How to read and translate Foenician (and Elvish) runes!

Overview

A guide on Foenician and Elvish Runes (the language spoken by the Wintre Sprites, mostly) and how to translate them into English, as well as examples of runes in the game.

Intro

As of the deletion of the previous guide on this topic (due to reasons), I have opted to take up the mantle of recreating this guide specifically, which I feel was valuable to the TFH community. It is also so that important work that was done by many people is not lost to time. With that being said, lets get started.

Foenician Rune Table

The Foenician Rune language consists of 18 characters.
NOTE: Words starting with a vowel are written with an apostrophe and a when a vowel sound is surrounded by the same consonant sound, it’s written as a colon.
Ex : ‘LNDR for Oleander and P:RK for Paprika

Examples of Foenician Runes

NN
INN

TVRN

Possibly TAVERN

Top Sign:
HGHLNDS
Possibly HIGHLANDS
Bottom Sign:
GTKV
Possibly GOAT CAVE or GOAT COVE

WARNING: STORY MODE CHAPTER 1 SECRET SPOILERS AHEAD! SKIP OVER THIS IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED ON MASSIVE SECRETS! I would advise not checking out the spoilers until you’ve at least beaten Arizona’s chapter normally.

RFLKT
REFLEKT

STLWRT
STALWART

Left:
PRDTR FRDRK
PREDATOR FREDRICK
Right:
KDPTV XDGRZ
I am… not sure what this one says personally either, so sorry.

Top:
VLWDRT P??S WRDSFWSDMVRLSTNG
Not sure myself, but the general assumption is that this translates into “Words of Wisdom Everlasting.”
Bottom:
This one is a special message, so I would advise figuring it out on your own after you’ve beaten the story mode, it means a lot more when you actually go through it yourself.
HL FRM MNSX THNKSFRPLNG
HELLO FROM MANE SIX THANKS FOR PLAYING

SPOILERS END HERE

Try to translate this one on your own to see if you can apply what you’ve learned so far:

If you seek a more difficult challenge, seek out the runes in the background during the last boss fight of Arizona’s chapter. I won’t spoil such a thing for you, though. You can check out the spoiler section above if you really want to know.

Elvish Runes

Elvish is the language spoke by the Wintre Sprites that accompany the Reindeer in Reine City, this also includes Cap, Cashmere’s partner who will have his own dialogue in the shop in the Pixel Lobbies.

Note: Elvish runes use caesar cipher, it can be either 6 or 12.

Elvish Runes Table:

Example of Elvish Runes

I have not translated much from Elvish yet personally myself, so here’s an example of one:

And that’s it, feel free to use this as a reference when translating stuff.

Them’s Fightin’ Herds Guide