Doyle Kryptonian

.ëoS :bEm

[ɛɹoʃ m̩bem]

Kryptonian in the Arrowverse

Supergirl • Superman & Lois

Project Background

How did this whole thing get started? It all started during the final few episodes of the second season of Smallville. The creative talents behind the show implemented a ton of the Kryptonian transliteration font that DC uses, and I found it fascinating.

As I learned to read what was essentially just English with a funny typeface, I noticed that the creators of the show started more and more to combine these symbols in strange ways. It was these inconsistencies with the use of the transliteration guide that first got me thinking about how an actual Kryptonian writing system might work, and might fit in with what they were presenting on the show.

One fateful day in the spring of 2003, while stuck in traffic on the way home from work, my mind began to wander to all of these things… I soon found myself creating, over time, a real alphabet based on the existing Kryptonian font, that could function for another language - not just different symbols for the letters in our alphabet. This basic work (which is now mostly obsolete) grew to include the Kryptonian numbers and a few examples of basic math. It was posted online, and survived for quite a while - much longer than I would have expected.

What this project wasn’t, initially, was a full Kryptonian language. It was just a fun little project about the orthography, and I only ever used it to transliterate English. As such (and owing to a very busy schedule) the only other development that this new writing saw was the introduction of punctuation (again, mirroring English punctuation) which was never published online; this too has now been rendered obsolete.

During an awesome class on invented languages while pursuing a linguistics degree at UT in the fall of 2006, I decided, with much enthusiasm, to dust off the project and pick up the gauntlet of fleshing out a fully-functioning Kryptonian language. It’s been an interesting and bumpy ride chock full of Not Nearly Enough Hours in the Day™.

For those that think I am the biggest nerd in the world for doing this - you are probably right. I will defend myself (slightly) by saying that 1, I’m fine with that, and 2, this has been more about a love of linguistics far more than anything else for me. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Superman, but that alone wouldn’t have been enough for me to have gone to this effort. I’m happy to report that in December of 2008 I (finally) completed my bachelors degree in linguistics (as well as one in music, but that’s a whole different story).

I would also like to show my endless appreciation to my girlfriend wife and kids for being so accommodating of my various nerd-out moments. There have been plenty of conversations along the lines of:

“If the object of a sentence is the subject of a relative clause which precedes the particle /zw/ (Q) followed by the object of the relative clause, then how do you think it would make sense to form a relative clause that includes its own subject (such as a pronoun with a referent from a previous clause)?”

“Yes, dear.”

I’m exaggerating, of course … but not by much.

About Me

So who the heck am I, anyway? No one particularly special to be sure, but, if you’re curious, here’s a little info… I was born in Texas, spent most of my formative years bouncing between northern California, northern Texas, and northern Colorado. I moved to Austin in 1994 to pursue a bachelor of music in composition at the University of Texas. After a couple of years, though, I found myself out working in The Real World™ in tech.

After 10 years of tech support, graphic design, and programming work, I went back to UT to finish my degree. During my time back there I discovered a passion for LINGUISTICS! In December, 2008 I was graduated with a BA in Music, and a BA in Linguistics.

In 2010 I got married, and my wife, two kids, and I currently still live somewhat in the vicinity of Austin where I still work in programming / development.

Why Superman?

Honestly, my favorite superhero, just at the nerd level, is The Flash, but that’s a whole other discussion. What I love about Superman, (a.k.a Clark Kent, a.k.a. Kal-El), is not so much the idea of all of his cool powers (which I do like) as much as his moral character. Here is a person that is so powerful that he could have pretty much anything he wanted, and no one would be able to stop him. Yet, he constantly and consistently puts the needs of others above himself. He is relentlessly mindful of the repercussions of his actions (as we should be). Superman’s GREATEST superpower, by far, is his self-control. He is a reminder not only to do good, to pursue integrity, and to put the needs of others above our own, but that we must be unceasingly vigilant in doing so.

In this modern era of “heroes” that authors are struggling to make as realistic-seeming as possible, with tons of human frailties and foibles, I also think that Superman continues to be what I think the heroes of these new mythologies should be—examples of how we are supposed to be—of someone we should try and emulate. In our society we need more role models, especially male role models.

The truth is, we all have a lot more power than we think we do; the power to help those in need, the power to be good role models, parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, friends, etc… we also have the power to hurt, to lie, to cheat, to steal; the power to emotionally crush someone with just words. In short, whether we want it or not, we all have the power to drastically change the lives of the people around us every day - for the better, or for the worse. We must chose, day-by-day, minute-by-minute, what we are going to do with this awesome responsibility. Superman gives us a good example that we should all follow the writings of the Apostle Paul:

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.” — 1 Corinthians 16:13