I need advice

I am going to write a story about insane auxlangers. Well, it's not JUST about
the auxlangers, but the auxlangers and their legacy are featured prominently. I
need to come up with two things: first, a more-or-less universal alphabet that
can represent more or less all of the sounds in English, Chinese, Arabic,
Hindu, and Russian (as well as 12 other alien languages I haven't had time to
really think through) and will be extremely easy to read. Second, two lists of
absolutely vital words (one for emergencies and really critical operations in
an interstellar commercial transportation environment, the other for really
common words that won't make it to the first list but will still be useful). I
thought about going to that auxlang list, but it sounds like a frightening
place. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I can use the Basic English and universal
concepts word lists that have been talked about here and elsewhere, but I need
some kind of information about how to interpret th!
 ose crazy sound charts (X-SAMPA???) and what kinds of sounds exist, made by
living beings, that aren't quantifiable using those charts. I'm hoping that
I'll need less than 200 symbols for that part -- anyone care to dash my hopes
early enough in this game that I can come up with some other key plot point?
Also, for those who are into either space stuff or sci-fi stuff, is there a
list out there of the kinds of terms and parts-of-a-ship that are necessary for
a sci-fi author to know? I'm thinking "pitch," "yaw," "power core," and "hull
integrity" type terms...

Sarah Marie Parker-Allen
lloannna@surfside.net
http://lloannna.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/lloannna.geo

"The very young do not always do as they're told." --
'Anteaus', Stargate SG-1

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