Let's Pin Down the Zakuul Font!

[SteveTheCynic]

Wrong. They are typefaces.

 

First, we're talking about Arcann's robe, not Thexan's. Second, no one claimed they were Hebrew. They are clearly the Fancy Old "typeface"

 

I'm honestly not sure why you bothered commenting, since everything you said was wrong

The word "scripts" comes from linguistics, where it refers to a way of writing, what the common man might call an alphabet (even if it is a syllabary like hiragana and katakana in Japanese, or ideograms - roughly - like in Chinese). The scribble you see on walls in the Empire and Republic areas is, therefore, the (linguistic) script they use there. The fact that it is a substitution cypher for the language you have the game set to, and might therefore be implemented as a typeface (what the common man calls a font - I'm aware of the difference), is neither here nor there.

 

There are multiple references to Hebrew earlier in the thread, and they are nonsense. Get hold of tables of runes, and you will see that Thexan's gear in particular (they are easier to read on his gear, because you can wear it on your character, who will then stand still for you on the character-select screen) has multiple lines of characters that look rune-like, but they are in various orientations.

 

So I'd say that except for the implied point about "typeface" being the correct word for what people usually call a "font", you're wrong.

[idnewton]

The word "scripts" comes from linguistics, where it refers to a way of writing, what the common man might call an alphabet (even if it is a syllabary like hiragana and katakana in Japanese, or ideograms - roughly - like in Chinese). The scribble you see on walls in the Empire and Republic areas is, therefore, the (linguistic) script they use there. The fact that it is a substitution cypher for the language you have the game set to, and might therefore be implemented as a typeface (what the common man calls a font - I'm aware of the difference), is neither here nor there.

 

There are multiple references to Hebrew earlier in the thread, and they are nonsense. Get hold of tables of runes, and you will see that Thexan's gear in particular (they are easier to read on his gear, because you can wear it on your character, who will then stand still for you on the character-select screen) has multiple lines of characters that look rune-like, but they are in various orientations.

 

So I'd say that except for the implied point about "typeface" being the correct word for what people usually call a "font", you're wrong.

 

The only time Hebrew was mentioned in this thread is when I said its characters were similar to that of Sith. And again, since you ignored it the first time, we're talking about Arcann's Robe, not Thexan's. And yes, the characters on his robe ARE Fancy Old zakuul.

 

 

You're referencing points that don't exist. Read the thread. There are only three pages here, it's not that hard to see how much you're making up.

[Shayddow]

<<There are multiple references to Hebrew earlier in the thread, and they are nonsense>>

 

well, that may well be the case for Zakuul, but one of my sons, who speaks fluent Hebrew <he lives in Israel>, noticed Hebrew letters on the neon signs shown <when he was visiting me one time when I went online > to go through Nar Shaddaa. <My Hebrew isn't as good as his, I know the brochas, that's about it... >

 

It would be interesting to delve into this at some time. To have some feedback from the developers would give it some clarity. Always interested to see where ideas come from.

[Freyaka]

Thank you for this thread. I was wondering about the text as well. You figured it all out pretty quick if I might say.

[idnewton]

Thank you for this thread. I was wondering about the text as well. You figured it all out pretty quick if I might say.

NP. Thanks

 

<<There are multiple references to Hebrew earlier in the thread, and they are nonsense>>

 

well, that may well be the case for Zakuul, but one of my sons, who speaks fluent Hebrew <he lives in Israel>, noticed Hebrew letters on the neon signs shown <when he was visiting me one time when I went online > to go through Nar Shaddaa. <My Hebrew isn't as good as his, I know the brochas, that's about it... >

 

It would be interesting to delve into this at some time. To have some feedback from the developers would give it some clarity. Always interested to see where ideas come from.

I already know where those characters are. They're on an orange neon display on a skyscraper on Nar Shaddaa and it says LIVE MUSIC. This thread isn't about the Sith font. That thing isn't even up for debate, that was figured out a WHILE ago -- before this game came out. Almost nine years ago, to be exact. http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/sithprophecy.htm

[Crinolo]

I found an update on this with the release of Chapter X. It appears New Zakuulan also has a different letter B (unless anyone found any other examples, at least) and I believe I've got numbers 1-6 in the rigid style. Example can be found here. The characters can't quite match up to the numbers for the "RNG main office," but might help shed a little bit of light on them. Here's what I believe the above image says (Note it has been flipped upside-down from the in-game appearance):

 

At top:

Live Feed (followed by the same in Aurebesh)

 

Left side:

Zone 1-3

z 1

z 2a

z 3b

z 3

 

Right side:

Zone 4-6

z 4a

z 4b

z 5

z 6

[AshlaBoga]

<<There are multiple references to Hebrew earlier in the thread, and they are nonsense>>

 

well, that may well be the case for Zakuul, but one of my sons, who speaks fluent Hebrew <he lives in Israel>, noticed Hebrew letters on the neon signs shown <when he was visiting me one time when I went online > to go through Nar Shaddaa. <My Hebrew isn't as good as his, I know the brochas, that's about it... >

 

It would be interesting to delve into this at some time. To have some feedback from the developers would give it some clarity. Always interested to see where ideas come from.

 

Random hebrew letters yes. But I looked through a lot of the pictures and didn't anything resembling a complete sentence.

[idnewton]

I found an update on this with the release of Chapter X. It appears New Zakuulan also has a different letter B (unless anyone found any other examples, at least) and I believe I've got numbers 1-6 in the rigid style. Example can be found here. The characters can't quite match up to the numbers for the "RNG main office," but might help shed a little bit of light on them. Here's what I believe the above image says (Note it has been flipped upside-down from the in-game appearance):

 

At top:

Live Feed (followed by the same in Aurebesh)

 

Left side:

Zone 1-3

z 1

z 2a

z 3b

z 3

 

Right side:

Zone 4-6

z 4a

z 4b

z 5

z 6

 

Interesting. This does seem to make sense, and also explains something I found tonight. Props for that; much appreciated -- I haven't found a computer with that screen yet. I'll add that as the New variant of B, and distinguish it from Old.

 

Aside from the less helpful terminal I screenshotted tonight, I also found a Fancy L variant from a decoration, as well as the number 8 in Rigid New, thanks to also finding an identical bit of text in Aurebesh. Also, speaking of this, I think I found a transcription of everything that appears on computer screens. If this is the case, we could still be able to find an X, all the numbers, and some more punctuation (beyond the period and dash we already know, though I may not have listed them yet). So, if you see random symbols that seem to repeat when these numbers do (in that long string of 0628197611161977), a pic of it here Q and J will still be missing, though.

[FlameYOL]

Nice to see the community putting so much effort into getting the zakulaan language right!

Also OP where and how did you learned Sith and mandalorian?

[idnewton]

Nice to see the community putting so much effort into getting the zakulaan language right!

Also OP where and how did you learned Sith and mandalorian?

http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/fonts.htm

 

Also learned New Futhork. As for the others, I haven't gotten around to them yet. I've been a bit out of practice lately so I started writing in them again, but just keeping the four memorized is enough for now. Eventually I'll add another.

 

PS: Can't say I've seen any Mandalorian anywhere in SWTOR (though I really haven't been looking), but I did find Sith in pretty stupid places, like saying "Live Music" on Nar Shaddaa.

Edited August 28, 2016 by idnewton

[dcaleb]

For some reason I'm always shocked to learn that writing and languages in a work of fiction is actually coherent instead of random gibberish they thought sounded cool.

[Galandro]

Over the holidays, with help from the very thread, I took some time to decipher the Zakuulan writing introduced with KOTFE and put together a guide to the "language". I thought folks might be interested to check it out:

 

http://i.imgur.com/XMIu3Q8.jpg

 

I've not found examples of J, Q, X and the number zero, so it's not quite complete, but there is enough here to read almost every use of Zakuulan in the game.

 

For more info and some translation samples:

 

http://www.generic-hero.com/ThisWeekinAurabesh/2017/01/05/zakuulan-language-primer/

[idnewton]

Over the holidays, with help from the very thread, I took some time to decipher the Zakuulan writing introduced with KOTFE and put together a guide to the "language". I thought folks might be interested to check it out:

 

http://i.imgur.com/XMIu3Q8.jpg

 

I've not found examples of J, Q, X and the number zero, so it's not quite complete, but there is enough here to read almost every use of Zakuulan in the game.

 

For more info and some translation samples:

 

http://www.generic-hero.com/ThisWeekinAurabesh/2017/01/05/zakuulan-language-primer/

I'm curious to know your sources for the numbers, and how you pinned down the ones that you did.

 

Also, has anyone found anything new from KOTET? I don't think I did.

 

Also, yeah, people keep talking about how big a pain the kids' robes are. Is it just random letters, or are there new letters?

Edited January 8, 2017 by idnewton

[Galandro]

I'm curious to know your sources for the numbers, and how you pinned down the ones that you did.

 

Also, has anyone found anything new from KOTET? I don't think I did.

 

Also, yeah, people keep talking about how big a pain the kids' robes are. Is it just random letters, or are there new letters?

 

http://imgur.com/O1p1dec

 

Those are the three screenshots I used for numbers. 1 to 6 make sense from context, and am I'm equally certain about the 8 (anytime you see 113 in Star Wars, you know an 8 is coming next). The right edge of the 8 glyph seems to be slightly cropped, but on close inspection you can see the shaved edge of the second vertical bar. The 9 is in the subway station and like a lot of signs down there, seems to be inverted.

 

I suspect the zero is simply a vertical bar without any hash marks, but I'm not confident enough to say for certain.

 

I did not notice anything new in KotET, but there is a cut scene with a close up of a monitor displaying the same text in both Aurebesh and Zakuulan. Using that as my starting point, I was able to piece together the other available letters.

 

Five repeating words are inscribed on Vaylin's cloak: Loyalty Eternity Destiny Family Sacrifice.

 

I have not been able to make heads or tails from the writing on Arcann and Thexan's robes. The robes were added to game prior to KotFE's launch and I suspect they might predate the finished Zakuulan font.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Galandro