Learn naYana
Nine short lessons, each introducing one idea and a handful of new characters. Roughly an hour end-to-end. The order is chosen for ease of learning, not the order the engine was built in — so you'll meet the most useful characters first and the rare ones last.
The nine lessons
How to read this script
Two visual rules to recognise: the stroke under vowels, and capitals as bigger lowercase shapes.
Drop the silent letters
ph → f, ck → k, kn → n, wr → r — write only what you say.
Long vowels and the length marker
One new character — ː — replaces the silent-e and double-letter tricks for marking long vowels.
Schwa — the most common sound in English
One letter for the sound every unstressed vowel reduces to.
The short vowels you've been faking
Four new characters so "bit" and "bite" stop sharing the same letter.
When schwa is stressed
The vowel of "cup" — same family as schwa, but louder.
The two TH sounds
"thin" and "this" are as different as p and b. They get different letters.
Sh, zh, and ng
Three single sounds that English writes as digraphs.
Affricates and the r-coloured vowels
Ch, j, and the vowels of "bird" and "teacher".
How to read this script
Before any new characters, two visual rules. Once you can recognise these, the rest of the lessons are about which sounds to write — not how the script behaves.
Rule 1: a small stroke under every vowel
Open any English word in naYana and you'll see that the vowels — a e i o u — each carry a small horizontal stroke at the baseline. The consonants don't. That's the only visual difference between a naYana letter and the equivalent Latin letter you already know.
Why?
The vowels carry the music of every word — they're the syllable cores, the rhythm, the part you sing. Marking them visually lets your eye find the word's rhythm at a glance, before you've finished decoding the consonants. Reading speed goes up.
It also costs you nothing. There are no new characters to memorise, no rules to apply — just a stroke that the font draws for you.
Rule 2: capitals are just bigger lowercase shapes
naYana has no separate capital letters. When you write a name, the start of a sentence, or an abbreviation, the letter is the same shape as its lowercase form, just drawn larger. A is a bigger a. N is a bigger n.
Why?
Latin uses two completely different shapes for the same letter (compare A and a, or G and g) for historical reasons — they evolved as separate scripts that later fused. A phonetic script doesn't need that. The same sound should be the same letter.
Size alone is plenty to flag a name, a sentence boundary, or an acronym. One shape per letter; one less thing to memorise.
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| cat | cat | three letters; vowel marker visible under a |
| Anna | Anna | capital A is a larger a |
| naYana | naYana | the project name — three syllables, capital marks the middle |
| NASA | NASA | all-caps abbreviation kept as-is |
Everything else in this tutorial is about which sounds get which letters. The script itself you've already learned.
Drop the silent letters
English keeps a lot of letters around for historical reasons that nobody pronounces. naYana drops them. The first batch of changes doesn't introduce any new letters — it just stops writing the ones you weren't saying anyway.
Why?
"Phone" is spelled with ph because it came from Greek, where phi (φ) was a single sound. English borrowed the spelling but said it as f. "Knot" had a real k a thousand years ago; the sound dropped but the letter stayed. "Write" had a real w. "Lamb" had a real b.
Etymological spellings are a kind of historical museum. Useful if you're a linguist; an obstacle if you're a five-year-old learning to read. naYana's rule: write what you say.
Six common substitutions
| Pattern | Becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ph (Greek φ) | f | phone → fon |
| ck | k | back → bak |
| kn (silent k) | n | knot → not |
| wr (silent w) | r | write → rait |
| mb (silent b at end) | m | lamb → lam |
| gh (silent in many words) | (dropped) | light → lait |
The engine doesn't apply these mechanically — it checks the sound first. "Number" still has a real b, so the mb → m rule doesn't fire. "Shepherd" still has a real p followed by h (separate syllables), so ph → f doesn't fire either. You don't have to think about it; the dictionary does.
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| photo | foto | ph → f |
| knee | ni | silent k dropped (long-i covered in lesson 3) |
| wrong | roŋ | silent w dropped (ŋ in lesson 8) |
| comb | kom | silent b dropped |
| though | ðo | silent gh dropped (ð in lesson 7) |
| philosophy | filɑːsəfi | two ph→f substitutions in one word |
Long vowels and the length marker
English uses three different tricks to mark a long vowel. naYana uses one — write the vowel and add a small marker after it.
Why?
To say "this i is long," English might add a silent e at the end (bite), or double the vowel (meet), or just rely on luck (find). Three tricks for one job.
The IPA does it with one character: ː, a triangular colon that means "the previous vowel is held longer." naYana adopts it. i is short, iː is long. Same letter, length marker added.
The new character
ː — the length marker
Two small triangles stacked. Always written immediately after a vowel. Means "hold this vowel longer."
The four long vowels you'll meet first
| Sound | naYana | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| long ee (as in "see") | iː | meet → miːt, tree → triː |
| long oo (as in "food") | uː | food → fuːd, moon → muːn |
| long aw (as in "ball") | ɔː | ball → bɔːl, law → lɔː |
| long ah (as in "father") | ɑː | father → fɑːðɚ, car → kɑːr |
Two of those (ɔ and ɑ) are characters you haven't formally met yet — they get a closer look in lesson 5. For now, just note that the ː is what makes them long.
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| see | siː | silent e in English; ː in naYana |
| root | ruːt | double oo in English; ː in naYana |
| talk | tɔːk | silent l dropped; ɔ + length |
| park | pɑːrk | long ah |
Schwa — the most common sound in English
One new character. It's the sound English speakers make for almost every unstressed vowel — and it's everywhere.
Why?
Say "about" out loud, slowly. The a at the start isn't really an "ah" or an "ay" — it's a vague, neutral, throat-relaxed sound. That sound is called schwa, written ə in IPA.
Now say "sofa", "banana", "the", "problem", "lemon". The unstressed vowels in all of those — written variously as a, e, i, o, u — flatten to the same schwa. English hides this fact behind five different spellings. naYana shows it with one character.
Schwa is, by some counts, the most frequent vowel sound in English. It deserves its own letter.
The new character
ə — schwa
The relaxed, neutral vowel of unstressed syllables. The baseline-level shape signals "this is a quiet vowel" — visually smaller than the stressed vowels nearby.
about, sofa, banana, problem, the
Try it
| English | naYana | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| about | əbaut | unstressed a → ə |
| sofa | soufə | final a → ə |
| banana | bənænə | two a's → ə (æ in lesson 5) |
| problem | prɑːbləm | unstressed e → ə |
| lemon | lɛmən | unstressed o → ə |
| the | ðə | the most common English word; ð in lesson 7 |
Try this experiment: pick any paragraph and count the schwas in the naYana version. Most paragraphs hit 15-20% schwa. It's that frequent.
The short vowels you've been faking
English spells "bit" and "bite" with the same vowel letter even though they're different sounds. Lesson 3 already gave the long versions a length marker. Now the short versions get their own letters.
Why?
"Bit" and "bite" sound nothing alike. Same with "full" vs "fool", "bed" vs "bead", "cot" vs "caught". English writes the long version with a trick (silent e, doubled letter, extra letter) and the short version with the bare vowel.
Lesson 3 fixed the long versions: iː uː ɔː ɑː. Now the short versions get distinct letters too: ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ. One sound, one letter.
Four new characters
ɪ — the vowel of "bit"
Short i. A capital-I-shape with the vowel marker.
sit, bit, English
ʊ — the vowel of "book"
Short u. Different from "boot", which uses uː.
book, put, would
ɛ — the vowel of "bed"
Short e. The Greek epsilon shape, a clear cousin of Latin e.
bed, met, friend
ɔ — the vowel of "law" (without length) and "cot" in some dialects
Short open-o. With the length marker becomes ɔː from lesson 3.
often, on, dog
Why "æ" too
You'll also start seeing æ — the vowel of "cat", "hand", "back". This is technically a fifth short-vowel character, but it acts like the others: short, distinct, gets its own letter so it doesn't have to share with anyone else.
æ — the vowel of "cat"
An a and an e joined into one shape — the IPA's idea, kept here. It's shorter and brighter than the ɑː of "father".
cat, hand, back
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| sit / seat | sɪt / siːt | short ɪ vs long iː |
| full / fool | fʊl / fuːl | short ʊ vs long uː |
| bed / bead | bɛd / biːd | short ɛ vs long iː |
| cat | kæt | æ for the bright open a |
| English | ɪŋlɪʃ | two ɪ's; ŋ and ʃ in lesson 8 |
When schwa is stressed (ʌ)
One new character — and it's a close cousin of the schwa from lesson 4.
Why?
Say "cup". The vowel is short and central, just like schwa — but it's stressed. Your voice rises on it. Compare with the schwa in "the", which is the same shape of sound but said quietly and quickly.
Phoneticians treat these as two distinct vowels, with two distinct symbols: ə for the unstressed one, ʌ for the stressed one. naYana follows. The shapes are visually related, so once you've learned one, the other is easy.
The new character
ʌ — stressed schwa
The vowel of "cup". Same family as ə, marked to show it's the loud, stressed version.
cup, love, sun, but, money
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| cup | kʌp | stressed ʌ |
| love | lʌv | stressed ʌ; silent e dropped |
| sun | sʌn | stressed ʌ |
| about | əbaut | unstressed ə (lesson 4) |
| money | mʌniː | stressed ʌ + long i |
Notice how "about" (with quiet ə) and "cup" (with stressed ʌ) feel similar in your mouth but different in your voice. That's the distinction these two characters carry.
The two TH sounds (θ and ð)
English writes "th" for two genuinely different sounds. naYana gives each one its own letter — and they're shapes you may already recognise.
Why?
Say "thin" and then say "this". Your tongue goes to the same place — between your teeth — but in "thin" your throat is silent (a hiss), and in "this" it's buzzing (a hum). They're as different as p and b, or s and z.
English writes them with the same letter pair, "th", because the Latin alphabet didn't have a single letter for either sound when English was first written down. Old English used a runic letter (þ, "thorn") for one of them — but it didn't survive printing.
The IPA uses Greek θ (theta) for the voiceless one — the hiss — and ð (called "eth", a crossed d) for the voiced one — the hum. naYana keeps these.
Two new characters
θ — voiceless th (the hiss)
The "th" of "thin", "think", "math", "throw". Greek theta — a circle with a horizontal bar.
thin, think, math, three, breath
ð — voiced th (the hum)
The "th" of "this", "that", "the", "father", "breathe". A crossed d; called "eth".
this, that, the, father, breathe
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| thin | θɪn | voiceless θ |
| think | θɪŋk | voiceless θ; ŋ in lesson 8 |
| this | ðɪs | voiced ð |
| that | ðæt | voiced ð |
| father | fɑːðɚ | voiced ð in the middle (ɚ in lesson 9) |
| breath / breathe | brɛθ / briːð | same spelling in English; θ vs ð in naYana |
A nice exercise: read the sentence "this thing's the third thin thread that breathes." It will look and sound very different in naYana — and the difference between the two sounds becomes visible: ðɪs θɪŋ'z ðə θɝd θɪn θrɛd ðæt briːðz.
Sh, zh, and ng (ʃ ʒ ŋ)
Three single sounds that English writes as digraphs because it ran out of Latin letters. naYana gives each one a letter.
Why?
"Ship" starts with one sound, not two. "Vision" has one sound in the middle, not three. "Sing" ends with one sound, not two. Your tongue makes a single, continuous gesture for each. The English spelling — sh, si, ng — is two letters because there were no spare Latin letters to use, not because the sound is two parts.
The IPA assigns one symbol per sound, and naYana follows. ʃ for the "sh" sound, ʒ for the "zh" sound (the buzz in "vision" or "measure"), and ŋ for the "ng" sound at the end of "sing".
Three new characters
ʃ — the "sh" sound
An s with an acute accent — the accent is naYana's way of saying "this consonant is the hushy version".
ship, fish, action, sure
ʒ — the "zh" sound
A j-shape with the same acute accent. The voiced cousin of ʃ: same tongue position, with throat-buzz added.
vision, measure, beige, casual
ŋ — the "ng" sound
An n with a downward hook at the bottom — a single nasal sound at the back of the mouth, like the end of "sing".
sing, ring, English, long
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| ship | ʃɪp | sh → ʃ |
| fish | fɪʃ | sh → ʃ |
| action | ækʃən | "-tion" is /ʃən/ |
| vision | vɪʒən | si → ʒ |
| measure | mɛʒɚ | su → ʒ; ɚ in lesson 9 |
| sing | sɪŋ | ng → ŋ |
| English | ɪŋlɪʃ | both ŋ and ʃ in one word |
Affricates and the r-coloured vowels
The last lesson. Two pairs of new characters, and a small visual surprise: the affricates look like single letters but are actually two characters under the hood.
Why affricates?
"Chip" starts with a t followed immediately by an ʃ, said so close together they sound like a single explosive sound. That combination is called an affricate. Same for "judge", which is d followed by ʒ.
Phoneticians write them as two characters (tʃ and dʒ) to show what's actually happening in the mouth. naYana keeps the two-character text — but the font draws them ligated into a single visible glyph: a c-shape for tʃ and a dotless-j shape for dʒ. So you read one shape; the underlying text is the proper IPA pair, copy-pastable to any tool that knows IPA.
Why r-coloured vowels?
In American English (and Scottish, and Indian English), the vowel before an r changes its quality — the r bleeds backwards into the vowel and colours it. The IPA gives this r-coloured vowel its own symbols: ɝ for stressed (as in "bird") and ɚ for unstressed (as in the second syllable of "teacher").
Other English varieties — RP, Australian, much of England — drop the r in these positions and keep the plain vowel. Their naYana spellings will be different. This v1 follows General American, so we mark them.
Four new characters
tʃ — the "ch" sound (renders as a c-shape)
Underlying text: two characters, tʃ. The font draws them as a single ligature shaped like a Latin c — borrowed from Sanskrit IAST, where c already means this sound.
chip, much, teacher, watch
dʒ — the "j" sound (renders as a dotless-j)
Underlying text: dʒ. Ligated to a single dotless-j shape — same Sanskrit-IAST precedent. Note that bare Latin j never appears in naYana spelling; the visible j always means /dʒ/.
judge, gym, bridge, age
ɝ — stressed r-vowel
The vowel of "bird", "her", "earn", "third". One sound, not a vowel-plus-r combo.
bird, her, earn, third
ɚ — unstressed r-vowel
The vowel at the end of "teacher", "father", "doctor". Same family as ɝ but quieter — it's to ɝ what ə is to ʌ.
teacher, father, doctor, water
Try it
| English | naYana | |
|---|---|---|
| chip | tʃɪp | tʃ ligates to c-shape |
| judge | dʒʌdʒ | dʒ ligates to j-shape — twice |
| bird | bɝd | stressed r-vowel |
| teacher | tiːtʃɚ | long iː + tʃ + unstressed ɚ |
| church | tʃɝtʃ | tʃ at both ends; ɝ in the middle |
| judge each | dʒʌdʒ iːtʃ | three affricates in three short words |
Putting it together
Nine lessons, around 18 new characters, and you can now read any English text rendered in naYana. Here's a paragraph from the manifesto, using everything you've learned:
riːdɪŋ ɪz ðə moust kɑːnsəntreitəd fɔːrm əv ətɛnʃən hyuːmənz rɛgyələrliː pɚfɔːrm. ɪt ɪz ɔːlsou ðə æktɪvətiː aur raitɪŋ sɪstəm meiks hɑːrdəst.
That's the opening of the naYana manifesto — "Reading is the most concentrated form of attention humans regularly perform. It is also the activity our writing system makes hardest." Every character you see here was introduced in one of the lessons.
What's next:
- Read a passage — curated English texts in two-column English/naYana view.
- Type naYana — practice composing IPA text with the on-site keyboard.
- Download the font — install Nayana English on your machine and use it anywhere.
- Read the manifesto — the project's full motivation.