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Title: Credit where credit is due: Doyle Kryptonian, Kryptonese, and Kryptonian Post by: Daughter of Krypton on July 06, 2025, 04:25:36 PM I want to give some long-overdue credit where credit is due.
The following information blurb ran in an (apparently new) Superman-family news section that is now contained in all of DC's Superman-related titles. This particular scan is from Supergirl #1 (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/forum/index.php?topic=4124.msg33352#msg33352), which came out a couple of months ago: (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/Encyclopaedia/images/kryptonian-vs-kryptonese-waid-2025.jpg) (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/Encyclopaedia/kryptonian.php) In this panel, and elsewhere in recent DC books, E. Nelson Bridwell's 1970s pre-Crisis "Kryptonese" characters (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/fos/kryptonian/alturniansky_mirror/K-alphabet.php) have returned to DC's continuity, as part of their latest mega-continuity-revamp which appears to be a mash-up of all previous continuities, both pre- and post- Crisis. In effect, everything you ever read did, in fact, happen; regardless of which "age" it is from (but that's a separate post...) When Professor Waid (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/waid.php) writes that "Kryptonian is a cipher", he is referring to the 2000-era Kryptonian transliteration font (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/History/VersionV/kryptonian.php), that was originally created for DC merchandise (such as the Bottle City); then became the basis of the Kryptonian languages that appeared in various TV shows, from Smallville onward, and in Superman comics beginning in 2001 (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/History/VersionV/). When he refers to "Kryptonese is a different dialect with 118 characters and its own grammar," he is referring to the undiscovered E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Turniansky project (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/fortress-of-solitude/kryptonian/grammar/), used in comics in the 70s and early 80s and then erased from continuity for all time, until "all-in" when it came back. What is not said: (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/Krypton/bridwell.jpg) (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2013/08/21/silver-age-kryptonian-font-reborn/) This beautiful, pre-Crisis in appearance Kryptonese font that DC is now using in its comic books was painstakingly created by Darren Doyle and made available on his website here: Silver Age Kryptonian Font: Reborn (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2013/08/21/silver-age-kryptonian-font-reborn/). Just to clarify: DC is not using their own font, nor manually lettering Kryptonese - they are using Darren's actual font (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2013/08/21/silver-age-kryptonian-font-reborn/). Quote from: Darren Doyle "That font was a bear to create. I hand wrote each letter until I got a version I liked, scanned it, vectorized it in Illustrator, then imported each character 1x1 into the font program." (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/Krypton/kryptonese.gif) Darren Doyle is a professional linguist. In 2003, he began what was then called "The Kryptonese Lanuage Project". In short, he constructed a full-on "Kryptonese" language (http://kryptonian.info/) based on E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Turniansky's notes (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/fos/kryptonian/alturniansky_mirror/Khistory.php), and incorporating all information that had appeared in the published comic books. This is a complete constructed language with its own vocabulary and grammar based on canon works and its own new alphabet (http://kryptonian.info/doyle/writing.html), based on the transliteration cipher, but improved and expanded. DC hasn't just used his Silver-Age font -- (https://www.daughterofkrypton.com/superwoman/krypton/Rao/rao-altar-with-alura-and-kara.jpg) His constructed language was used on the screen for the spoken form of Kryptonian in the CW Supergirl (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2017/11/13/doyle-kryptonian-on-supergirl/) television series (episodes 302 (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2017/11/13/doyle-kryptonian-on-supergirl/), 306, 307 (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2017/12/04/supergirl-episodes-306-and-307/), and 313 (http://kryptonian.info/news-feed.html/2018/02/07/supergirl-episode-313/) - maybe more); (https://www.daughterofkrypton.com/superwoman/krypton/kryptonian/supergirl-special-1-kryptonian.jpg) and his improved "Doyle Kryptonian" font as well as his constructed language have been used in DC comics' Supergirl Special #1 (https://www.daughterofkrypton.com/superwoman/krypton/kryptonian/) -- DC appears to have been working directly from his online dictionary (http://kryptonian.info/doyle/dictionary.html): (https://www.daughterofkrypton.com/superwoman/krypton/kryptonian/finish-ewuhshehd.png) As far as I know, he has received no attribution from CW nor from DC. A growing community has arisen around his language, people are learning it; working on original compositions and translations; artwork, and more. Thank you, Darren. (https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/theages/Krypton/alphabet.png) (http://kryptonian.info/doyle/writing.html) See kryptonian.info (http://kryptonian.info/) for more info! :s: |