#inklish script

[tilt5951]

[tilt5951]

Ⴒ⁸ႬႬ` Պ⁸Ⴌ ⁼ԴႩ⁰ႬˡႶႩ⁼ԴԲ, ▢ˡႩ... Ⴚ▵Ⴚ▵, ⁸ˡ ▵三三 ▵Ⴌ⁰ П⁰▵Ս. ႩႬ` ПႬ⁼Ⴉ⁼ԴԲ ⁼Դ ⁼ԴՍ三⁼ႲႺ ႲՍႬ⁼ႶႩ!

F ILSB VLR

-🔼( @askbillchiper )

F ilsb vlr qll, Yfii.

[livef1sh]

I don't normally sing, but I've been workshopping some lyrics for a song I'm working on.

Thoughts?

[aeriona]

HI HELLO! Welcome to my completely unnecessarily detailed analysis on how I think Inkfish languages could work! + with art! yay! This is all pretty rough and not fully fleshed out (I don't have the time or patience for that lmao). THIS IS A LONG POST.

Okay, so there's dozens of languages spoken by cephalopods in the Mollusc Era but the main two I'll talk about are Inkling (or Inklish) and Octarian, spoken mostly by Inklings and Octolings respectively. 

In cephalopods, speech is formed using the syrinx and larynx, two fancy vocal organs that most other species don't have together. The larynx makes sounds using the radula (tongue) and vocal folds in the throat, it's clear and pretty easy to understand as the sound itself resembles human speech, albeit warbled. The syrinx makes noise by vibrating air at the base of the trachea, it's often trickier to follow as it can sound more like droning background noise than words sometimes.

An inkfish can use both of them at once, resulting in an EXTREMELY complicated language system where words can be made up of multiple layered syllables, and several words and sentences can even be said at the same time.

As you can probably imagine, all of this is LITERAL HELL to learn for species who don’t have both a syrinx and a larynx (so basically anyone who isn't a cephalopod). But fear not! There are many simple and more inclusive alternatives, dialects and other cool stuff like sign language and instant TTS technology for people who physically can't pronounce Inkling/Octarian or even vocalise at all (eg. jellyfish).

Both main Inkfish languages can be broken down into laryngeal words (made with the larynx), syringeal/drone words (made with the syrinx) or a combination of both, called dual-toned/layered words.

Keep in mind that both word-types can be spoken at the same time. Layering can be used to add additional connotations to a word, or to even make a new one entirely. For example, the laryngeal noun ‘bird’ combined with the syringeal noun ‘metal’ spoken together will create the layered Inkling word ‘aeroplane’, like a compound word in English.

Dual-toned stuff is more common in Inkling than in Octarian, as the language is older and has more loanwords. Inklish's dependence on the larynx gives it a higher-pitched, clearer sound whereas  Octarian's more monotone syrinx-based structure results in a deep, almost guttural sound.

Both cephalopod languages are heavy on tone and pronunciation, resulting in a plenty of accent indicators in written scripts. I used the in-game fonts for the art but if I were to rework it, each letter would probably be more complicated than traditional Mandarin on steroids. So hell on earth, basically.

On a side note, all of these language features open possibilities for some very cool poetry and literature. An inkfish author could write a poem with two lines of thought occurring at once, or a book with vivid emotional undertones written inside the prose. Pretty cool.

OKAY that's all I have to say thank you for reading! Hopefully this makes sense, feel free to send asks or whatever if it's confusing and I'll do my best to explain it better!

[dumbasscitylmfao]

I have been obsessing over splatoon (again) for like the past 3 days and have been tryign to write inklish bc I'm bored lol Starting w square script, will post updates as I go

[octomae]

okay i just saw the decipher.ink website, which is a site for translating the scripts in splatoon - it has all of the deciphered scripts as well as font files you can download??? i need to kiss somebody about it.

anyways, i saw this website and my worldbuilding brain gears started turning, SO, here's my personal headcanons about the (deciphered) splatoon scripts based on inkipedia + decipher.ink info. don't take these too seriously i didn't think too hard about it

Square Script - most commonly used script, this is probably a common-tongue script (if not that, maybe the inklish alphabet)

-

Bold Script - Used for advertisements; clothes, weapons, and the back of amiibo boxes. This is probably an urchin script or a common-tongue script

-

Round Script - appears on buildings and signs; probably a jellyfish script or a common-tongue script

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Sign Script - most commonly seen on signs, but wasn't able to be deciphered fully until splat3's world premiere; a common-tongue script mostly used in the splatlands.

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Bubble Script - most commonly used to transcribe spoken inkling, so... inklish IPA? there are a TON of overlapping characters. might just be the inklish alphabet.

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Runic Script - sunken scroll script; octarian alphabet relative to octo valley

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Serif Script - sunken scroll script; octarian alphabet relative to octo canyon

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Halfmoon Script - deepsea metro. the alphabet the denizens of the deep use.

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Alterna Script - the last human alphabet.

[epic-and-kitty]

Twist - 🐶💛🎮💜

🐶 Does your OC have any pets?

Since Twist was nomadic for most of her life that she remembers, she really didn't have the means for a pet despite really wanting one. However, after she's adopted by Captain 3 (or Xero, as he prefers to be called) and allowed to live with him, she gets several pets from Frye and Shiver in the form of house warming gifts. Frye gives her an entire bed of garden eels, which act much like an ant colony would in our world, except the eels will sometimes play around in her tentacles and act as fashion accessories of their own free will, as well as a baby giant eel Twist names Mora. Mora will twist around Twist in a comforting manner as well as give her a lift if she's too tired to move.

Shiver on the other hand gifts her the runt of one of Mega's litters, a pup named Sammie. Sammie is a bit of a handful, constantly trying to eat furniture or Nom Nom (or Mora tbh) but Twist has made great lengths training him to be a good pup, even if he does try to nip at Nommy's fin hawk every now and then. (Don't feel too bad for Nom Nom, he is fully capable of protecting himself and has put Sammie in his place multiple times (Big Buddy anyone?))

Also, after Twist's "puddle incident", Mora and Sammie become guide animals for her as she recovers from not having a body. (Sammie by leading her and letting her lean on him when tired, and Mora by doing the same and being able to let Twist ride her in dire circumstances)

💛 How many languages does your OC speak? What languages are they learning?

Twist can actually fluently speak Octarian, Salmonid and Inklish, as well as read Octarian, Salmonid and Deep Sea Metro script.

Currently, she's learning to read Inklish as she simply couldn't decipher all the scripts of the language until she got help from Army and Mask. She's also learning Alternan with help from ORCA.

(Deep Sea Metro script is spoken like Octarian, but the script is completely different from written Dome Octarian and other dialects of Octarian)

🎮 What are three of your OC's favorite hobbies?

Twist ADORES sewing, especially sewing plushies for her and her friends. She's really good at it too. In fact, if you get a handsewn plush from Twist, you know she considers you a great friend.

Twist also enjoys researching humans and their culture. She sometimes goes back to Alterna just to go through all of ORCA's files on humanity (ORCA definitely doesn't mind the company or constant questions after 12000 years of silence) Twist's favorite band, Shine On Sea Dogs (a fan band of mine I haven't revealed yet), actually finds old human music records and remixes it while giving it a Mollusk Era twist and Inklish or Octarian lyrics (usually way off from the actual human ones, but they're trying their best).

Twist also just likes to walk around and people watch, or find places to enjoy nature in peace. In fact, the way she and Skull actually got to really know each other was when they both found the same cave like formation at Scorch Gorge and and decided to share it to watch the sunset/sunrise in occasionally. She likes her freedom to walk wherever and find a new place. (This does not help her and Skull not get horribly horribly lost though)

💜 What's your OCs ancestry/genetic background?

Aside from her being a pygmy octoling and a rare nine tentacled octo, Twist honestly doesn't know. She was found abandoned and half dead on Salmonid territory with no memory, she has no idea who she's related to or what's in her genes

(It's funny she gets along so well with Hue, her universe's Agent 8, who also is a rare tentacled octoling. They almost act like siblings)

(Technically, they kinda are. Twist is a clone of Hue, albeit far more...."customized" than he is, considering the differences in skin tone, size and of course gender. However, neither are currently aware of this, aside from Hue finding Twist "familiar" upon first meeting her.)

[goitale]

i tried translating the inklish on the comic here, but it came to no avail. did the first bits: "trsm oia so(g/w)sp" ...

its gibberish as far as i know, but if anyone else wants to continue it, i have the image completely deciphered by the wonderful rassicas!

(also YES i have all the full deciphered scripts save and YES you should learn one of them :333)

Some more bankara walker marina concepts!! (Pics from shellhg on bluesky)

I remember back when SO first released a lot of people including myself assumed they just scaled marina up during the agitando fight for the sake of visibility but nope they did actually want big marina

[tilt5951]

[a-table-of-fics]

Cull to Adventure, Chapter 12, Draft 1, Part 2

Cull looked at the weapon for a moment, then nodded.

“I-I guess if it’s as big and slow as that oven…”

He and Marie shared a short laugh.

“That’s the spirit, Agent 4! Just aim carefully, and I’m sure you’ll do fine!”

***

Cull once again saw a launchpad ahead, most likely leading to the massive platform ahead. Unlike the oven’s arena, this one was clearly made for show; it was surrounded with plenty of pink neon signage in a script Cull couldn’t read, and the cameras were far more obvious here than they usually were. Graffiti was minimal, anti-squid signs being placed in their usual spots. However, dashes of color appeared in pink and green stickers scattered around the supports for the neon. Once again, above purple ink, a poor Zapfish was trapped in a lightbulb, suspended by a single wire.

“A-any ideas on w-what to expect?”

“Nothing yet, Agent 4,” Marie replied. “Just keep your distance, and be ready to fire.”

After launching, he found himself far closer to the enemy ink than before. He didn’t have time to react before another massive tentacle pulled the Zapfish screaming into the inky depths. He stepped back as electric sparks coursed through, before another blinding light made him shield his eyes.

Past his fingers, he saw a massive silhouette. It was no machine, and it was far larger than any Octarian he had ever seen. Whatever it was, it had five limbs; four for the arms and legs, and one on its head. The massive creature looked like it was holding a Roller, and glowing green eyes sneered at him.

Cull was about to step back further, lifting his Charger up to fire, but this foe was quick to snatch the weapon from his hands with the ponytail-like tentacle on his head.

Finally, the light faded, revealing a rotund behemoth of an Octarian with a black leather jacket, black boots and… a tiny unicycle. His Roller was something to behold, though, with what looked like a fancy engine right above the handle, and a terrifyingly large spool.

“You are having… none of the shame,” he gurgled in a baritone voice, surprising Cull with Inklish. “Bring a… Charge… to a Roll fight. Wanted… honorable duet.”

“H-hey,” Cull stammered, hands raised. “I d-didn’t know it was…”

“You… did not see banner? But I showed to you and Squidling clan. Insulting!”

He shook his head.

“No matter. Squid-crushing makes good show. Will make painless. Prepare defeat at tentacles of Octo Samurai!”

“W-wait wait—”

Splat.

Cull revived at the only respawner, back at the entrance. He could see the Octo Samurai glaring at him from the main platform, massive Roller at the ready. What was worse, he still had Cull’s Charger.

[nahare-shin]

There’s definitely other languages (Frye canonically either has an accent or outright sings in another language like marina does despite being an inkling for example), I think that’s a big part of why you can’t speak to the passengers on the metro lore wise. CQ is likely fluent in the most common languages at least but since most subjects at kamobo co were Octarians, it can be assumed CQ typically speaks Octarian. I would assume most dialogue between Eight, Pearl, Marina, and Cuttlefish is in inklish and that’s part of a lore reason for Eight not speaking up much because they’re not very comfortable speaking it even if they understand it decently enough.

Worth noting the deep sea metro and octo expansion in general have a unique script not seen elsewhere, which does imply it’s a different language.

Iirc there are a total of 15 unique scripts in splatoon with a small amount of overlap.

There’s not really a canon script for inklings and octolings, but based on the sunken scrolls people generally attribute the runic script to octarians

And the bold script for inklings

With the square script and a few others seemingly being used by several species which may indicate a lingua franca.

The side order headcanon I hold to the tightest is (since the app was aimed at and made by Octolings and 4/5 of the primary speaking characters* in the DLC are octarian) is that the reason Acht speaks without an accent (like the ones seen in the Octoling Amiibo as they appeared in splat2n) is that they’re all speaking octarian the entire time. I think Pearl is just fully fluent after spending so many years with Marina, especially since Marina sings in octarian. I like to think Pearl speaks it with Marina and Eight, but I’d imagine they blend some phrases together and swap between languages if something is easier to express in one over the other or if that’s simply the vibe.

* cipher not counted here because cipher is an adaptive AI who probably swaps languages as needed, but is likely defaulted to octarian

[tilt5951]

i'm developing splatoon languages in my LingoSplat project ask me questions (in asks)

[tilt5951]

"zurna" in different splatoon conlangs(meme)

English: zurna Russian: зурна Anemonski: зърна Octolish: ʒuрɴɑ Hohojiro: T̩̂X̩Í̩(zʊɾna) Danua: Surna Howzukua: Zurna Inklish(EVEN INKLISH): ԽˡႬԴ▵(zurna) Onaga: IT'S akrab, WTF ARE YOU SAYING?! Ida: True, it's definitely our Western Clanic flute - ɑκрɑb