Tennobet in the Tenno Hub

I saw some new Tennobet messages found around the Tenno hubs, so I will document them here with translations and commentary.

Welcome

One of the first signs you encounter and will continue to encounter around the Tenno hub is the welcome sign. The actual Tennobet letters spell out "oo-eh-l-kh-uh-m".

The choice of the letter kh rather than k is rather odd since the kh sound -- as in Scottish loch -- is a rarely used sound in English. If it is not an oversight by the artist, this may constitute a clue as to what the Tenno language (and/or Orokin language) might sound like.

I've hypothesized in the past that the oft-perceived elusive Tenno language is nothing more than plain English, if not Canadian English (à la Lotus). After all, all the ancient Orokin texts in the Void and on warframes decode straight into English words and sentences; there's no reason to think that the Orokins didn't speak, or at least write in, English altogether. The mutation in the decoded pronunciation of the word "welcome" may be an indication of the dialect of English that the Orokins may have spun off, an Orokin English, if this sign wasn't misspelled to begin with.

Hope and Future

These signs are found in the main concourse of the hub. They write "You are the hope and future of the Tenno" sideways, spelled "ee-oo-h aw-r dh-uh-h h-o-p a-n-d f-ee-oo-ch-oo-r aw-f dh-uh-h t-eh-n-o."

It may seem strange at first, but the presence of h after words ending in a vowel is a valid choice of spelling officially. What's unusual in this sign is the choice of the letter f in spelling "of" rather than v. Tennobet is of course a phonetic alphabet, meaning how it sounds is how it's spelled. In this context, the word "of" is fully voiced such that you would transcribe the "f" phonetically to a "v" sound. Otherwise, you could read this word as "off" as in "off the Tenno."

If this another silly oversight by the artists, lazily substituting letter for letter, or another hint at Orokin English? Occam's razor should be your guide.

Sworn Protector

Now we begin to read the messages posted outside the syndicate rooms, from East to West. This first sign reads "A Tenno is the sworn protector of the Origin System." It is spelled "a t-eh-n-o ih-s th-uh-h s-oo-aw-r-n p-r-aw-t-e-k-t-aw-r aw-f th-uh-h aw-r-ih-g-ih-n s-ee-s-t-eh-m."

Stranger spellings yet are here.

1. In "A Tenno..." they used the letter a. The sound of this letter is a short vowel as in "pat" and "cat." We would normally pronounce it like "ah" or "ay", which would correspond closest to Tennobet letters uh and ae respectively. Also note the lack of h for this word.
2. The word "is" uses the s letter rather than a z.
3. Unlike the previous sign, the "the" word is spelled with the voiceless th letter rather than the voiced dh.
4. This may be okay in some English accents, but here, "protector" uses the aw sound where there is an "o." I would have used o for the first "o" and possibly uh for the second "o", as that sounds closer to the English that I know.
5. The same "of" peculiarity from before pops up here.
6. "Origin" here is very unusual. Spelled "aw-r-ih-g-ih-n," it would have been pronounced with a hard "g," which at first made me think it could be a word for "Orokin." Maybe it is, but that would mean the second vowel would conflict with the pronunciation.
7. "System" as spelled would be pronounced "sea stem" with the letter ee rather than ih.

Shadow and Light

This sign reads "A tenno is both the shadow and the light," spelled "a t-e-n-o i-s b-aw-th th-uh-h sh-a-d-ow a-n-d th-uh-h l-ih-g-h-t."

The same peculiarities from before crop up here for words "a," "is" and "the." There are more in addition to these.

1. For "both," the vowel used was aw rather than o.
2. Weirdly, the word "shadow" literally used the letter ow for the final syllable, which is actually pronounced like in "ouch!"
3. "Light" is yet another example for letter-for-letter substitution. L-ih-g-h-t? ligg ht? Maybe ancient Orokins did pronounce "light" this way. If not, it would be spelled "l-aye-t." A much simpler spelling, I'd say.

The Balance

"A Tenno is sworn to maintain the balance." "a t-eh-n-o ih-s s-oo-aw-r-n t-o m-ae-n-t-ae-n th-uh-h b-a-l-a-n-k."

Issues repeat for words "a," "is" and "the." The only weirdness left is the spelling of "balance." "b-a-l-a-n-k." Balanck.

The Lotus

I think this is a neat sign. It reads "The Lotus is your friend, leader and guide." Spelled "th-uh-h l-aw-t-uh-s ih-s oo-r f-r-aye-n-d l-ee-d-eh-r a-n-d g-uh-aye-d." 

As for the 'mispellings,' the same ones crop up again for "the" and "is," with more as follows.

1. "Lotus" uses the letter aw rather than o for the first vowel. This way, it would be pronounced "lawtus," which is just totally jarring to me.
2. The word "your" is oddly spelled just "oo-r." I would have spelled it "ee-aw-r" or "ih-aw-r" instead.
3. Don't get me started on "f-r-aye-n-d" for "friend." It almost sounds like "fried."
4. The choice of spelling for "leader" is an interesting one. I've always wondered what Tennobet vowel to choose when faced with the schwa sound -- a vowel you make when your mouth is just in a neutral position like the "i" in "pencil" -- tossing up between uh or just leaving it out. The "er" in "leader" pretty much contains a schwa, but the "e" here is written in Tennobet with eh, leading to a word that sounds like saying "lead heir."

Energy of the Void

This sign is between the elevators of the hub, written on its side. It reads "Energy of the Void is the lifeblood of a Tenno." "e-n-e-r-g-aye aw-f th-uh-h v-o-ih-d ih-s th-uh-h l-aye-f-eh-b-l-oo-d aw-f a t-e-n-o."

This could be an interesting tidbit in terms of the lore of Warframe, hinting at some sort of energy that comes from the Orokin Void. That aside, here are some strangeness in the Tennobet:

1. "Energy" has the same problem as "origin" from before, in that it uses the hard "g" sound instead of j. The second "e" is supposed to be a schwa, but is left in Tennobet verbatim as eh. Finally, the last letter aye is used rather than ee.
2. "Void" is also strangely sounded with the choice of o-ih for the "oi" part of the word. aw-ee or even o-ee would be better suited as otherwise the word sounds like "vowid."
3. "Lifeblood" ended up being character substituted straight into Tennobet, sounding instead like "lie feh blewed."

Now you try

Finally, can you guess what's written in Tennobet in Darvo's Market upstairs?
Hint: It's in the image filename.