Equestrian Writing

[SXCJ40 125]

I have herd many times that the Equestrian writen language is different from out own and that they don't write in english. I had never taken that sierously because of things like this

 

But then you see this invitation wich I think says Sisterhooves social

So.. what should I belive?

 

 

Also... if they have a different alphabet.. I want to learn it. lol

 

 

 

I don't know if there is already a thread on this...

Edited January 18, 2012 by SXCJ40

[Zalgo 593]

Alfabet

 

*alphabet.

swastika.jpg

 

idk rarity talks French sometimes, and they mainly speak English. Maybe that writing is a different language.

Edited January 18, 2012 by toothlessbrony

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

The Sisterhooves Special poster seems more like an anomoly. In Family Appreciation Day, Granny Smith and Apple Bloom sing part of the alphabet when hopping around the water cans. We've also seen several times, when catching sight of pieces of letters being written, names or other text in English.

 

So for the most part it seems to be that they speak and write English.

[Ezynell 2,037]

An alphabet called gibberish

 

[Marshmallow 1,137]

 

Apparently, this reads "Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie"

I can kinda see the "happy", but the rest is pretty much gibberish to me.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

It was just the animators being lazy and simplifying English letters. You can see clearly that it kind of looks like "Sihovi" as in Sister Hooves. Gibberish, in other words. They speak and write English.

[Sean Skyhawk 12]

Yeah...

 

Well, seeing this topic (in other places as well) sort of made me wonder about how the script might possibly look like; this eventually became a challenge for me, based on my previous rare successes (for instance, this Glauxian script that was intended for "Legend of the Guardians").

 

I've seen numerous examples (disregarding the English ones that are DEFINITELY from a pony's perspective), including the ones shown in "Friendship is Magic" (the episode set starting Season 1), most notably the ones shown in this image:

 

 

 

Having seen this and other examples in the book relating to the elements of harmony, it reminds me of the script used in the Phaistos disc. I see this as more of a block-type writing system that could be used for major printing applications, but that's beside the point.

 

For cursive/hoofwriting I'd prefer something reminiscent of either cursive Hebrew or (at least for more formal applications such as books) the writing in the Voynich manuscript, as shown here:

 

 

So why am I posting all this? Truth is, I am at a loss. Thus, I wanted to see how the brony community thought of what I'm trying out. I may be a Blank Flank but I suppose it won't hurt trying

[Jadefire 2,797]

...so THAT'S what the Voynich Manuscript is! It's one of Twilight's books she left behind when she accidentally teleported here. :3

 

Also, lol necromancy.

[Sean Skyhawk 12]

...so THAT'S what the Voynich Manuscript is! It's one of Twilight's books she left behind when she accidentally teleported here. :3

 

Also, lol necromancy.

 

LOL I can see why you say that

 

But really, I tried that angle once; didn't work out too well. Now I'm attempting something based on a combination of Hebrew and Enochian; I know... weird stuff

[ermahgerdapples 32]

They're main language is English, but the writing is kind of strange. Maybe a symbol can represent a word or 2, but they still use English writing. But, Equestria must be very complicated if they use 2 completely different writing systems.

[DarligPegasi 315]

Maybe they have two languages? Like in Benin, West Africa they have their own language, Fon but they sometimes speak French and they write in French because Fon doesn't have a written alphabet.

 

So maybe back in the day before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, they had an old language, but then it slowly transformed into English?

[Cutelestia 189]

SIHOVI, EXCLUSIEV,  IVCIOVCNO.....Where do they get this words?! Please don't even write a fanfic where this is earth and humans are dead and this is their mutated language.

[Fhaolan 4,483]

They're main language is English, but the writing is kind of strange. Maybe a symbol can represent a word or 2, but they still use English writing. But, Equestria must be very complicated if they use 2 completely different writing systems.

 

Three. Twilight's mythology books seem to use a hieroglyphic writing system, which also showed up on the poster for that talent contest the CMC were in. Likely the phrase in hieroglyphics on the poster was a quote from mythology about 'finding your destiny', which given the emphasis on cutie-marks in this culture would be a well-known phrase and possibly the only fragment of that writing system the general populace would recognize.

[DanTheMan 0]

Maybe they have two languages? Like in Benin, West Africa they have their own language, Fon but they sometimes speak French and they write in French because Fon doesn't have a written alphabet.

 

That's because Benin is a former colony of France.

 

Are you saying that Equestria is something similar?

 

I say I'm thinking more in dialects, at least in dialects of handwriting. You know, like Bairisch and Platt in Germany, next to standard German.

[SCS 7,533]

I think that they speak and write in English. My guess is that the reason why some text appears as gibberish is an artistic matter - sometimes it is not necessary, or feasible, to legibly write out text on an image when its meaning is already evident. Not only would writing out the full text legibly while still maintaining proper appearance of the image not be feasible in some situations, it would also distracting, requiring the viewer to read a possibly lengthy amount of text in an unreasonably short period of time when its meaning was already evident in the first place.

 

Plus, I personally feel that the usage of gibberish has a certain charm and aesthetic appeal to it, especially in this screenshot posted by @Ezynell:

 

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

happy birthday.png

 

Apparently, this reads "Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie"

I can kinda see the "happy", but the rest is pretty much gibberish to me.

I see "Happy Whale Muhammad Ham. I don't know where you got "Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie" from, that's just weird. 

Anyway, you're right, I think they usually write in normal english.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I think they write in English but, the writers want to make it fancy and try to add some symbolism when they write on posters. But other than that, sure it might look like gibberish but they are actually writing in English. So there are some examples of symbolism in the show, like in the books that they read or the constellations that they see in the sky.

[Marshmallow 1,137]

I see "Happy Whale Muhammad Ham. I don't know where you got "Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie" from, that's just weird. 

Anyway, you're right, I think they usually write in normal english.

 

I I recall correctly, in the episode, she reads it out loud as "Happy birthday Pinkie Pie". I guess ponies have a strange writing system,

Edited August 15, 2013 by Marsh

[Cwanky 17,567]

Or you know its just animators being animators. Deliberately ambiguous and/or lazy for the sake of it. I'm just glad its not like Winnie the Pooh. They're about as grade school redneck as you can get.

[Rainbowdash21 2]

I like to say that they write in Simlish, but they speak english (Or the language of whatever country you're watching it in).

I wrote down some letters along with what i decided to be their english counterparts.

 

[Ianpiersonjdavis 512]

The writing on the flyer for the Sisterhooves Social reminds me of the writing on the sign posts in The Legend of Zelda games.

 

 

Of course, these examples could just be examples of either laziness or a lack of time for the artists.

 

 

 

[3124567yuhgfdsew 31]

I belive it is a traditional script used along with new english script just like england sometimes uses old english script or a made a game a while ago using spoken and written Auro'gobesh(a language I created) along with spoken english no written english thats what i think! 

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

Considering that non unicorns use their mouths to write, it's probably a simple cursive like script.

[bronydog 0]

This is what I believe, this is a mix of a bunch of diffident theories. The text we see on the poster, and elsewhere is what they normally wright in. 

Think of it as stranded Equestran, are latten alphabet wood would be like there cursive, used in formal events, or jest to make a good impression. The squiggly text we see spike using, and on the cake is jest a faster way of wright, and is possibly how there type writers work with only 2 keys.

Edited June 5, 2017 by bronydog

[cmarston1 5,959]

I just say that it would be the animators being lazy and just putting down scribbles, rather than an entirely different language.