Hylian Language

The Hylian written language is derived from Japanese hiragana, katakana, and romaji. The script is syllabic or more precisely moraic, and each symbol represents either a vowel, consonant-vowel combination, or a syllable final n.

Note that the character set and structure of the written language has changed very much. The Hylian text in Ocarina of Time is easier and less complex than the one used in Wind Waker. The OoT version of the script made no distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, palatalised consonants and geminate consonants. The WW version of the script makes all these distinctions. Also the WW script is more suited to being written with a brush whereas the old script was more angular, suited to being carved on stone.

The script used in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is not the same as Wind Waker's. Each Hylian character has an English analogue, to which it also bears some resemblance when mirrored. The Hylian Text was uniquely different in the Japanese and English versions of A Link to the Past.

Alphabet
The Hylian Alphabet is made of 70 glyphs and 10 numerals.

History of Hylian
The Modern Hylian laguage is derived from the language spoken by the ancient tribes that first inhabited Hyrule nearly three thousand years ago, called Proto-Hylian. Hylian was unique because it is one of the first languages known to have developed an alphabet. The modern Hylian alphabet has changed little in the past thousand years. Many modern languages use the Hylian aplhabet to represent their own languages. The development and evolution of Hylian follwed a similar path as the Indo-European languages on Earth. In fact, Hylian grammar and structure closely resembles that of many Indo-European languages such as Latin and Greek. This is very unusual. One would expect a language that developed on another world to be completely alien and unrelated to anything on earth. However, this is not the case. Hylian has undergone what can be called independent parallel development. Its language structure developed in much the same way as Proto-Indo-European did on earth. Theories exist as to why this is so. The most plausible theory supporting independent parallel development is the similarity of the cultures and the region. The Hylian continent is geographically similar to the Indo-European area of earth. Their climates are similar and their geographies are similar. Also, the cultures have developed in much the same way, with similar values and religions. Logic suggest that two species who are almost biologically identical and have similar cultures would develop similar languages. However, this could simply be one huge coincidence. Proto-Hylian was the first ancestor to modern Hylian. It is the first form of communication that could effectively be called a language. It was simply a way for the people in the area to comunicate with each other. Most of the tribes actually spoke the same language, which helped foster unity and peace over time. Proto-Hylian would be considered quite primitive by modern standards. It had no alphabet or standard gramar rules, it was simply a means of communication. Proto-Hylian was entirely oral, and did not develop a written form for quite some time. Ancient Hylian developed when the tribes began to coalesce into a single culture. They formed what could be called a kingdom, but not like modern kingdoms. There was a single leader who influenced the independent tribes and chiefs. Ancient Hylian was the first to develop a written form. Unlike Modern Hylian, Ancient Hylian used heiroglyphics and ideograms to write. Tiny pictures and characters represented ideas, not sounds. They would be similar to the Ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics. Ancient Hylian became the binding force among the tribes that would eventually form the kingdom and language we know today. Old Hylian was a remarkable evolution in the language. It gradually replaced ideograms with phonetic characters. The aplhabet no longer represented ideas, but sounds. Old Hylian became standard as the kingdom of Hylia formed. It was the first central government that combined all the tribes, which by now were considered a single people. Hylia was similar to Ancient Rome, only smaller. For almost a thousand years, Hylia was the intellectual center of the continent and became the largest power. Middle Hylian continued the evolution of the language. It eventually adopted the alphabet that is used today. This period saw the expansion of the language to areas outside of Hylia. An equivalent to the Renaissance ocurred during this period, which only developed the language further. Modern Hylian emerged as a language during the transition from Hylia to Hyrule. The orginal Hylian kingdom was absorbed into the larger country of Hyrule, which included the original Hylian tribes and the surrounding peoples in the area. This outside influence worked its way into the hylian language, which eventually formed what Hyrulians speak today. It is similar to Modern English in that Modern Hylian contains many words and influences from other languages.

Translating Hylian-English
There are two ways to translate while using the Hylian alphabet. The first is to translate English words into Hylian, or vice versa Hylian words into English. Described below are the two distinct procedures to follow to perform these tasks.

Hylian to English

 * 1. Decipher the Hylian word you have before you to its romanized equivalent. You can do this utilizing the Ancient Hylian Alphabet.


 * 2. Note: if you spot a half-size Tsu glyph, that means you double the following consonant (but not the vowel). An example is the word:

To translate it to English, you start with the first glyph, which is "mo". The second is the little tsu, so you move on to the next glyph, which is "te". Therefore, you double the consonant in "te" to "tte" and you end up with "motte" as a translation.


 * 3. Go to Japanese/English Translator and translate the word you just got from Japanese to English. (Continuing with our example, "motte" translates to "with").

English to Hylian

 * 1) Translate the word from English to Japanese.
 * 2) Use the Hylian Alphabet to translate the Japanese word to Hylian glyphs.