Cypher Language: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
The writers need a new language. But they don't want to actually invent a new language. So they make the "new" language a cipher of
Works from non-English-speaking countries may do the same with their own language or alphabet, but not always.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Piers Anthony]] sometimes does this for the language barrier between Xanthians and Mundanes outside ''[[Xanth]]''.
* The [[Artemis Fowl]] series has lines of Gnommish and Centaurian running along the bottom of each page (ommited in some U.S. editions.) Rather than being graphemes of a full-on [[Con Lang]] they constitute a
** Though this is only applicable for the codes along the bottom of the pages- in-universe, Colfer instead makes them completely seperate languages.
* [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Aurabesh Aurabesh] (sometimes Aurebesh) in ''[[Star Wars]]''. It has a few new characters for common two-letter combinations like "th", but whether they get used varies.
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* Hylian is like this in ''Zelda''. More specifically, it's a code for Japanese kana in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'', and a code for English in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' (though flipped right-to-left in the Wii version).
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series of PC games, Daedric is a substitution cypher of the alphabet, with symbols replacing letters. However, Daedric runes are not arranged like Latin letters - it's quite common to see writing in Daedric written vertically or with runes superimposed over others. In a similar vein, there's the Dwemer language seen in a few books (though it's completely meaningless, in that case), but becomes similar to Daedric cipher in ''Oblivion''.
* The dinosaur language "Saurian" in ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]''
* Melnics in ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'' looks graphically like angular, runic Sanskrit, but it's a (good) English cipher.
** Many Tales games have text which are cyphers, or in the extreme cyphers where the new letters actually look similar to they're English counterparts, making it actually fairly legible if you look hard enough.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]'' uses a substitution-cipher font to represent the future language Interlac; both the comics and [[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|the cartoon series]] use this for in-jokes.
* An alien language invented for sight gags in ''[[Futurama]]'' used this, being a straight letter-replacement for English. It would frequently show up as graffiti or on signs that viewers could interpret to get an extra joke. A second alien language (AL2, to obsessed fans) was invented in the second season, using a much more complicated mathematical substitution, because the writing staff are a bunch of massive [[
* The [[Canadian Series]] ''[[Dragon Booster]]'' has its dragon script. Again, it's a substitution-cipher font.
* According to [[Word of God]], the written language in ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' is this and can actually be deciphered if one looked hard enough.
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