Gallifreyan (language): Difference between revisions

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=== Modern Gallifreyan ===
=== Modern Gallifreyan ===
[[File:Written_gallifreyan1.jpg|thumb|An example of Gallifreyan script written by the [[Fourth Doctor]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin]]'')]]
[[File:DA Doctors message.jpg|thumb|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 (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'')
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 (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'')



Revision as of 08:10, 30 October 2012

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)

Examples

Old High Gallifreyan

File:Ohg.jpg
The phrase "Hello, Sweetie" in Old High Gallifreyan. (TV: The Time of Angels)

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 It was not known by many; by the Doctor's era, it was virtually extinct, superseded by modern Gallifreyan.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.

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.
In The Time of Angels, Amy asked what some writing in Old High Gallifreyan meant, implying that the TARDIS did not translate it. River Song, in A Good Man Goes to War, confirmed that the TARDIS did not translate Gallifreyan.

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)

Circular Gallifreyan

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

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