Alphabet of the Unicorns

[AlbaTross 1,586]

Wow. I know it has been almost two years since the OP, but A ) I didn't bump this thread, and B ), the OP really did his homework from what I've seen. It's a lot longer than I'm willing to read, but I think it's quite creative, and highly probable given how the development of language works. I do imagine that after the three races got together they would have come up with a common language that serves much the same role as English has in our world, but it is also highly likely that each race had its own language prior to that. The Hearth's a Warming Eve story still works, mind you, as it's possible a common language was developed well before each race decided to co-habitate given that they clearly had relations prior to that.

 

However, the unicorns in particular are perhaps the most likely to still have records of their ancient language since they've always been the biggest on written language, and much like places in Europe, it's possible they would still have texts in their old dialect, and maybe ancient runes is a common field of study for unicorns, and someone like Twilight might know how to read them.

 

Of course, this may all be a concept that has long since been abandoned. I recall seeing posters in season 1 that were clearly written in a language other than English, but is clearly readable by the masses indicating that even modern Equestria may speak a different language. However, that season also has plenty of English text, and later seasons don't seem to have any of this other weird text at all, so maybe Faust originally conceived of a pony language like Elvish, but even if it was a thing the show's staff were committed to(which I doubt), it has long since been dropped. That said, the OP of this thread deserves a pat on the back.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Tross

[RainbowTashie 378]

wow you sure are awesome to try and decipher that

[fantironi 1]

name building is something quite new i found in season 8 and is comes in the episode "the break up break down" where big mac and spike make a pie for sugar belle and on the box it shows a pictue of suger and a bell, my computer can't screenshot so im sorry for no proof but that is a part of name building and me writing my name is no different then, it would be a top hat next to a pepperoni, weird, my name is fantironi and its that, but it came from something  broke futher down, i took the word fancy and pepperoni, fancy to fant pepperoni to ironi and made my name

try it with your name im sure you can do it

 

 

 

 

[Peach Flower 0]

This is all so interesting. Though I had a thought. What if the words aren’t syllabic? What if literally putting the “tail” symbol only means “tail?” And the “star” symbol only means star and has no specific sound associated with it? Then putting the two together makes “comet.” Literally being said as comet? I’ve been reading through this and I realise this is very old but it grasped my attention when I stumbled upon it. It’s just a theory though. Kind of like how early humanity used pictures as writing (ie: oracle bone script) before the creation of actual alphabets. What if modern Ponish never developed a definitive syllabic or even singular sound based alphabet, but instead retained the use of symbols and the combination of symbols to create new words? Exactly how your first examples displayed seamlessly. Again, this is only a theory. 

[BirdsBooksBrownies 42]

I just recently found this page and I have to say the ideas presented are fascinating, anyways I was wondering if there was a font file that used the above symbols to download. I am working on an art piece for an audio dub project I am a part of and I part of that is showing the "book" and I didn't want to simply go for the "old english" or "palace fonts". Hope to hear back soon. 

[CameoShadowness 251]

I wonder, did anyone compile this in a doc?

[Omega 0]

Late to this as usual. But thought I have commented ages ago? huh?

 

Well try 2 all these years later...

 

Thoughts and observations.

 

1: There are multiple fonts being used in the series. Some are obviously just scribbles. Others are obviously some form of alphabet.

2: The problem comes from the lack of consistency and the variety. I think this is because sometimes different artists on the team just tossed in whatever. Likely combined with changinf or even differing ideas on what the fonts should be.

3: I recognized at least one of the fonts as being based off Galactic. But it just translated as gibberish. Another one looked like it was inspired by the text from Albedo. So someone on the staff may be paying homage to older sources. Would not surprise me if there was also nods to Tolkien and others. That would be hilarious if somewhere in Equestria the text from Barnyard Commandos was hidden.

4: I think there is a mistake in trying to horseshoe-horn in all of what twilight said ti be just that one page. It just does not fit no matter how you try to juggle it. It might be better to see if the txt matches any part of what she says rather than all of it.

4x: Though when I was puzzling over it way back one thought was what if the symbols are syllables? So Mare would be spelled with two letters. Ma-Re. I tried this approach but did not get any correllary really.

5: The fact they re-used text unfortunately indicates that the fonts may be just random letters.

6: None of this means you can not work out something viable.

X: Why does this sort of thing interest us? Because A: Its fun and B: sometimes it gives some insight or little hidden clue. C: its a puzzle! It might not be a solvable puzzle but you never know till you try!

Some years ago I sat down to try and figure out what a tablet read in an old sci-fi series. Turns out it was a bit from the Koran according to a friend of mine. Just a random page.

I have sat down and puzzled out the text for the IDW Micronauts comic and they are actually saying stuff. Which was true in the original comic as well. Other times you just have to accept that its just random letters. sigh.

I just love strange fonts.

X2: Conclusions. This is a setting that partially runs on jokes and puns and little nods to things outside the setting. And that there may not be any real alphabet system. Some of this you just have to roll with as THERE. Combine that with multiple crew working on this and who knows. Surely some of the staff have commented before?

What is there gives a fair basis to work out any number of combinations simple or complex. I lean strongly to simple if only because of the setting and its inhabitants. And because it fits the tone of the series.

One thought I had early on after seeing the different fonts showing up was. What if there were different font styles for each pony type? Never seen anything to back it. But its an interesting possibility.

Have fun, Since the alphabets are not exactly tied down you can pretty much assign them whatever and run with it.