Proquints: Readable, Spellable, and Pronounceable Identifiers

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Proquints encode binary data as alternating consonant-vowel letters grouped into five-letter syllables, yielding identifiers that are readable, spellable, and pronounceable. The idea and specific letter tables were first described by Daniel Shawcross Wilkerson in 2009 ([WILKERSON2009]). This document does not claim originality for the concept; it reformulates and formalizes the description for archival purposes.¶

2. Requirements Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

3. Format

A proquint encodes data in 16-bit blocks. Each block maps to a five-letter syllable of the form CVCVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel-Consonant).¶

The mapping tables are fixed:¶

Consonants (indices 0..15):¶

• b d f g h j k l m n p r s t v z¶

Vowels (indices 0..3):¶

• a i o u¶

4. Encoding

• Split the input byte string into 16-bit words (big-endian). If the number of bytes is odd, an implementation MAY pad a single zero byte to complete the final word; if padding is used, applications MUST define how the original length is recovered.¶

• For each 16-bit word, map bits 15-12 to the first consonant, bits 11-10 to the first vowel, bits 9-6 to the second consonant, bits 5-4 to the second vowel, and bits 3-0 to the final consonant.¶

• Concatenate syllables. Hyphens MAY be inserted between syllables for readability; decoders MUST ignore hyphens.¶

5. Decoding

Decoders MUST reverse the mapping in Section 4. Each five-letter syllable maps to one 16-bit value using the same tables and bit ordering. Hyphens, if present, MUST be ignored.¶

6. Examples

Short values (illustrative):¶

"127.0.0.1"  ->  "lusab-babad"
"proquint" ->  "laduf-kutud-lijon-kunuh"
0x1234 -> "damuh"
0xF00D -> "zabat"

Longer byte strings appear as multiple syllables, optionally hyphenated.¶

7. Security Considerations

Proquint is a presentation encoding. It provides no confidentiality, integrity, or authentication services. It does not add or remove entropy, and it MUST NOT be used as a cryptographic transform.¶

8. IANA Considerations

This document has no IANA actions.¶

9. Acknowledgments

The author thanks Daniel Shawcross Wilkerson for originating the proquint concept and publishing the initial specification in 2009 ([WILKERSON2009]).¶

Author's Address