The language of The Wind Waker

Being one of the more obsessed Zelda fans, I wondered if their was an actual written language for the Zelda series. I see symbols on the barrels in the game and I wonder, does it mean anything? So I go on a voyage to translate some of the symbols. And, I find the language guide, and do some translating... And it turns out that the symbol are written in English letters, but it's in Japanese.

Meh, it was a fun effort. If you can read Japanese, I guess you've got it made. But I cant. here is a link to a place where you can see the symbols meaning.

Hylian language - Zeldapedia, the Zelda wiki

Well, all I know is that the Hylian symbols in TWW match Japanese letters (hiragana). On English sites they're translated further to what the hiragana are in roman letters. I only know a tiny bit of Japanese, but it would be fun to translate the stuff in the games...

The letters on that site don't look familiar to me... Where are they from? (My internet is so not co-operating tonight.)

But here's another page, Modern Hylian, as seen in TWW, and the Old Hylian, as seen in OoT.

Well, I got the translation stuff from the same site you did, omniglot, but I didn't think anybody beside me would want to translate actual Japanese.

Originally Posted by Meralia

Well, all I know is that the Hylian symbols in TWW match Japanese letters (hiragana). On English sites they're translated further to what the hiragana are in roman letters. I only know a tiny bit of Japanese, but it would be fun to translate the stuff in the games...

The letters on that site don't look familiar to me... Where are they from? (My internet is so not co-operating tonight.)

But here's another page, Modern Hylian, as seen in TWW, and the Old Hylian, as seen in OoT.

I disagree, it is Katakana. There is no difference in the pronunciation (of Hiragana or Katakana) they just look different. And the Wind Waker Hylian is shaped akin to Katakana.
I gave up on translating the story in the opening. It is too long, but I've done some of it. Besides, someone already did it.

Every piece of text in TWW has been translated already. Not that hard ^^;;

Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask Hylian and The Wind Waker Hylian are both Japanese written with different symbols. Twilight Princess introduces a new Hylian text, which is English in different symbols (making it much easier to translate for those who don't know Japanese). Most of the Hylian text in the games is either garbage (as I found in the Post Office in Majora's Mask) or just what is already displayed on the screen (as in The Wind Waker's opening).

Unfortunately, many of the textures aren't of a high enough quality (especially in the N64 games) to get the smaller text figured out. I read the room key's text in Majora's Mask but the Japanese came out as gibberish; after thinking about what the text would probably say in Japanese and noticing that those symbols are close to what I read on the key, I've realized that several things in the game can be very hard to read.

Yes, lots of the symbols in OOT and MM are hard to read. That's why I didn't try to translate that stuff. the wind wakers clear cell shaded look was perfect for seeing all the symbols. Well, most of them anyway.

Originally Posted by Slur

I disagree, it is Katakana. There is no difference in the pronunciation (of Hiragana or Katakana) they just look different. And the Wind Waker Hylian is shaped akin to Katakana.

Well, katakana is the one used when writing words or names of non-Japanese origin, and hiragana is for "traditional" Japanese. I'm assuming the text is just Japanese, and so I think it's hiragana. Though, as both can be used next to each other, and Japanese has lots of English originated words, there probably are both in the text, if properly translated. I should have mentioned both in the first place, but whatever.

I haven't really paid attention to how much the Hylian symbols resemble either kana. You may be right, I'll go see later. But anyway, either one it is, we'll never know, as it's really not either one. Hylian is yet another way of writing Japanese. (As if they need any more.)

Exactly similar to the sort of languages I would make as a kid right?

A = a cool looking symbol, B = another cool looking symbol, ect.

Except it is in Japanese. But English being a more universal computer language now, Some of the game text, or words might originally English. So they would have to borrow a few English grammar rules.

Originally Posted by shieklord

Except it is in Japanese. But English being a more universal computer language now, Some of the game text, or words might originally English. So they would have to borrow a few English grammar rules.

Actually, in Kakariko Village in Ocarina of Time, the sign literally transliterates to "Werukamu Kakarikomura"; just "Werukamu" being "Welcome" with a Japanese pronunciation.

FUN FACT!: The same words appear on the arch in Romani Ranch in Majora's Mask, 'cause it's the same dang texture! This means only one thing: Romani Ranch is Kakariko Village! :O PARADOX

I know in Twilight Princess, the letters resemble the english alphabet. There's a few extra symbols thrown in here and there, but essentially it's the same thing.

Wait, I didn't look at TP sybols, you're saying it's pretty much in English?

Originally Posted by shieklord

Wait, I didn't look at TP sybols, you're saying it's pretty much in English?

Yup. All Twilight Princess Hylian is English with different symbols. So as long as you know what the symbols mean, any English-speaking person can read the text in Twilight Princesss.

Originally Posted by Ando

Yup. All Twilight Princess Hylian is English with different symbols. So as long as you know what the symbols mean, any English-speaking person can read the text in Twilight Princesss.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. If you look at the signs in the different towns, you can read them. xD I haven't had much luck though, because a few of the symbols are quite confusing.

So where would I find the translation key?

It's quite hard to understand the written language of Zelda. But some of them, you know what it kind of says, but hardly any information.

And I agree that it is Katana from the language of Japan. Hiragana has too many curves in it's alphabet, but Katana has more straight lines in each symbol.

It would be cool if Hyrule had it's own language to interperate, but I don't think it's like Lord of the Rings, where JRR Tolkein made his own unique language in the books.

They should create one. They would be able to use it in all the following games.

Here's the Twilight Princess Hylian key. I believe that it, like the Hylian texts before it, was printed in the back of the Japanese manual.

It looks like some of the characters are simply reversed, but they mean the same thing, odd.

That's just when it's read backwards, i.e. from right to left. Unfortunately this makes translation on the Wii version much more difficult since everything's flipped (I TOLD Nintendo they should have kept a left-handed Link but NOOOO).

So everything changed in the GC version of the game, gocha.