Modern Hylian script
Origin
The modern Hylian script (hairiamoji) appears in the Nintendo game: The legend of
Zelda, the Wind Waker and was developed by an unknown graphics artist at Nintendo.
In the game the script is used in the islands of what used
to be Hyrule at least several centuries after the game The Ocarina of Time was
set. The script has a very angular and rectangular appearance and is syllabic
like the old Hylian script. The modern script also retains a
few of the character forms of old Hylian. Unlike old Hylian, the modern script has a
system of distinguishing voiced and voiceless consonants. It also has four punctuation
marks and a set of numerals.
Notable features
- The modern Hylian script is based largely on the Japanese katakana syllabary
and functions in a very similar way. It also has a set of numerals and punctuation. - The letterforms are at least based on the symbols of the old
Hylian script if not derived from them (The symbols appear to have been derived from
their katakana equivalents. Seeing as the script has been designed to write Japanese,
by a Japanese person it is only logical that it should be designed this way). - The script, like katakana, uses two diacritical marks placed above an unvoiced
character to change it to a voiced consonant. Two horizontal lines are used in most
cases except for ‘p’ where a square is used to change the ‘h’ to a ‘p’ syllable. - Palatalized consonants are indicated as they are in kana, as is the double consonant,
however, the ‘y’ and ‘tsu’ characters don’t necessarily have to be shrunk. - The script is written from left to right top to bottom and includes five punctuation
marks. The punctuation is the same as is used in Japanese.
Used to write
Japanese and Hylian (hairiago), a fictional language spoken in the islands of the World
of Hyrule by the races of Hyrule.
Modern Hylian script
Numerals
Punctuation
Vowel lengthener as used in katakana
Period (placed to the bottom right of the final symbol in sentence)
Comma (placed on the centerline of a line of text with equal spacing between the separated clauses)
Quotation marks and/or brackets (parentheses)
The information on this page was put together by Greig Isles
(runiccode@yahoo.co.uk)
Links
The Hylian Language by Greig Isles
http://edisto.cofc.edu/~eadickey/zelda/hylian.html
Hylian Language Institute
http://www.kasuto.net/language.php?main=language/introduction.html