Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (1990), p84 — Phonetic Runes

The Chaos Language is written in special Phonetic Runes. Phonetic Runes are runes which represent sounds in the same way as our familiar latin alphabet. Any language can be written using the phonetic runes, including English. We like to use these runes to write messges or slogans on our own Chaos Champions' banners. In the Warhammer World itself, Chaos devotees often use the phonetic runes to write languages other than their own. In fact, many Chaos Champions are humans and the language they speak and write will be human and not the Dark Tongue.

The phonetic runes are shown below with their nearest English sound equivalent. In some cases there is no direct English equivalent to a sound in the Dark Tongue, in which case one of several runes can be used depending on which the writer believes is closest in nature to the intended sound.

Numerals are also represented by specific runes. These runes can be written together to indicate multiple values. The runes for ten, a hundred and a thousand are simply repeated as many times as necessary to produce a number like three hundred or eight thousand. Because this repetition of the rune may be a little cumbersome, it is also acceptable to represent a number such as three hundred by writing the number three followed by the number hundred. Both systems are used and it is really up to the individual to decide which they prefer - some scribes combine both systems in the same document, using whichever best fits the space available.