/r/hylian

Photograph via snooOG

This is /r/hylian, a place where you will find out how to draw the Hylian alphabet and see other peoples sentences (usually inspirational). First though, we need to lay down some ground rules.

• You can only post either pictures of Hylian, or questions i.e. How to write it. • If someone new made a mistake, please be nice and give them some constructive criticism. That's all I could think of at the moment, so just message me if you have something else.

r/hylian is a discussion hub for the Hylian writing scripts of the Legend of Zelda series. Submit content by clicking here. We welcome your contributions!

The style for this subreddit is incompatible with Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES). If you use RES, some elements may display incorrectly.

WHAT IS HYLIAN?

Hylian is a series of five to seven writing scripts spanning eleven to twelve Zelda games released over a period of more than nineteen years. There is no canonical nomenclature for these scripts, and so they must be named by fans. Chief translator for Hyrule Historia, GlitterBerri, proposes this classification:

  • Dark Hylian (ALttP)
  • Time Hylian (OoTs, MM)
  • Twilight Hylian (TP)
  • Sky Hylian (SS)
  • Wind Hylian (TWW, FSA, TMC, PH, ST)
  • ALBW (This style is an edited version of SS Hylian which can translate to English, and Nintendo has officially released an alphabet key for translation use found here

The rationale for this division is that it agrees with common themes, timeline eras, and debut games of the Zelda series. Hylian can further be classified into three systems of writing: Dark Hylian is a logography, Time and Wind Hylian are syllabaries, and Twilight and Sky Hylian are transliterations.

WHICH DO I USE?

If you want your Hylian to be translatable to English, you shouldn't use Dark Hylian. If you're familiar with Japanese, the syllabaries (Time and Wind Hylian) are good choices. If you're unfamiliar with Japanese, the best choices are probably the transliterations (Twilight, A Link Between Worlds and Sky Hylian). Between these three, r/hylian recommends Twilight Hylian because it bijects, while *Sky Hylian and ALBW Hylian *surject, the English alphabet. This means that an English to Sky Hylian or ALBW translation is lossy. For a more intuitive explanation of this concept, consult with this picture of the Sky Hylian script.

There are two versions of Twilight Hylian: one for the GCN TP and one for the Wii TP. r/hylian recommends the GCN version for two reasons. First, Twilight Hylian in the GCN TP was the original intention of the game designer(s). In a last minute decision, the entire game of the Wii port was mirrored. Second, a side effect of this flip is that it makes the mirrored Twilight Hylian in the Wii TP an RTL script. People have in the past not realized this and have tattooed inaccurate Hylian on their bodies. If you're not sure in which to write, you should write in Twilight Hylian for the GCN TP.

RULES

  1. Submit Hylian-related content (pictures, questions, discussion).
  2. Use Reddiquette.
  3. If you criticize, do so constructively, not destructively.

It is permitted to post about other Zelda scripts, such as the Gerudo transliteration.

It is encouraged to add link flair to picture submissions to clarify which script you used.

READINGS

To learn about the different versions of Hylian and how they work, read GlitterBerri's Writing Systems of Hyrule.

To learn about the in-game instances of Hylian and what they say, read Zelda Wiki's Hylian Language Translations.

RESOURCES

Download Hylian and other Zelda fonts here.

Memrise: Learn how to write Twilight Hylian.

OTHER SUBREDDITS

Language:

r/elianscript

r/gallifreyan

r/Lojban

r/QueerConlangers

Zelda:

r/zelda

r/truezelda

r/majorasmask

r/zeldents

r/zeldaconspiracies

MISCELLANEOUS

If your question was not answered here, consult the recommended readings section. If it was not answered there, create a topic or PM a moderator.

Have fun!

/r/hylian

2,003 Subscribers

5

My attempt at making Twilight Hylian a little easier to write by hand. I messed up O because i wasn't paying attention.

1 Comment
2024/05/02
13:06 UTC

23

Would anyone be able to translate this plaque from OOT3D?

4 Comments
2020/03/09
21:21 UTC

7

Ocarina for my girlfriend.

I'm gonna learn to play my gf's fav song, Zelda's Lullaby, on the ocarina for my girlfriend.

2 Comments
2020/02/25
03:30 UTC

4

Zelda and Star Trek share a universe

Star Trek: Enterprise S01E17 "Fusion"

about 14 and a half minutes into the episode, there's a figurine T'Pol questions another Vulcan about. Visually, the figuring seems to be wearing the Tri-Force of Power on his chest.

add that to the pointed ears, strange lands, mysticism, etc...

if i'm NOT the first to point this out, please "Link" ;) me to other references. thanks.

"HD" image

4 Comments
2020/02/03
14:30 UTC

11

Can anyone translate "love my children" from English to windwaker Hylian?

Title.

2 Comments
2019/12/23
01:15 UTC

4

Can anyone translate this Hylian text on the inside of my Majora's mask?

9 Comments
2019/07/18
07:58 UTC

14

What does this say?

3 Comments
2019/04/28
00:54 UTC

3

Would anyone be able to tell me how to write "Fate" in OOT/Majoras Mask Hylian?

I know that it is supposed to be translated from Japanese but I would only be able to use a translator and that doesn't seem like an accurate method. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

4 Comments
2019/03/14
03:18 UTC

6

Help with a tattoo

Hi! I know there are various post about it but I couldn't find a answer yet so I need to ask. I want a tattoo with the phrase: "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" in Hylian, the one used in Wind Waker. I've seen the one used in the game is "たいへんなめにあいましたねぇ", so I want to know if this is correct.

I've found this image, the person used: タイセツナメ二アイマシタネエ

https://preview.redd.it/mdwucc1n3zh21.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1aac4a0904fad9afe5cc56b9b7c22822928be180

And according to me (using the fist one I wrote ) it's like this:

https://preview.redd.it/00so9e6x8yh21.png?width=293&format=png&auto=webp&s=1753879d4469bd990a41409b9be830196a2c373f

I appreciate your help.

0 Comments
2019/02/21
16:37 UTC

4

I am trying to get a new tattoo, having trouble with one charachter for the translation

I'm looking to get the phraze, "this too shall pass" in windwaker hylian. I had a friend translate it into romaji and her translation was これも通ります

I unfortunately cant find a matching character for 通. does anyone havee any Ideas?

2 Comments
2019/02/21
02:24 UTC

18

Since some of you seemed to like my last song here’s Hey Look Ma I Made It by Panic! At The Disco. Hope to encourage you all to start doing the same

0 Comments
2019/01/21
02:03 UTC

20

I’ve been learning to write Twilight Hylian for some years now, here’s the beginning of just one yesterday by fallout boy

0 Comments
2019/01/17
02:26 UTC

10

Need translation confirmation: it's dangerous to go alone

4 Comments
2018/08/27
18:06 UTC

3

Follow-up question

If I was to get this tattooed on me and wanted to stack it into two lines, were would be a good breaking point?

1 Comment
2018/08/09
04:36 UTC

3

Thinking about a tattoo

I'd like to get "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" In the old OoT &MM Hylian language. Any ideas on the translation?

4 Comments
2018/06/12
13:09 UTC

2

Fan Made Zelda Mini Game

Hello,

Some years ago i used to script stuff for my MTA server MTA is "multi theft auto" = an online mod to play san andreas online I used to make mini games/missions of excisting titles that i loved to play trough the years One of those titles was Zelda. So I made a small map, wich contained a cemetary, church ( with interiour ) river with waterfall, woods, 2 villages, dessert, and also a castle. Like the normal zelda games, players had to read what AI told them in order to figure out what to do, this way they could find a way to enter the castle, or to find hints for secrets, secrets would give the player a special ability or weapon ( firestaff, mastersword, jetpack ) there were also mini jobs like fisherman, nut collector, for that nutcollector u had to have that jetpack or the grapple gun wich was also hidden somewhere. there was one racing mission, different kinds of stores + a secret store with mini link skins in different colors. The original soundtracks were playing in the zones ( castle theme in the castle ect.. ) player was able to find a tiger to keep as a pet that fight with him. The castle had a lot of enemies, and a lot of traps, but the mastersword was still the best choice to fight with, the castle also had a secret with extra weapons but with no clue's to it. At the end they had to fight ganon + zelda turns out zelda wasn't "kidnapped"

Here is a video that i made back then to bring players to the server The server isn't online anymore but i do have the scripts somewhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4yKEVQ6tNs

0 Comments
2018/04/02
03:04 UTC

14

“Three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule”

2 Comments
2018/03/05
23:32 UTC

4

ABTW Hylian

Is there any way to learn this type of hylian‘s grammar and rules and such? I’m interest in learning but honestly don’t know where to start.

EDIT: ALBW* sorry! it’s way too late for me to be posting on reddit

2 Comments
2018/02/07
02:51 UTC

5

[X-Post /r/zelda] Anybody willing to double check this English to Hylian translation?

I want to get three names in Hylian (Wind Waker) tattooed on my arm. Before I do this I want to be 100% sure the translations are correct.

The translations are here: https://imgur.com/a/qqGSX

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

0 Comments
2017/12/07
22:06 UTC

4

I would like your help on properly translating the MM phrase 'That parting need not last forever' to OoT Hylian, which in the JP version is 'その別れは 永遠では ないはず' (Taken from MM ending). Please see the image to check what I've found and let me know your opinion.

2 Comments
2017/11/22
22:39 UTC

1

Can anyone tell me what this means

I translated what the Great Deku Tree says in Wind Waker when I stumbled across this. "Omaeno Sonokashi Moshi Densetsuno Tokino Yushiyaka" I can't find anything about this phrase, help please.

2 Comments
2017/11/07
14:32 UTC

6

Can someone translate this?

4 Comments
2017/09/23
19:39 UTC

21

Can someone translate it?

3 Comments
2017/03/26
14:16 UTC

1

BOTW memory locations

The titles of the locations for the memories are listed above the pictures before you find them. Seems like a really helpful use of the font.

0 Comments
2017/03/25
04:25 UTC

13

The Gerudo Script in BotW is the same as in previous games.

2 Comments
2017/03/25
01:37 UTC

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