Translating the Radiant Glyphs and Surges

[Bookish Ocelot Ghostblood]

Y'all might remember @Harakeke's thread from a while back about glyph translation. 

I decided I will try and translate the Radiant, Surge, and Fundamental Glyphs. Yes, I know the WoB about the original glyphs not being supposed to translate. Yes, I realize it'll probably be nonsense. Here goes. 

 

Notes: I am using an online editor called Photopea. It is free and works the same, and as well as photoshop. I know this because I have worked with photoshop. I am retrieving glyph translations from the Coppermind. Any and all assistance with this project is appreciated. 

Update 1: 3-19-19

Started translation on ten fundamental glyphs. Finished with 3/10. Letters in parenthesis are unconfirmed or not existing but added for understanding (Like Thaylen)

Edited March 19, 2019 by BookishOcelot

[Jofwu Most Ancient]

I think people have tried to do this in the OB thread you linked? (Or the original.) In any case, you might want to post that in there, so that your analysis doesn't get lost.

Personally, I think it's pretty likely that these glyphs are all associated with the Heralds' names. More specifically, I imagine the words they are based on are rooted in the Heralds' names, and then on top of that I suspect the glyphs themselves have been warped over time.

So you'll probably find a few letters from the Herald's name... Mixed in with letters that are warped beyond recognition... And other lines that were added over time which mean nothing at all. Very much exactly like we see with the "Zeras" example over time in the OB glyphs page.

The surges seem much more clear, and can probably be translated... The problem is that they translate into the Alethi word, which is somewhat meaningless to us.

[Bookish Ocelot Ghostblood]

@JofwuThank you for your input! I made this its  own thread because I think the oathbringer thread is for understanding the glyphs and grammar. I am applying that knowledge. That thread is also long dead. I realize that it’ll translate into something odd, but it could help us get an idea of how the language works. If these do end up correct, that could give us hints for the next set of glyphs as well as how to create our own. 

[Jofwu Most Ancient]

You're certainly welcome to make a new thread of course. Just my recommendation, as those of us who dig into the glyphs/languages frequently often refer to those two threads and post new things to them. It's been a while since somebody added something new, but the original translation thread was going on for 3.5 years (until OB came out). Some people subscribe to those threads, so when something new gets posted they'll be curious to see and maybe contribute to what you're trying to do.

I could have sworn that somebody had looked into these glyphs after we got the OB phoneme chart, but I don't see anything in there. Maybe I looked into it myself and gave up before posting. I'm particularly curious to see if we can make letters out for most of the Surge glyphs...

[Bookish Ocelot Ghostblood]

Yes! I have discovered more things!

1. A lot of glyphs have a central V/U shaped line in the middle. This could symbolize something- Letters F, J, T, D, - or it could be a way to make the glyphs prettier
2. Several (if you are willing to stretch the pheonemes around) translate roughly to their corresponding heralds. These glyphs are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th fundamental glyphs
3. They seem to omit vowels. Don't know why. It is possible that Thaylen and Alethi were originally one language - both omitting vowels
4. The 4th glyph -which should correspond to Vev in some form- is a mess. Maybe it's just me. 
5. My mouse-painting skills need work. 

[Jofwu Most Ancient]

Went through the Surges real quick:

1. Adhesion
J - very clear
S - fairly clear aside from the tail at the top
U? - best guess
I suspect the remainder is meaningless.

2. Gravitation
F - very clear
A - seems distinct enough
CH? - best guess
S?/SH?/H? - a few guesses
One or both lines could be B perhaps.
Not sure about angular marks at bottom... though I wonder if they originally connected to some of the marks above but were "cut off" by the S?/SH?/H?.

3. Division
KAK seems very clear

4. Abrasion
J - very clear
S - fairly clear aside from the tail at the top
The rest could be several things if you squint. I wonder if they were connected to some degree, and some is probably meaningless.

5. Progression
B - very clear
K - very clear
E?/O?/K? - E seems more likely than O. It looks less like K, but if one or both of the black marks are an A then K works as another consonant.

6. Illumination
CH - both very clear
E/O - curls at the bottom seem like E or O
A - could be an A
The phoneme at the top seems awfully distinctive, but I'm not sure what to make of it...
And I'm not sure what to do with the angles in the middle either.

7. Transformation
S - seems clear
SH - seems very clear
CH?/E? - best guesses

8. Transportation
F - seems clear, particularly the ones in the middle
B - maybe?
Two open shapes and a sharper angle. Not sure what to do with those.

9. Cohesion
CH - seems very clear
H?/G? - best guess
A? - maybe?
Not quite sure what to make of the one in the middle.

10. Tension
K - seems very clear
SH? - seems most likely, though the curl on the top portion makes me wonder if it might be something else with embelishment at the bottom. O and I would be vowels that work perhaps?

[Bookish Ocelot Ghostblood]

Holy heck! That's insane dude! Awesome job. Also, what software did you use? Looks way better than mine. (to be fair I was using what was essentially MS paint) 

 

 

[Jofwu Most Ancient]

On 3/22/2019 at 8:19 PM, BookishOcelot said:

Holy heck! That's insane dude! Awesome job. Also, what software did you use? Looks way better than mine. (to be fair I was using what was essentially MS paint) 

"Paint.net" is a free, open-source image editing program that's much more functional than MS Paint.  Nowhere near as powerful as the more serious programs out there, but good enough for my uses.

That said, you could probably do what I did with Paint.  I mostly just used the paint bucket to color in the black lines.

[Bookish Ocelot Ghostblood]

All the straight lines are likely Bs or stylized As 

[Subvisual Haze Steel Inquisitor]

It could certainly be possible that the Order glyphs are just stylized names of the Herald patron.  Hell, the numbers themselves are based on the Herald names.  Jezrien was the original Windrunner before there even were Windrunners.  In addition, the in world artistic image of Jezrien has the Windrunner glyph emblazoned on his armor.  That would make sense if the glyph was literally just his name.

[duladen Stormwarden]

My biggest takeaway is that we have confirmed that Naln likes Herdazian custard deserts called “flan”.

Seriously, though: great work! Can’t wait to see further translations.