#kwandon

That’s one I’ve done before. :) Here it is:

Basically, what it’s saying is this:

If you have two consonants, replace the s and k you see in the 24 nominal patterns of Sondiv with your two consonants, and you’ll get a word that sounds like that.

If you have three consonants, replace the s, k and t you see in the 24 nominal patterns of Sondiv with your two consonants, and you’ll get a word that sounds like that.

I’ll give you an example. Nominal pattern VIII in the singular is esika with the consonants s and k. Now let’s say you wanted to write the name Erica. First, think of how it sounds, and stick to that (so no c: it’s a k sound). Next you find a pattern that sounds close to that if you replace s and k with your two consonants (here r and k). Swap out the consonants, but write it the way it says to in the description of nominal pattern VIII. In the description, it says 4H. What that means is you use MOD4 in the table above on the first of the two consonants (the r), and then you write the consonant h afterwards. The result is this:

There is a catch, though! In Sondiv, there’s a regular sound change that causes r to become d before i or u. This means the result is Edika. That’s close, but we can actually get that r back by canceling it with a following (silent) h. So you go through the same thing again, but this time with three consonants: r, h and k. This results in the following:

And that is spelled erhika, but pronounced like Erica.

It’s not easy, by any means, but I didn’t design it to be easy. I was semi-inspired by French orthography, since the show took place in New Orleans, and we had the nasalized vowels. I was looking for something challenging but systematic, and that’s pretty much the definition of the French orthography.