lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Does anyone know how to speak it or whatever? I want to use the dialouge in my fan fic, but I don't know how to interpret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetsnaz.Invidika Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Saurian isn't a language really -- it's English with letters 'shifted' down the alphabet in some ways to make it sound different (forgot the word for this). I /believe/ Wikipedia has an explanation of how the letters shift. But Dwight made a cool translator for it: http://saurian.dwightdesign.com/ I never approved of Saurian, but I'm a linguist geek, so D: Anyway, hope that helps ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Wow, thats pretty cool. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 How exactly do the letters shift down, though? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetsnaz.Invidika Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 How exactly do the letters shift down, though? Not sure how to describe it, because I forgot the word. Now, I don't remember the exact system for Saurian, but take this for instance: Say the word "Dog" is to be translated in this way. The way to translate it in this example is by changing each letter to the letter three 'up' from it. So for D -- D, E is first, F is second, G is third, so the first letter is G. O -- O, P first, Q second, R third, second letter is R. G -- G, H first, I second, J third, so the third letter is J. So Dog 'translates' to "Grj". ...You might notice how obscenely weird-to-pronounce the words are, this is because the letters are just switched around without actually thinking about the sounds... As languages go, Saurian is really quite a travesty. XD But hey, it's simple, it works, and I guess it beats random gibberish... Again, I'm a linguist geek, so sorry. ^^;; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 lol thats alright. When I used Dwight's translator, a vowel would replace another vowel. A=U E=O I=A O=E U=I. Also, how do you translate a word that has the letter 'y' into Saurian? When I used the translator, it came up as a zero. :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Nevermind. I forgot to scroll down on the translator page and there was an entire explanation. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetsnaz.Invidika Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Hehe, excellent. I'm rusty on the Saurian language. XD And don't be afraid to use the "Modify" (ie edit) button. ;3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilg_stryker Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Lol yeah, my bad. Thanks for your help though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 And I missed this entire conversation! Ok, in answer and explanation of all your questions: Detail on translation is found here: http://saurian.dwightdesign.com/about.html The word you're looking for, Spetsnaz, is "cypher." Saurian is a cypher language of English. It's not simply a shift though. There are a few significant differences. For one, the vowels all translate to other vowels, so that English-like words can be formed. Also, T translates to K, resulting in heavy usage of that sound when spoken (since T is the second most common letter in modern-day English). Perhaps they chose this to make it fit with the K sounds in "Krazoa" and "Krystal." The Y and y characters get translated to the number 0, which is usually pronounced with the long o sound: "oo" as in book. I'm currently rewriting the Saurian Translator (for the fourth and final time), this time focusing on speed. Thus far, I've managed to make translations three times faster (and as far as I can tell, can't be made faster unless I use a different programming language). Trivia: The term "Saurian" was created and popularized as a replacement for the original designation "Dino Language" by... Dwight House. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetsnaz.Invidika Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 The word you're looking for, Spetsnaz, is "cypher." Saurian is a cypher language of English. It's not simply a shift though. There are a few significant differences. For one, the vowels all translate to other vowels, so that English-like words can be formed. Also, T translates to K, resulting in heavy usage of that sound when spoken (since T is the second most common letter in modern-day English). Perhaps they chose this to make it fit with the K sounds in "Krazoa" and "Krystal." Ah! Thank you! I had a vague memory of it being more in-depth than what I described, but I've been out of this fandom for so long I'd forgotten. And nice to see you again, dwight. x3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Dino is basically a 16-shift Caesar Cipher, one of the most basic forms of cryptography. Of course a 16-shift Caesar Cipher is a poor linguistic alphabet, so they modified it to make it better. English Alphabet: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 16-shift Caesar Cipher: qrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnop Sauria Cipher (Dino Alphabet): urstovwxazbcmdefghjkilnpoz For easier comparison, the Caesar and Sauria ciphers respectively: qrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnop urstovwxazbcmdefghjkilnpoz Strictly speaking, it is a substitution cipher. I had actually written a crude English-to-dino translator in UNIX Bash script during a class assignment to write a simple cipher program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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