbols. A lot of them are the same symbol in a different angle. If there was just 1 letter by itself, then you couldn't tell the difference between D G P R S.

What if a hoof shape was old ponish? We know earth ponies and pegasi can hold things with their hooves. Maybe they can use pens, and this font has evolved into something new.

Unless you scratch a line bellow so other ponies know where's the "floor"

[Evil Pink One 12,954]

2 minutes ago, Jesse Terrence said:

Unless you scratch a line bellow so other ponies know where's the "floor"

You eont need the line to know where the floor is.... Because theres no upside-down hoof.... So if you see an upside down hoof... You're reading it upside-down then.....

[Brony Number 42 9,900]

I think a pony could make an accent mark with their hoof. This could make differnt letters.

[Crunchypuff 152]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I think adding maybe a small hoofmark with the tip of the hoof or some other method may add a bit of variety to the letters.

I'll mess around later and see what I end up with!

[ShadOBabe 18,984]

It’s definitely interesting.

We know non-unicorn ponies use regular writing utensils and write with their mouths, but @Metal Brony 42’s suggestion of “Old Ponish” could definitely work.

Only problems I see is that the letters would be gigantic. Like if every letter you tried to write was the size of the human hand.

Also, to make those shapes, they would have to constantly turn themselves or the paper, as some of these directions would snap their wrists if attempted.

Instead of the entire hoof, you could instead use the very front tip of the hoof, which would make a slightly curved line. Less thematic than the horseshoe shape, but far more manageable.

[Octavia Heartstrings 28,397]

This is a really cool idea, but as others have said, it's difficult to tell some of the letters apart because they're only made of two basic symbols. I like @ShadOBabe's idea of using the tip of the hoof rather than the whole hoof, that would definitely allow for more variety in how the letters look.

[SharpWit 2,472]

I really like that you only used the back hoof for the vowels in highlighting their importance and the whole alphabet conceptually.

It's coming off as a little bit primitive to me since ponies mostly use their mouths to hold writing utensils, I mean imagine how large of a "canvas" you'd need if you used most of your hand and how that would differ over time as you grew. Styles similar to our own may still have come about from quill marks or brush strokes. A greater influence on their form of lettering could be a need to apply less pressure and create symbols more accustomed to a near sighted perspective. Although that thought could be completely wrong given that I've never learned to write with my mouth.

I can picture each tribe having had its own written language, unicorns using strokes made through telekinesis and Pegasus with feather brushes. Maybe aspects from all three would have come together but with earth ponies having the largest population, perhaps theirs came to dominate.

[Crunchypuff 152]

Pony Alphabet draft 2 is done! Now with less sideways hoof marks (no more broken wrists!) and a couple new symbols made with the tip of the hoof. Each consonant is framed by at least one large hoof print that may be tilted slightly, the direction of each hoof print matches up with other letters that are made using a similar mouth movement. Doing some research, I found that letters can be grouped together in how they are pronounced by the mouth, so short consonants like B and T are framed by vertical hoof prints, where longer 'hissing' consonants like S and Z are tilted slightly to the right. The grouping I did isn't perfect, but I figured it was better than putting symbols around completely at random.

I've thought about the history behind such an alphabet, and decided that it would be written mostly before civilization and writing utensils became widespread. Something used by roaming groups of ponies to mark locations, or where special events took place. As an example...

Take a look at these markings left on a rock recovered by an archeological team. Written by a pony with red pigment applied to a hoof, one word is marked here, below a pair of hoof prints made by two different ponies.

As always, discussion and advice on how to change this alphabet is appreciated. Let me know if I made any big mistakes like making two letters identical, I looked it over a few times but I just know something like that could happen lol

Edited March 4, 2021 by Crunchypuff