Myst Online: URU Live Forums :: View topic - Translations of inscriptions

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

Since the search function in this forum works about as well as a broken axe handle, I have no idea of this has been asked before. So here we go (again?).

I've been searching the internet for translations of D'ni writing on various buildings and signs, and wonder if anyone knows where I can find them.

More specifically, I'm looking for translations of the writing on the Ferry Terminal and Kerath's Arch.

So, anyone know or can point me at a source?

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Larry LeDeay

Rhee

Joined: 28 Mar 2007

Posts: 148

Location: Saskatchewan, Canada

oooo and of course my brain is in low-gear right now due to a bunch of other things going on lol... i can't remember specific URL's, but if you search for D'ni Linguistic Society, that should at least get you rolling in the right direction. I don't know how active they are at this very date, but i know that they likely have translated all of that text, and if they don't ahve it files right there on their site somewhere, they surely have links to places that do.

Some of the D'ni dictionaries make use of those texts as well, such as Kadish's letter, citing them as sources for their vocabulary. They may also have links or actual complete translations of various texts, not only from the world of Uru, but also things from Riven and other Myst series games where the D'ni language crops up.

Hope that helps! If I get around to it, i will hunt out some links for you, unless of course you respond by saying "Yay! That pointed me in the right direction and I've got it covered!"

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

Thanks, but if it were that easy, I wouldn't have put up this topic. I looked over those sites and didn't find anything about the signs and inscriptions. They mostly work off of the papers you find around.

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Larry LeDeay

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

Here are pictures of the texts in question:

Kerath's Arch

Ferry Terminal

...Wow. Now that I have them together, it looks like they both say the same thing.

More than that. Cyan used the same graphic for them. They are broken and worn away in exactly the same spots.

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Larry LeDeay

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

I started transliterating the letters myself, and when I had enough of them done, I was able to search for and find the phrase by Google.

It's "rehbahntahno tehneeehn shehmtee".

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Larry LeDeay

Tai'lahr

Joined: 15 Mar 2007

Posts: 3197

Location: Revelations' Hood, est. 26 Feb 2007

Yes, they're the same. Everything you need to translate them can be found at the D'ni Dictionary.

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Zardoz

Joined: 09 May 2006

Posts: 1082

Location: On the bluff

There were a couple of lengthy discussions about this phrase in the D'ni Linguistic Fellowship forums, but those forums crashed in 2009 and the threads (up until that moment) disappeared. One 2010 thread did discuss the phrase and in that thread, there is a link to a 2006 DLF thread that was captured by Archive.org.

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

According to that thread, the phrase appears in many different places. I'll have to pay attention to that in my explorations.

The other thing that thread points up is that no two people seem to agree on what it might mean.

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Larry LeDeay

Charura

Joined: 14 Oct 2009

Posts: 1183

And, of course, when you are trying to Greet new people you would like to have all the answers.

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DLordofTime

Joined: 08 Oct 2011

Posts: 1007

The main thing that no-one can agree on is 'bahntahno'. Some says it's the lake water, others that it's something else. So unless RAWA comes along and tells us what it means, we can only speculate. And then there's the verb 'tehnee', if that is indeed the correct spelling. After all, it could be 'taynee'. But that doesn't matter really. We can only speculate on that one too.

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

It's not just for me to know the answer. I'm putting together an article about the Ae'gura waterfront for my Uru Photography topic, and that inscription shows up three times in the area. Once on the Ferry Terminal, and twice on the Arch.

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Larry LeDeay

DLordofTime

Joined: 08 Oct 2011

Posts: 1007

Twice? Really?

Main_Avvie

Joined: 05 Jul 2010

Posts: 1750

Location: um... how did i get here..?

Is there enough understanding of D'ni to develop an automatic D'ni translator to translate all sorts of world languages into D'ni and vice versa....

Like Google Translate (only better Razz

) or has that been done already?

Deius

Joined: 10 May 2006

Posts: 281

Location: Ontario, Canada

The translation has never been fully confirmed. What we have so far is: The [unknown] [unknown]'s you (plural). Anything more than that is pure speculation, which accounts for the fact that nobody can agree on what it means. There have been numerous attempts since the early days to get RAWA to give us the proper translation, but to my knowledge he has not provided one yet.

larryf58

Joined: 17 Oct 2011

Posts: 106

Location: Macon, MO

DLordofTime wrote:

Twice? Really?

Yes. It's on both sides of the capital of the Arch. You just can't see the other inscription because it's normally inaccessible to explorers.

Here's the writing that can be seen:

Here's the writing on the opposite side:

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Larry LeDeay

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