How SL.O Turns English Into a Secret Language

When you translate English into SL.O, the translator does what a human translator would do: it works out what the sentence means and then says the same thing using SL.O rules. It does not just swap each English word for another word.

Step 1: understand the English

The text is split into sentences and words. The translator finds the verb, the subject and the object, notices if the sentence is a question, a command or a negative, and detects the tense. For example, “I drank water” is past tense, first person, with “water” as the object.

Step 2: choose the SL.O words

Each English word is looked up in the SL.O dictionary. If a word has more than one meaning, the translator uses the surrounding words to decide, and tells you when it is not sure. If a word is missing, it is marked and spelled with SL.O letters so that nothing is lost.

Step 3: build the SL.O sentence

SL.O puts the verb last, so “I drink water” becomes “Mi naru pit”, which is literally “I water drink”. The past tense adds -ta to the verb: “Mi naru pit-ta”. The future adds -va. A negative sentence adds the small word ba before the verb, and a yes/no question ends with ka.

Step 4: write it in two scripts

The result is shown in Roman letters for easy typing and in the original SL.O symbols. Because both always correspond to the same sounds, you can convert between them without losing anything.

Step 5: check by translating back

Finally the translator translates its own answer back into English and compares it with what you typed. If they match exactly, the sentence is shown. If not, the sentence is written word-for-word in a literal mode and clearly marked, so you can always trust that SL.O text turns back into your original words.

Try it yourself in the SL.O translator.