The Gorean alphabet has twenty-eight characters. Most show a clear cut resemblance to Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Cretan letters as well as those of oriental origins. Many of the letters have a variety of pronunciations, depending on the context. The Caste of Scribes has been working to standardize the written word.  Of the twenty-eight characters, Of which seventeen are listed in the books. They are: Al-Ka, Altron, Ar, Ba-Ta, Delka, Eta, Homan, Ina, Kwah, Kef, Omnion, Nu, Shu, Sidge, Tau, Tun and Val.

 

Quotes

 

"I nodded. The rest of it I did not need to be told. The expressions 'Al-Ka' and 'Ba-Ta' are the first two letters of the Gorean alphabet. In effect these men had no names, but were simply known as Slave A and Slave B." --Priest-Kings of Gor, page 90

 

    "'True,' admitted Bosk. 'And these innovative scribes have had little success with their proposed reforms. Yet, from their labors, various interesting facts have emerged. For example, we have learned not only the order of frequency of occurrence of letters but, as would be expected, rough percentages of occurrence as well. Eta, for example, occurs two hundred times more frequently in the language than Altron. Over forty percent of the language consists of the first five letters I mentioned, Eta, Tau, Al-Ka, Omnion and Nu.'

   'That seems impossible,' said Samos.

   'It is true,' said Bosk. 'Further, over sixty percent of the language consists of those five letters plus Ar, Ina, Shu and Homan.'" --Slave Girl of Gor, page 384

 

"He rolled one of the bodies to its back. On the chest was a bloody triangle, the 'delka.' That is the fourth letter in the Gorean alphabet..." --Magician of Gor, page 176

 

"I have not spelled it 'Feikah' in English because the letter in question, in the Gorean spelling, is a 'kwah' and not a 'kef'. The 'kwah' in Gorean, which I think is possibly related, directly or indirectly, to the English 'q', does not always have a 'kwah' sound." --Mercenaries of Gor, page 13

 

"Many Gorean letters have a variety of pronunciations, depending on their linguistic context. Certain scribes have recommended adding to the Gorean alphabet new letters, to independently represent some of these sounds which, now, require alternative pronunciations, context-dependent, of given letters. Their recommendations, it seems, are unlikely to be incorporated into formal Gorean."

Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 9 - 10

 

"The Gorean alphabet has twenty-eight characters, all of which, I suspect, owe their origin to one or another of the alphabets of Earth. Several show a clear-cut resemblance to Greek letters, for example. 'Sidge', on the other hand, could be cuneiform, and 'Tun' and 'Val' are probably calligraphically drifted from demotic. At least six letters suggest influence by the classical Roman alphabet, and seven do, if we count 'Kef', the first letter in 'Kajira'. 'Shu' is represented by a sign which seems clearly oriental in origin and 'Homan', I speculate, may derive from Cretan." --Explorers of Gor, page