Gallifreyan (language)

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference

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. (DW: The Five Doctors) The later "vulgate" was presumably the Doctor's native language.

Examples

Old High Gallifreyan

File:Ohg.jpg
The phrase "Hello, Sweetie" in Old High Gallifreyan. (DW: 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 It was not known by many; by the Doctor's era, it was virtually extinct, superseded by modern Gallifreyan.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. (DW: 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

File:Written gallifreyan1.jpg
An example of Gallifreyan script written by the Fourth Doctor. (DW: 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. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Circular Gallifreyan

An example of the interlocking/overlapping circles. (DW: 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. (DW: Rose onwards) Earlier, the TARDIS' displays had appeared in English.
  • 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. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern)
  • The Visionary wrote interlocking circles, which Rassilon and the other Time Lords could understand. One of the words was "Earth." (DW: The End of Time)
  • Text in circular Gallifreyan was seen carved into the Doctor's cot. It was implied that this writing was his name. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
  • The number system in circular Gallifreyan was in base seven (as can be seen in the chapter numbers in the New Series Adventures).

External links