With the destruction of Krypton, it is largely considered a dead language, though it is still primarily spoken by those who have survived the planetary catastrophe, specifically, the residents of "New Krypton" and the denizens of the Phantom Zone. The written language comprises stylized grap
Kryptonese is the official language of Krypton.
History
With the destruction of Krypton, it is largely considered a dead language, though it is still primarily spoken by those who have survived the planetary catastrophe, specifically, the residents of "New Krypton" and the denizens of the Phantom Zone. The written language comprises stylized graphical figures and hieroglyphs. In some cases, a single character may refer to a family line or one of Krypton's many guilds.
Notes
- Kryptonese was developed by editor E. Nelson Bridwell as a means of stumping fans who had annoyed him with attempts to make sense of the nonsense scribbles used in Superman stories to that point. What resulted was a 118-character "alphabet."[1]
- Since then, it was revamped again in 1986 for John Byrne's Man of Steel, and again in the 2000s as a syllabic "alphabet" which could be used in place of the language of publication if deciphered.
- The film Man of Steel developed its version of written Kryptonese as well.[2] Darren Doyle developed a fanmade conlang version of the language which was later used officially in the Supergirl TV series[3] and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.[4]
Trivia
- Batman and Wonder Woman are among the very few non-Kryptonians who can speak Kryptonese.[5][6]