Silver & Bronze Age Kryptonese 1950s to 1985

This information originally appeared on the website of the late Al Turniansky who obtained the information from the late E. Neslon Bridwell. It is copied here in its entirety (which isn't much). For more background, please see the "About" page for this section.

Note: I have now recreated the font supporting this version of Kryptonian (Kryptonese). Head over to this page for more information.

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.

Editor's Note

I went ahead and combined the tables into one image, 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.

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"

The Kryptonese Alphabet

fig. 1

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.

Kryptonese Punctuation

fig. 2

Numerals

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

Kryptonese Numbers

fig. 3

Grammar, Vocabulary, etc.

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