Gallifreyan (language)

Gallifreyan was a Gallifreyan language used by the Time Lords. There were several forms of written Gallifreyan. By the time of the Doctor, the archaic Old High Gallifreyan language used in the days of Rassilon had changed considerably. (TV: The Five Doctors) TARDISes' translation circuits translated neither Old High Gallifreyan nor Gallifreyan written in the Doctor's time. (TV: The Time of Angels, A Good Man Goes to War)

Old High Gallifreyan

Old High Gallifreyan was the ancient language of the Time Lords. It was not known by many; by the Doctor's era, it was virtually extinct, superseded by modern Gallifreyan. The Eleventh Doctor claimed that Old High Gallifreyan once possessed immense power when correctly harnessed, such as raising empires or destroying gods. (TV: The Time of Angels)

The written form of Old High Gallifreyan resembled, to human eyes, a mixture of Greek letters and mathematical symbols.

Inside the Tomb of Rassilon in the Death Zone on Gallifrey, an old rhyme was written in "Old High Gallifreyan," which explained the outcome of the "Game of Rassilon". (TV: The Five Doctors)

This text included the letters δ³Σx², which was given as the Doctor's name in the 1972 behind-the-scenes book The Making of Doctor Who by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke.

Within the Doctor's rooms on the Gallifrey of one universe, there was a painting of a woman holding a scroll with the words "Death is but a door" written in High Gallifreyan. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

The First Doctor wrote his Five Hundred Year Diary in High Gallifreyan to make sure no one else could read it. (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks)

River Song could write in Old High Gallifreyan. (TV: The Time of Angels)

The word "valeyard" was said to mean "learned court prosecutor." (TV: The Trial of a Time Lord)

"Mi’en Kalarash" translated as "Blue Fire." (AUDIO: House of Blue Fire)

Modern Gallifreyan

An example of Gallifreyan script written by the Fourth Doctor. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

While Old High Gallifreyan was the original language of the Time Lords, it had evolved into a different form by the time of the Doctor. (TV: The Five Doctors)

• Two Time Lords looked at an archive of information on the Third Doctor, which displayed a photo and writing in modern Gallifreyan. (TV: Colony in Space)
• A vaguely Arabic-looking script, in a letter written by the Fourth Doctor to warn the High Council of an assassination, was in modern Gallifreyan. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
• The Seventh Doctor left a note for the Supreme Dalek in a script other than English. This included the Doctor's "name" (Theta Sigma) in Greek. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Circular Gallifreyan

Starting with Series 1 in 2005, a new form of Gallifreyan text was used on the TARDIS monitor and the Doctor's own handwriting. This Gallifreyan consisted on multiple interlocking circles, hexagons and lines which presumably made up text, coordinates and numbers in Base seven. Starting in Series 5 this version of Gallifreyan underwent a major revision, but largely returned to its Series 1-4 style in the Doctor's new TARDIS interior in The Snowmen.

An example of the interlocking/overlapping circles. (TV: Utopia)

• A complex system of interlocking circles was used by the Doctor's TARDIS output screens in "coral desktop theme" mode and was seen in the notes that the Doctor scattered around the console room. (TV: Rose onwards)
• Simpler handwritten circles appeared on the Betamax tape used by the Tenth Doctor to trap the Wire. The circular text, since scribbled over, presumably stated the tape's contents. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
• The Visionary wrote interlocking circles, which Rassilon and the other Time Lords could understand. One of the words was "Earth." (TV: The End of Time)
• The envelope from the Eleventh Doctor inviting River Song to Lake Silencio and a page from the 1,103-year-old Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS diary were written in Circular Gallifreyan. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
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  Gallifreyan symbols carved on the Doctor's cot
  Text in circular Gallifreyan was seen carved into the Doctor's cot. It was implied that this writing was his name. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
• A blue fire extinguisher that the Eleventh Doctor uses on the TARDIS is marked in silver Circular Gallifreyan. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
• The Eleventh Doctor's second TARDIS control room design feature circular Gallifreyan symbols on rotating sections above the main console and time rotor. (TV: The Snowmen)
• The Whisper Men show Clarence DeMarco a map that he has to memorise in Circular Gallifreyan that they demand he give to Madame Vastra. (Clarence and the Whispermen)

Behind the scenes

• The number system in circular Gallifreyan, as seen in the chapter headings of the New Series Adventures, was in base seven.

External links

• "Old High Gallifreyan": an article by Jon Preddle on Gallifreyan writing as it appeared in the series pre-2005
• Sherman's Planet - Circular Gallifreyan: a system of encoded writing designed to have a similar appearance to circular Gallifreyan.
• Assassin's Gallifreyan and Archaic Gallifreyan: two fan-made fonts based on the scripts seen in The Deadly Assassin and Shada.