Gallifreyan Translation Helper
by MightyFrong
This is a tool aimed at artists and hobbyists who produce designs in one of the fan based types of Gallifreyan. Please recognize this tool not as a translator: it serves the purpose of quicker impressions of writing syntax. The artistic composition is, and should be, your challenge. Please do not use any of these outputs for an immediate tattoo template!
Gallifreyan is based on the Doctor Who TV Series by BBC. All writing systems are inspired by the shows artwork but finally fan based and made up. The shows graphics do not translate to anything. But these awesome writing systems do.
The creators of the Gallifreyan Translation Helper do not guarantee for correct output and strongly recommend to let everything be proofread by people that are comfortable with the respective system. Head over to the fine people of r/gallifreyan for help and advice.
Supported scribes
- Sherman's
- Doctors's Cot
- TARDIS Console
- Flux
- Clockwork
- GC Gallifreyan
- cBettenbender's
- CC Gallifreyan
- Timekeepers Gallifreyan
- DotScript
- ArtByBoredom Gallifreyan
- DarkIfaerie's Gallifreyan
- Eva's Gallifreyan
- bpjmarriott's Old High Gallifreyan
- ODDISM's Old High Gallifreyan
Abstract
See the wiki for a high-level overview of the project. The rest of this documentation is planned to follow.
The supported systems generate an svg-output that can be saved by right-clicking and are hopefully useful to initiate artistic work within your vector-graphics-application.
The application can be used online and/or installed as a progressive web app for offline use on the go (props to simplepwa.com). The interface provides you with the neccessary controls for rendering and occasionally IPA-keyboards or otherwise permitted characters if differing from standard latin characters.
Sherman's
source: Sherman's Circular Gallifreyan by Loren Sherman
Details
- This module displays the words either in a circular fashion (not spiral though) or every glyph/stack in horizontal lines for ease of reading.
- Numbers are supported, but only make sense with stacking enabled. Dot and comma both are valid decimal separators in number stacks.
- Diacritics are supported according to the official guide for german umlauts, accent acute, accent grave, ñ and scandinavian å, ø and æ.
- Decorator lines do not connect anywhere at the moment. This is as well due to the fact we did not come up with a reasonable algorithm to accomplish that yet, as random straight lines are neither easy to read nor aesthetically appealing.
- update to the guide as of july 2023 included as far as possible. since this is official there will be no option to translate with older style. you'll have to separate joined letters yourself if needed.
ñhas been omitted, since we currently don't know how to implement the updated modified decorator.
Language controls
- circular display
- conversion of c
- stacking
Supported characters
[a-z0-9.?!"'-,;:&éèíìüúùæäáàåöóòøâĉêĝĥîĵôŝûŵŷǎčěǧȟǐǰǩňǒřšǔž]_serves as the blank character (b-stem, one dot)- uppercase will be converted
What To Expect
-
Doctor's Cot
source: Doctor's Cot by Brittany Goodman
Details
- This module displays the intended character pairs.
- There is canonical punctuation (except start indication) and an IPA-keyboard.
- Since the author has published a simplyfied english version as well there is a respective keyboard that translates the english characters to the IPA-characters according to the official tables.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
phonetic charactersavailable on the provided keyboards
What to expect
TARDIS Console
source: TARDIS Console by Purple Emily
Details
- TARDIS Console is heavily inspired by the shows artwork and therefore has huge tables of glyphs that have no simple pattern or system to style consonants and vowels. This style is not easily wrapped up to an algorithm. The glyps and paired vowels were redrawn in inkscape and will be resized and placed to the canvas.
- Vowels are always attached to a consonant, leading or double vowels or these that come on the third place are accompanied by aleph.
Language controls
- circular display
Supported characters
[a-zא]- currently only the table of the guide part 1 is supported, punctuation and number are postponed (the construction file is available for your contributing convenience).
What To Expect
-
Flux
source: Flux Gallifreyan by u/lost_chm
Details
- This module displays the words either in a circular fashion (not spiral though) or every glyph/stack in horizontal lines for ease of reading.
- C will always be converted to phonetic s or k unless it is part of ch - which is of course a character on its own.
- Decorator lines do not connect anywhere at the moment. This is as well due to the fact we did not come up with a reasonable algorithm to accomplish that yet, as random straight lines are neither easy to read nor aesthetically appealing.
Language controls
- circular display
Supported characters
[a-zß]- uppercase will be converted
What To Expect
-
Clockwork
source: Clockwork Gallifreyan by FYeahGallifreyan
Details
- The GTH displays the words either in a clockwise circular fashion (not spiral or layers though) or every glyph/stack in horizontal lines (left to right) for ease of reading.
- Decorator lines do not connect anywhere at the moment. This is as well due to the fact we did not come up with a reasonable algorithm to accomplish that yet, as random straight lines are neither easy to read nor aesthetically appealing.
- Ellipsis(...) is not supported unfortunately. Since punctuation is essential, every phrase that is not terminated by a supported punctuation character will be complemented with a period by default.
Language controls
- circular display
- amount of stacking
Supported characters
phonetic charactersavailable on the provided keyboard
What To Expect
-
GC Gallifreyan
source: GC Gallifreyan by TrueGreenman
Details
- This is currently a permanent work in progress that displays characters either single or stacked. The punctuation will be displayed as a glyph. Currently it is unsure if a circular display and reading-order-indication will happen, because somewhat linear grouping within a circular sentence is likely not something that can be displayed in a way that clears things up properly. Please use this module for impression of glyphs and character grouping only.
- C will always be converted to phonetic k or s.
- Since punctuation is essential, every phrase that is not terminated by a supported punctuation character will be complemented with a period by default.
- Decorator lines do not connect anywhere at the moment. This is as well due to the fact we did not come up with a reasonable algorithm to accomplish that yet, as random straight lines are neither easy to read nor aesthetically appealing.
Language controls
- stacking
Supported characters
[a-z.,!?'"]- uppercase will be converted.
What To Expect
cBettenbender's
source: Circular Gallifreyan by Cat Bettenbender
Details
- By time of implementing this writing system the instructions were still described as unfinished and surely felt a bit unclear. To make matters worse the initial publication was long time ago. Although the first page of the documentation describes the system as literal without phonetic replacements for consonants, some latin characters are missing, examples lead to other conclusions and vowels are most definetly described as phonetic. So after all there has to be a keyboard that limits allowed characters and inserts respective ipa-vowels. Grouping characters happens by syllables, but since putting this into an algorithm is currently beyond the ability of this helper you'll have to group by splitting syllables with space by your own.
- Some of the design choices are based on personal choice, contextual considerations, the few impressions from the guide and maybe lack of coding skills:
- repetition indicators for vowels are a thing in this interpretation. Double vowels normally change the sound, probably leading to another glyph, but in case of names double vowels might be allowed
- start indicators for consonants and vowels will always attach to or be placed within the widest free section of the syllable circle. There's hope that this interferes the least but will surely do occasionally (again: this is not a translator, just a helping aid for patterns!). Since the indicators will be random placed within their boundary maybe a re-render fixes it from time to time. The consonant indicator will never direct to opposing sides, but you'll get the spirit
- consonant connectors work for only two connected consonants, I am currently unaware in which scenario one syllable contains longer chains
- Since the documentation is unfinished the GTH gives even less warranty for this module than for any others.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
phonetic charactersavailable on the provided keyboard
What to expect
CC Gallifreyan
source: CC Gallifreyan by gumex
Details
- This system processes the latin alphabet with th and ng only, no diacritics, punctuation or numbers.
- Characters are simply stacked, while being read from outside to the center, but its up to the artist to decide about the number of stacked characters. This translation helper splits characters in words evenly to the set number. The maximum stacking amount is limited for easier reading, although the writing system itself is not clearly restricted in this context. Base- and decorator-graphics are tilted slightly to make it look less monotonous, yet orientated to one side to avoid problems from overlapping (this is just a programmatic necessity, not an artistic recommendation!).
Language controls
- amount of stacking
Supported characters
[a-z]- uppercase will be converted.
What to expect
Timekeepers Gallifreyan
source: Timekeepers Gallifreyan by The Meme Master
Details
- This system processes the latin alphabet with th and ng only, no diacritics, punctuation or numbers.
- Characters are simply stacked, while being read from outside to the center, typically grouped by words. Base- and decorator-graphics are tilted slightly to make it look less monotonous. The GTH has the option to display characters ungrouped, except for vowels, which are always supported by an
א(aleph). The latter will be placed by default if necessary. - Unfortunately for some reason long words can mess up the allocation on the provided canvas.
Language controls
- stacking
Supported characters
[a-z]- uppercase will be converted.
What to expect
(default example phrase for shorter words)
DotScript
source: DotScript by Rachel Sutherland
Details
- Each character is assigned one of five geometric shapes that have a special placement regarding the base line for consonants and a smaller representation for vowels. The character
zhas it's own shape. - This system of one distinct glyph for every character makes DotScript more of a font than a writing system. But implementing it was a useful experience.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
[a-z]- uppercase will be converted.
What To Expect
ArtByBoredom
source: Gallifreyan Alphabet by Aaron Jay
Details
- Like DotScript this system is more likely a font with geometric shapes representing latin alphabet characters.
- It is one of the few gallifreyan systems distinguishing between upper- and lowercase characters.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
[a-zA-Z.,:;-/"']- and if you say but there are more punctuation characters you most probably won't need this tool anyway.
What To Expect
DarkIfaerie's
source: Gallifreyan Alphabet by Sarah "DarkIfaerie"
Details
- DarkIFaerie's gallifreyan comes with one glyph for every latin character. It is written clockwise from the top and every word is surrounded by a circle.
Language controls
- circular display
Supported characters
[a-z]- uppercase will be converted.
What To Expect
-
Eva's
source: Eva's Gallifreyan Alphabet Pt1 | Eva's Gallifreyan Alphabet Pt2
Details
- Eva's Gallifreyan Alphabet comes with one glyph for every phonetic character. It is written counterclockwise from the bottom and every word is surrounded by a circle.
Language controls
- circular display
Supported characters
phonetic charactersavailable on the provided keyboard
What To Expect
-
bpjmarriott's
source: Old High Gallifreyan by bpjmarriott
Details
- bpjmarriott's gallifreyan is supposed to be read from top to bottom.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
[a-z0-9.,!?":;']- uppercase will be converted.
What To Expect
ODDISM's
source: Old High Gallifreyan by ODDISM
Details
- It is the latest version and the successor of FREAKISM's Old High Gallifreyan (that is in fact the same author). According to the authors sources this font seems to be written from left to right. Or maybe the other way round, but this was the decision.
- This is a phonetic font - the original table has words as well as IPA-characters. Both are provided as keyboards, but the input will be filled with IPA-characters.
Language controls
- none
Supported characters
phonetic charactersavailable on the provided keyboard
What To Expect
Copyright & Licence Notice
Copyright 2020-2023 Mightyfrong, erroronline1, ModisR
This file is part of the Gallifreyan Translation Helper, henceforth referred to as "the GTH".
The GTH is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
The GTH is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the GTH. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.