One other fun part about sorting out the PokéLatin alphabet is seeing which languages and scripts any particular PokéLatin character comes from. Some of them are obvious, others less so, but I definitely would like to sort out what their potential inspirations were and share them with you. To be fair, we can’t know for certain that Game Freak devs looked at ALL scripts and found inspiration to add them to PokéLatin… but there’s no reason to believe that they didn’t based the PokéLatin character off that letter. But what is certain is that Game Freak clearly wanted to make sure that PokéLatin was representative of languages found all around the world, and not just the Latin script that would’ve been used in Galar’s/Paldea’s/Kalos’ real world equivilants.

Couple initial notes:

  • The list is ordered semi-arbitrarily; there is no true “alphabetical order” for PokéLatin, but my PokéLatin font “Thraex Magnus” placed characters in a certain order, so they’re listed that way.
  • Inspirations for each character are listed with the probable most-likely at the top, and least-likely below it. It’s all just a guess to be honest…
  • I’ve included links to where you can find out more about that particular character; thankfully all but just a few are encoded in Unicode, making for a more consistant appearance.
  • Special thanks to PA! Discord‘er and Pokemon Language specialist Elementsnstuff for helping me find a whole bunch of these!
A
A/a
Stylized Latin “A/a”
ム
Japanese Katakana “Mu” (flipped)
Ⲇ
Coptic “Dalda“
Δ
Stylized Greek “Delta“
B
ᛊ
Elder Futhark “Sowilo [S]” (flipped)
ᛒ
Futhark “Berkanan [B]” (flipped)
Σ
Greek “Sigma” (flipped)
ᕒ
Canadian Aboriginal “R“
Proto-Canaanite “Shin (tooth)“
ⵉ
Tifinagh (Libyco-Berber) “Yi” (flipped)
Ʒ
Medieval Latin “Ezh (tailed-z)“
C
く
Japanese Hiragana “Ku” (flipped)
ᚲ
Elder Futhark “Kaunan [K]“
フ
Japanese Katakana “Fu/Hu” (flipped)
D
Ð
Latin lowercase “Eth“
E
Ξ
Greek “Xi“
ミ
Japanese Katakana “Mi“
三
Chinese numeral “2“
(Wiktionary’s list of “Variations of “≡”” characters)
F
F
Stylized Latin “F” (flipped)
ラ
Japanese Katakana “Ra“
ᖷ
Canadian Aboriginal (Blackfoot) “Wa“
न
Devanagari “Na“
G
G
VERY styilized Latin “G”, maybe mixed with lowercase “g”
ᙉ
Canadian Aboriginal (Carrier/Déné) “Dzo“
𓁶
Egyptian Hieroglyph “tp” (this is a stretch, but you can’t say that PokeLatin G doesn’t look like like someone facing right)
H
Ψ
Greek “Psi” (upside down)
ᛉ
Elder Futhark “Algiz [Z]” (upside down)
ᛦ
Younger Futhark “Yr [ʀ/Y]“
I
ル
Stylized Japanese Katakana “Mu“
儿
Chinese hanji “rén“
Libyco-Berber “K” (rotated 90 degrees clockwise)
J
J
Latin “J“
ㄱ
Korean Hangul “giyeok (G)“
了
Chinese Hanzi “Le“
K
ⵃ
Tifinagh (Libyco-Berber) “Yahh“
ㅅ
Korean Hangul “siot (S)“
L
Γ
Greek “Xi“
Г
Cyrillic “Ge“
L
Latin “L” (upside down)
ㄱ/ㄴ
Korean Hangul “giyeok (G)” / “nieun (N)“
ᒥ
Canadian Aboriginal “Mi“
M
M
Latin “M”
N
Π
Greek “Xi“
O
E
Stylized Latin “E”
く
Japanese Hiragana “Ku” (flipped)
P
ᛟ
Futhark “Othala [O]“
Ꮂ
Cherokee “Hv“
又
Chinese Hanzi “yòu“
Q
Q
Stylized Latin “Q”
Ⴉ/ⴉ
Georgian “Kan” (flipped)
R
R
Stylized Latin “R” (flipped)
ᚱ
Futhark “Raido [R]” (flipped)
ᖆ
Canadian Aboriginal “Tlhe“
S
Ȝ
Middle English “Yogh” (not to be confused with Ezh, or “tailed-Z”)
ろ
Japanese Hiragana “Ro“
T
ㅔ
Korean Hangul “E“
ト
Japanese Katakana “To“
〒 (テ)
Japanese postal mark, stylized from the Japanese Katakana “Te” (rotated 90 degress clockwise)
卝
Chinese Hanzi “Kuàng“
U
Є
Ukranian-Cyrillic “Ye” (rotated 90 degrees counter/anti-clockwise)
W
Stylized Latin “W”
V
V
Stylized Latin “V”
ㅈ
Korean Hangul “Jieut (J)” (upside down)
K
Stylized Latin “K” (rotated 90 degrees counter/anti-clockwise)
W
Ꮜ
Cherokee “Sa“
ᗨ
Canadian Aboriginal “Pu“
Θ
Greek “Theta“
Ө
Stylized Cyrillic “Ö“
ⴱ
Tifinagh (Libyco-Berber) “Tab“
X
ᛝ
Elder Futhark “Ingwaz [ng/ŋ]” (rotated 90 degrees)
X
Stylized Latin “X” (doubled)
Х
Cyrillic “Kha” (doubled)
Χ
Greek “Chi” (doubled)
Y
Y
Stylized Latin “Y”
ᚳ / ᚴ
Futhorc “Cen [C]” (upside down) / “Kaun [K/G]“
Z
ヤ
Japanese Katakana “Mu” (upside down)
ム
Japanese Katakana “Mu” (upside down)
a
Λ
Greek “Lambda“
ᐱ
Canadian Aboriginal (Inuktitut) “Pi“
ʌ
V
Latin “V” (upside down)
(Wiktionary’s list of “Variations of “^”” characters)
b
›
A single guillemet (used as a quotation in many languages)
ᚲ
Elder Futhark “Kaunan [K]” (flipped)
c
ᚲ
Stylized Elder Futhark “Kaunan [K]“
e
ニ
Japanese Katakana “Ni“
二
Chinese numeral “2“
=
Equal sign
f
!F
Latin “F” mixed with an exclaimation point (upside down)
ɉ
Latin lowercase “J/j” with stroke
F!
♫ Runs around in underwear! Freakazoid, Freakazoid! Hopes to make the movie deal! Freaka-me, freaka-you! ♩♪
g
q
Stylized Latin lowercase “Q/q”
☭
♫ Союз нерушимый республик свободных, Сплотила навеки Великая Русь…. ♩♪
h
ⵄ
Tifinagh (Libyco-Berber) “Yaa“
i
ώ
Greek lowercase “Omega (with tonos diacritics)“
义
Chinese Hanzi “Yì“
j
ᒉ
Canadian Aboriginal “Ce“
Ꮅ
Cherokee “Li” (flipped)
η
Greek lowercase “Eta“
Ⴄ
Georgian “En” (flipped)
k
z
Slanted Latin lowercase “Z/z”
ユ
Japanese Katakana “Yu“
l
L
Stylized Latin “L”
𐤂
Phoenician “Gimel“
m
FM
Latin “F” and Latin “M” mixed together (flipped)
MF
No.
n
ni
Latin lowercase “NI/ni”
NI
A group of knights who are the keepers of the sacred words Ni, Ping, and Nee-wom. Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale.
o
ㄹ
Korean Hangul “Rieul (R)” (rotated 90 degrees)
ᔓ
Canadian Aboriginal “Sho“
א
Hebrew “Aleph (A)“
ƕ
Latin lowercase form of Gothic “Hwair (Hv)“
₪
p
o
Latin “O”
ㅇ
Korean Hangul “Ieung (ng)” (rotated 90 degrees)
q
ᓀ
Canadian Aboriginal “Ne“
σ
Greek lowercase “Gamma” (flipped)
δ
Greek lowercase “Delta” (flipped)
Ბ
Georgian “Ban” (flipped)
Ꝺ/ꝺ
Latin “d” (ancient forms)
ð
Latin lowercase “eth” (minus the bar)
r
ᖽ
Canadian Aboriginal (Blackfoot) “Ki“
𐤫
Phoenician “Nun“
ᛋ
Younger Futhark “Sowilo [S,Z]” (flipped)
s
ニ
Japanese Katakana “Ni“
ミ
Japanese Katakana “Mi“
ソ
Japanese Katakana “So“
ハ
Japanese Katakana “Ha“
t
π
Greek lowercase “Pi” (flipped)
い
Japanese Hiragana “I“
w
u
Latin lowercase “U”
ᑌ
Canadian Aboriginal “Te“

 

As you can see, there are a bunch of common scripts involved, but still definitely covering a worldwide collection of characters. These include:

  • European Scripts
  • East Asian scripts
    • Japanese Katakana and Hiragana
    • Korean Hangul
    • Chinese Hanzi
  • Aboriginal/Indian scripts
    • Canadian Aboriginal syllabry
    • Cherokee syllabry
  • and even some Hebrew and Berber characters were worked in as well!

Of course it’s worth noting that these scripts share some characters between them—like Greek, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets all share similar characters (X and C being the more obvious ones)—as well as how many of these comparison are similar albeit flipped or rotated. Fundamentally, however, it appears as if the whole goal of PokéLatin is to further underline the universality and common ground we all share in our humanity… but probably also to just make sure their random script can’t be remotely misinterpreted by anyone trying to intentionally claim that there are secret hidden words trying to turn children into… I dunno… Pepsi drinkers or something.

If you enjoyed this list, let me know! I’ve worked on Pokémon Aaah! for over 25 years for free, but if found this page entertaining, feel free to support me on Ko-Fi! :)