Bridwell Kryptonese

EDITOR'S NOTE
The following information originally appeared on the website of the late Al Turniansky. This information is copied verbatim from his now-defunct website with permission from his surviving relatives.
Flag of Krypton: This flag was first introduced to Superman readers in the story, "Krypton on Earth" in Action Comics No. 246hlerwagats-sfawkriptan

The Alphabet

The Kryptonese alphabet consists of 118 letters. These are shown in the two tables below. (Sorry about the fact that there are two tables. That’s because of some software limitations on my end.) The tables read from left to right, with each Kryptonese letter followed by its approximate English equivalent.

Vowel Sounds in the Following Tables

  • row 1, columns 1-2 = “ee” as in “meet”
  • row 1, columns 3-4 = “i” as in “mitt”
  • row 2, columns 1-2 = “i” as in “might”
  • row 3, columns 7-8 = “o” as in “go”
  • row 3, columns 9-10 = “u” as in “Luke”
  • row 5, columns 3-4 = “oy” as in “boy”
  • row 5, columns 5-6 = “a” as in “father”
  • row 5, columns 7-8 = “aw” as in “saw”
  • row 5, columns 9-10 = “e” as in “met”
  • row 6, columns 1-2 = “ow” as in “cow”
  • row 6, columns 7-8 = “oo” as in “look”
  • row 6, columns 9-10 = “a” as in “fat”
  • row 7, columns 3-4 = “u” as in “luck”
  • row 7, columns 9-10 = “a” as in “fate”

Notes on Some Other Letters

  • row 3, column 3/4 = “g” as in “go”, never as in “gym”
  • row 4, column 5/6 = “ch” as in “chair”
  • row 5, column 1/2 = “ch” as in German “ich”, Scottish “loch”, Hebrew “Chanukah”
  • row 7, column 7/8 = “y” as in “yes”, never as in “sky”
  • row 8, column 1/2 = “th” as in “then”
  • row 8, column 3/4 = “s” as in “pleasure”
  • row 9, column 1/2 = “th” as in “thin”
EDITOR'S NOTE
Originally this was split into two separate images which I combined into a single image. I also added row and column numbers, and did some alternate row/column shading to make the table easier to read. I think Mr. Turniansky would have approved.

Punctuation Marks

Again, this table reads from left to right, with each Kryptonese punctuation mark followed by its approximate English equivalent.

Notes

  • The “hyphen” (row 1, column 1/2) is primarily used in names (i.e., Jor-el, Kal-el, etc.).
  • Row 1, columns 3/4 is the “open quote”. Row 1, columns 5/6 is the “close quote”.
  • The “underline” (row 1, columns 7/8) goes over the letters to be emphasized.
  • The “open parentheses” (row 2, columns 7/8) goes over the first letter in the parenthetcal comment.
  • The “close parentheses” (row 2, columns 7/8) goes under the last letter in the parenthetcal comment.

Numerals

Again, this table reads from left to right, with each Kryptonese numeral followed by its English equivalent.

Grammar, Vocabulary, etc.

Grammar, vocabulary and other matters will be posted to this site at a later date.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Although the above paragraph appeared on the original site, nothing regarding “grammar, vocabulary, and other matters” was ever posted to Turniansky’s site before his passing.