TRANSLITERATION

Glazorthian words may be transcribed in two ways.

HIGGINSBY transcription was invented by Samuel Higginsby, a linguist aboard Capt. Crandall's ship "Corsair", when first contact was made with the Glazorthians. Higginsby transcription is based on English spelling and is highly idiosyncratic and arbitrary, and not even fully standardized. It has often been referred to pejoratively by critics as "Victorian".

GLUMFDOOP (from Glazorthian GLUMF, letter, and DOOP, shape or structure) transcription provides an accurate guide to how the words are actually written in Glazorthian. Consonant and vowel sounds written as actual letters are written in uppercase, while the sounds represented as modifying marks are written in lowercase. A letter with its accompanying marks is called a GLUMF.

Two GLUMFs may be separated by a dot if necessary to avoid confusion, such as if two capital or two lowercase letters that belong to different GLUMFs are written next to each other.

EXAMPLES:

The Higginsby and Glumfdoop systems will both be used on this website (mainly, of course, because Higginsby is more readable and more fun to write in.)

Return to index.