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rueyeet — Proof of utter dorkhood
Published: 2006-04-20 22:46:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 14877; Favourites: 303; Downloads: 425
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Description
Problem: I wanted to include Hylian script in my Legend of Zelda fanart, but as it turns out, the Japanese game designers (reasonably enough) based Hylian on Japanese katakana. Thus, to spell anything in English--including some of the character names--caused the same problems as trying to render it in romanji. Example: Link becomes "Rinku", because there's no "L" in Japanese, and katakana is not an alphabet but syllabic, meaning words can't end in consonants.Solution: Create an English localization of the Hylian script, based as closely as possible on the syllabic script. I used the Wind Waker script (modern Hylian) rather than the Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask one (old Hylian) because it's prettier--the old one looks obviously pixel-ish.
This deviation shows my logic in choosing which characters to use for each letter, and the final alphabet.
Request: If there is anyone out there who can make this a font, I would love you forever.
EDIT: =pettyartist , I will love you forever.
Font is here -- [link] Admission: I have GOT to be the biggest nerd on the planet for spending nearly two hours on this.
Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series and the original Hylian script are the property of Nintendo.
Credits: Source material used for this project can be found at the most excellent Omniglot: [link]
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Comments: 146
You're not the biggest nerd! XD I AM! I want to use the Wind Waker Hylian language for my story, Legend of Zelda: Chaotic Corruption, where one man speaks Hylian. You're not the only one who wanted to.
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this reminds me of my brother lol. Hes always doing awesome things like this, trying to make a new written code. xD
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I love it when someone puts so much effort into things like this.
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Omg ...
I'm german. It's not easy to understand Hylian and English xD
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This is excellent, I might use this for something...
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That's so ridiculously amazing that I sort of want to write everything using it. EVERYTHING.
AWESOME.
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DO IIIIIIT
...no seriously, that's what I made it for. XD
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this is beautiful -thanks for doing this
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So true! I once painted a chair that was Zelda themed. It had the Triforce and Master Sword on it, and had Hylian script all over it. Being nerdy FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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s'okay, there isn't a quiz or anything.
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lol. i commented a few hours after i got home from school...
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this helps SO much
twilight princess and old hylian are,yeah,pretty easy
but new hylian O_o
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WW Hylian's just a fancier version of the old OoT Hylian; it's still syllabic. I'd guess this would work for both, really.
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Nice idea!
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You especially should get a kick out of this: one of my main reasons for coming up with a Hylian alphabet was that you can't spell Vaati's name properly in Japanese.
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Um, maybe? I don't remember my katakana nearly that well, but as I recall, there's not really a "v" in Japanese so "b" is used as an approximation. So if you went by romanji it'd have to be "ba-a-ti." And I hate having to romanji things.
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Me too. ^^
It's weird, though. Sometimes it sounds like they're saying a how different consonant in Japanese. Like in the motion picture of Death Note, when they say this character's name "Raye", they say it like "Lay".
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That's because there's no true "L" in Japanese either, so it gets pronounced as a sort of blend of "r" and "d". Like how they never say "Kira" or "Ryuk" quite the same as an English-speaking person would, even in the dubbed anime.
That's also why "Link" is "Rinku" and "Zelda" is "Zeruda", in Japan.
Plus there's the whole inability to end on a consonant, so you get u's and such stuck in places where they don't need to go.
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If you make a font of this, I swear I will use it for EVERYTHING. 
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My friend =pettyartist did make a font of this -- it's linked in the description above.
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In the game (as in the Japanese katakana on which OoT and WW Hylian was based) there are no characters distinguished as capital letters. Since I was taking my set from the games', there was nothing for me to draw any captials from.
I figure that if an initial capital was needed, you'd do it in Hylian as you would doing English in all-caps: just make that letter bigger.
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hey ya! i used your chart for my comic. Thanks for making one, yo.
[link]
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Thanks for using it! ...of course, now I've just gotta translate what that Rito is saying...
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heh heh your welcome, but yeah in the literal sense he's speaking english. Just, the reader doesn't know that and apparently enough the girl doesn't either. lol I bet it would suck if you were in a comic and the only way that would make you bilingual was if you could read the other person's words.
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True! I'd sure rather learn to speak Japanese than read it...so very many kanji. O:
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hehheh ditto, but then I can't help but to try anyways. Lol so far the only characters in japanese that I truelly recognize is 'no' and 'n'. XD
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Hah, me too. I suspect it's because it shows up so often.
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lol before I read the description I was like.... hylian looks a lot like japanese kana 'o'.... glad to know it was actually based on it
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This is awesome! I hope you don't mind me using it for my future doujinshi!!
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believe me ur not, there are people who dress up like crap and think they're the best fans..
as long as u dont do dressups there are worse then u XD nice font anyway, like it
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I've seen cosplay, both good and bad...I don't think the dorkiness lies so much in the quality of one's efforts, but the amount of slavish fandom behind them.
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87% knows zelda 46% knows the rough line 22% knows the details
3% is literally enslaved (this occurs to europe and north+central americna civilization)
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Happens in Japan, too, or so I hear. Otaku, anyone?
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the funny think is before i clicked on this i said to myself "that looks like Hylian letters"...lol
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Nice... I like how you rearranged the letters. ^^
Buuut... if you want to write Hylian without running the risk of it being just a Japanese or English copycat, let me know. ^~
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Hmmm, intriguing -- is this other version of Hylian you speak of syllabary, or phonetic?
Personally I find that syllabaries result in too much trouble spelling words in languages other than the one they were built for. Rinku, indeed.
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Both, actually. Rather, a phonetic base with additional syllabary based characters.
Originally it was a pretty much English AND Japanese idealized mesh, but I've spent a bit of time hacking it down into something much easier to use. ^~
Looooong stroy.
Check my dev page, I finally put up the font here. Figure it's easier for people to find that way.
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Oh hey, I've been to your site before.
One of the things that always gave me pause was, are the other writing systems on your site (Zoran, Goron, Gerudo) based on anything in the games? Or did you just sort of put them together yourself?
I can see having glyphs to represent sounds like ch, th, and sh; but I'm curious as to why you also have the consonant-vowel combinations, when those could also be spelled with the other letters? It seems to me that just confuses the spelling.
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The others are inspired by WAY too much game play and a few minor game elements. Mostly I just winged it though. Did what seemed to fit.
Maybe I'll do something about explaining that properly in the future. ^^
As for the duel characters, the alphabet isn't just meant to represent English, so ch' and 'th' aren't the only "common combinations". The others are there for two reasons if not more: making longer words with common combinations easier to spell, and purely for writing variation.
Also, aside from say, names, which are bound to have a "right way" or "wrong way" to spell, the actual spelling of normal words is mostly up to preference.
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