#i just used the default brick set i didn't draw vector art or anything fancy

[unrestedjade]

What did I do with my Friday night, you may ask?

Half-assed a Ferengi katakana font, is what. Yeah, I'm what you'd call...pretty cool.

Deets below:

So it turns out the phonemes for the Ferengi character set (ganked from LCARS47.com) map fairly well onto katakana? With some notable exceptions. A lot of phonemes map 1:1 very nicely, but there are spots where Ferengi sounds mush together (ta/da, for example) where the kana make them distinct タダ (ta and da respectively).

There are also sounds that aren't present in Japanese that are distinct in the Ferengi that necessitated some counterintuitive mapping. All the Ferengi l- sounds map onto the z- dakuon, for instance. Ferengi z-sounds already lump into the s-/z-/sh- group, which left the z- dakuon free.

So, Leeta would be リタ ri ta in actual katakana. But to type her name in Ferengi, you have to spell it ジタ (ji ta) to give you "li ta".

For another example, to spell Garak: ガラク ga ra ku. But k- and g- sounds are grouped in Ferengi, so instead it's spelled ka ra ku.

And that left the g- dakuon free to use for the q- sounds that don't exist in katakana, so Quark, in katakana, would need to be クワルク ku wa ru ku. But in this Ferengi font it's spelled ga ru ku, which looks a lot closer to English Garak, doesn't it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ferengi doesn't appear to have terminal consonants going by the chart, so sounding out words feels eerily familiar to spelling in katakana. Maybe they clip off the vowel at the end, ~desu~ style.

Still, it's pretty fun to play with as an English cipher or for names and decorative nonsense. Here's a screenshot of my mucking around. From left to right: original word - Ferengi phonemes - what to type while in full-width katakana input mode - final result.

And here's the full mapping of phonemes to kana. You can see where I had to make some allowances. It's possible there's a different writing system that fits better, or a better way to map onto katakana, but this is as well as I can do with my "occasionally fucks around on duolingo" level of expertise, lol.

assigned phonemes: mapped kana:

a/ha a ア

i/hi i イ

u/hu u ウ

e/he e エ

o/ho o オ

ka/ga ka カ

ki/gi ki キ

ku/gu ku ク gu グ

ke/ge ke ケ

ko/go ko コ

sa/za/sha sa サ

si/zi/shi shi シ

su/zu/shu su ス

se/ze/she se セ

so/zo/sho so ソ

ta/da/tha ta タ da ダ

ti/di/thi hi ヒ

te/de/the te テ

tu/du/thu tsu ツ

to/do/tho to ト

na na ナ

ni ni ニ

ne ne ネ

nu nu ヌ

no no ノ n ｎ

ma ma マ

mi mi ミ

me me メ

mu mu ム

mo mo モ

ya ya ヤ

ye yu ユ

yo yo ヨ

ra ra ラ

ri ri リ

re re レ

ru ru ル

ro ro ロ

wa wa ワ

wi do ド

we de デ

wo wo ヲ

pa/ba pa パ

pi/bi pi ピ

pe/be pe ペ

pu/bu pu プ

po/bo po ポ

fa/va ba バ

fi/vi bi ビ

fe/ve be ベ

fu/vu bu ブ

fo/vo bo ボ

cha/ja ha ハ

chi/ji chi チ

che/je he ヘ

chu/ju fu/hu フ

cho/jo ho ホ

la za ザ

li ji ジ

le ze ゼ

lu zu ズ

lo zo ゾ

qua/gwa ga ガ

qui/gwi gi ギ

que/gwe ge ゲ

quo/gwo go ゴ

#star trek #ds9 #ferengi #free fonts #feel free to clone the font and make tweaks or different graphics or whatever #i just used the default brick set i didn't draw vector art or anything fancy #yes im avoiding working on other things how did you guess #all 5 people who might want this come get y'all food