The Kryptonian Language

[.Hack]

Is there a language that folks on Krypton speak...? Or do they just speak english like the rest of us...

Thats whats bugging me right now, there are Krypton symbols that represent words, but they speak english? whats up with that?

Ain't in the original movie, his parents spoke english too...

if i'm wrong, please someone tell me whats up... maybe this is just a big screw up the creater of Superman forgot to mention...

[hot_for_chloe]

its not uncommon for symbols to be spoken as words...
the egyptian had hyrogliphics, and before that was sanskrit.
most asin cultures dont use letters either; the characters make up sounds. when certian sounds are combined it forms a language. since kryptonians are well more advanced than the people on earth, they might have a higher level of wrighting for somthing that sounds (and spoken) like english

[HuffyTheCampfireSlayer]

I think it's referred to as Kryptonese, in the comics.

[hot_for_chloe]

is that a joke, because i find that funny as hell

[Gizmo]

I'm glad they spoke english! LOL :D :D Nothing worse than having to READ english translation on my wee lil TV! :lol:

You're right HFC, Kryptonese is funny!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

[norris]

i dont know if this counts for anything but a bunch of the symbols in Kryptonese are like family crests. The "S" that Superman wears on his chest isn't an S for Superman, its his families crest. And as for speaking it, they could show someone speaking Kryptonese, but you would have to read the translations at the bottom of the screen....

[blitzschlange]

Exactly. It's not that they speak English, it's that if everyone is speaking the same language, there's no point in making up a language when you show them. For example, if you watch a movie about the Three Musketeers, none of the characters are actually speaking English within the context of the story, but when a movie is made for an English speaking audience, it wouldn't make sense to have them speaking archaic French. It ALSO wouldn't make sense for them to have French accents, because obviously, they wouldn't notice this.

[hot_for_chloe]

it dosnt have to be a family crest it could be the symbol for the sound "El" which could be the equivilant to a last name.

EXAMPLE:
Jor - El
Kal - El

the "el" sound could be the symbol that u think is the crest

[norris]

i get what you are saying, but wouldn't they be one in the same? wouldn't the symbol meaning "el" BE the family crest since the "s" means "el"

get what i mean?

[hot_for_chloe]

i see what u are saying now....

[blitzschlange]

Makes sense to me.

[Venom876]

Well perhaps all Kryptonians DON'T speak english, its just that only Kryptonians that do speak English get the speaking parts.

[Panik]

lol

[hot_for_chloe]

Originally posted by Venom876
Well perhaps all Kryptonians DON'T speak english, its just that only Kryptonians that do speak English get the speaking parts.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[.Hack]

hmmm... interesting, but maybe they still coulda made a reference to a "kryptonese" langauge in the comics...

ehh, just me.

[blitzschlange]

They DO!! they make a reference to the language ALL THE TIME. Or did, at one time . . . they've made it clear that Kryptonians don't speak English. It would be stupid if they did.

[Inochi no Rizumu]

Someone already addressed the issue of us hearing English when people would be speaking... :lol: Kryptonese (I can't help it either, it cracks me up!)...

And as for what the symbols mean. Our abstract notion of representational script wouldn't necessarily apply to an alien society's language. Human linguistic symbols (in their many forms) are organized the way they are (be it alphabetically-based, morpheme-based, syllable-based, whatever) because they are HUMAN. Non-human sentient language would have different aspects, so unless DC gives us some sort of Tolkien-like background on the Kryptonian language, there really is no hope in trying to figure out exactly how the symbols work and what they mean exactly... Although, from what I've noticed, I don't think each symbol represents a word. Word-based typography languages end up being too restrictive and wouldn't survive if used by an advanced civilization like that of Krypton. Dunno, at second glance the written language seems to have an organizational pattern sort of like that of Korean. But then at third glance it might yield something else. However, since Kryptonese ( :lol: ) isn't human any guess is as good as the other...

[hot_for_chloe]

maybe its mathmatical? all languages, paterns, and so forth can be broken down mathamatically in to cyphers and primers. since kryptonians are so advanced the language it self could be a science.

[Inochi no Rizumu]

Oooh, I like that idea... :eek: It's genius! Absolute mathematical beauty.

[blitzschlange]

It is a beautiful idea, EXCEPT you can actually look at the Kryptonian alphabet if you want. It's on the 'Superman through the Ages' website among other places, and you can even download a font that allows you to type in Kryptonese. As dumb as this sounds, it appears that this completely alien race has an alphabet that corresponds EXACTLY to our English alphabet, although in many comics, they use the Kryptonian alphabet but do not arrange it in such a way as to form actual words in English.
Personally, considering the myriad forms of language our own planet has developed, I find it a tad unlikely that a bunch of aliens would just stumble onto an alphabet that mirrors English, which is a muddled conglomerate of language. I prefer the ideas on this thread.

[hot_for_chloe]

i just saw that website...it was pretty cool!!!! but i theorieze that it could still be Geometrical/Mathamatical form that translates into sounds. The math could be translated into waves (sound waves) thus turning into sounds. Of course this would have to mean that english is a Mathamatical based language (hahahaha...i know im stretching it) allowing kryptonites to speak english.

[UpandAtom]

I find it odd that Kryptonese is exactly like English. Not even the slightest variation. Every Kryptonese character corresponds to an English character. I bet Kryptonians use Arabic numerals as well.

[DarthLuca]

Except from Star Wars in all sci-fi movies or TV Shows all aliens speak english language. So I guess creating a language is far more difficult than just writing the show. So far only G.Lucas managed that.

[UpandAtom]

In Star Wars the characters are speaking English as well.

[NickZ27]

Well, initially, I thought that Jor-el in the caves and the ship never actually "spoke", but rather telepathically projected. Thus, it wouldn't matter what language he'd be speaking if the thoughts get transfered across. That theory got shot in Relic when Jor-el was clearly speaking English when visiting Smallville. Of course, the fact that his family visited the place for thousands of years means that they had exposure to it, and if a civilization has control over spacetime (wormholes, reversing time, consciesness recordings, curled dimensions, etc.), surely they can learn a new language in no time. Zod's minions could have picked up the language from Earth's transmissions (which HAVE sent entire languages into space, along with mathematics and human anatomy).

[brainiacowen]

In the first ep where Jor-El did speak to Clark, he said it was like it came from inside his head...I believe that it's a telepathic transmission.

And if you want to see a lot of "Kryptonese" in the comics, pick up the story arc of Superman/Batman called "The Supergirl from Krypton", it intoduces the current Supergirl and there is a TON of Kryptonese, usually between Clark and herself...

[PowerofFlight]

Because of the movies that were due out (originally Tim Burton and now (thank goodness) Brian Singer, the show is forbidden from showing Krypton or having the language spoken. That may change in season 6, after superman returns is released.

[Videogamer49107]

That's pretty gay that they can't show Krypton or show the spoken language.

[PowerofFlight]

Originally posted by PowerofFlight
Because of the movies that were due out (originally Tim Burton and now (thank goodness) Brian Singer, the show is forbidden from showing Krypton or having the language spoken. That may change in season 6, after superman returns is released.

I am guessing (according to the dvd extras) that it's because the movies want to depict it a certain way, and they don't want it to conflict.

[LOONEY]

Our kryponian symbol for their crest is \8/ not a \S/ which makes much more sense than an english letter for a symbol if they were so much better than us they would be dumber to have used a S for anything on their planet and if that is all they brought from the planet earth then shame on them..