In 1981, DC Comics put out a 3 issue mini-series called The Krypton Chronicles. The series covered Superman's genealogy & the history of Planet Krypton. In a previous post, I shared the Map of the Planet Krypton for this series.
This post will about the what at the end of each issue. On that final page was "A Krypton Glossary", a listing of various Kryptonese terms & phrases. Kryptonese is the language of Krypton (or was circa 1981). Instead of posting images of those pages from the comics I'll share the entries that I thought was interesting. You'd just be reading it anyways. :)
The Glossary gives this as a prologue: "We have done our best to translate the Kryptonese words and names into the English alphabet, but this is not always easy, as the Kryptonese alphabet consists of 118 characters each with a precise sound. A double letter indicates a strong emphasis on the sound. Kryptonese plurals are created by adding an O to the word, as we add an S in English."
Krypton also has it's own numbering system "There are 11 characters for the numerical system. Their zero is used only for the purpose of indicating a zero, while 10 has a special character of it's own. Using the Roman X to stand for it, we could say that X=10, 1X=20, 2X=30, and so on. 100 is 9X, 101=X1, 110=XX, and 111 is the first three digit number."
Scattered through out the 3 pages of the Glossary are how the People of Krypton tell time:
- 1 Thrib is a Kryptonian "second". Thribo are the pural form of Thrib.
- 1 Dendar is a Kryptonian "minute" consisting of 100 Thribo. Dendaro are the plural form of Dendar.
- 1 Wolu is a Kryptonian "hour" consisting of 100 Dendaro. Woluo are the plural form of Wolu.
- 1 Zetyar is a Kryptonian "day" made up of 10 Woluo. Zetyaro are the plural form of Zetyar.
- 1 Fanff is a Kryptonion "week" made up of 6 Zetyaro. Fanffo are the plural form of Fanff.
- 1 Lorax is a Kryptonian "month". There are 6 Loraxo in a Kryptonian Amzet. Loraxo are the plural form of Lorax.
- 1 Amzet is a Kryptonain "year". There are 438 Zetyaro, 73 Fanffo & 6 Loraxo in a Amzet. Amzeto are the plural form of Amzet.
18 Amzeto is equal 25 Earth years. Since Kryptonains' age at the same rate on Krypton as they do on Earth, a Kryptonian was a fully grown at the age of 15 (according to the Glossary).
Here are a few selected terms from the Glossary that I found interesting:
- Drygur: The Kryptonian word for "leader"; roughly equivalent to our "President".
- Moliom: Any Member of the Science Council.
- Drygur Moliom: The Leader of the Science Council.
- The Science Council: The ruling body of Krypton and in Kandor. Members are elected for life by a vote of the people, based on their contributions to science.
- Bethgar: The Kryptonain word for "ruler"; roughly equivalent to our "King" or "Emperor". Bythgar is the feminine form of Bethgar; equivalent to "Queen" or "Empress".
- Tanth: a title of respect for a man; equivalent to "Sir" or "Mister" in English. The feminine form is Tynth; roughly "Lady" or "Madame". Tantho & Tyntho is the plural form of Tanth & Tynth.
- Tanthuo Flez: From the same root as Tanth; Tanthu (The singular) cannot be exactly translated into English, as we have no equivalent word. It indicates a non-human creature accorded great respect. Combined with Flez, meaning "able to fly", the term is used for the amazing creatures which saved the people from the flood. The best we can do in translating Tanthuo Flez into English is to call it the "Winged One".
- El: An ancient Kryptonese words meaning Star.
- Kal: An ancient Kryptonese word meaning Child.
- Kal-El: Superman's Kryptonian Name, which means Star Child. Superman is not the only member of his family to ever have the name Kal-El.
- Hiaz: a liquid measure used in ancient Krypton. It was somewhere between one pint and one-half liter.
- Grahu: An artificial material. Somewhat like plastic but much stronger, used for building on Krypton. A Grahu-Hut is a portable shelter made from Grahu.
- Hatuar: The Kryptonian word for Asbestos.
- Oliphent: A type of large animal domesticated and used as a beast of burden in ancient Urrika. Despited the similarity to our word "elephant", there is little resemblance to this Earth creature except that both are large animals. The Oliphent was not even a mammal, but a warm-blooded egg-laying creature. If, as some scientist now believe, dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they may have been something like the Olipehent.
- Kandor: The former capital of Krypton until it was stolen, shrunken, and placed in a bottle buy the space-villain Brainiac. After defeating Brainiac, Superman kept the bottle-city in his fortress until he gowned a way to enlarge it on another world.
- Kryptonopolis: The city of Superman's birth. Actually, this is a rendering of the name in English, using the greek "polis" (city). The original Kryptonian name is very difficult to pronounce.
- Lurvan: The "new world" continent which Kandor and Kryptonopolis were located.
- Urrika: The "old world" continent on which Kryptonian civilization began.
- Dandahu: Krypton's largest ocean; east of Urrika and west of Lurvan.
- Juru: a valley on the continent of Lurvan. The only part of the planet which was never explored.
- Mithen: One of Krypton's two moons. It was hurled into a new solar orbit when Krypton exploded.
- Wegthor: The other of Krypton's two moons. It was colonized, but was then destroyed by an experiment of the criminal scientist Jax-Ur, killing the people who had colonized Wegthor. The remains of this moon joined space debris to form rings around Krypton like those around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
- The Phantom Zone: a twilight dimension into which convicted criminals were projected during the last year of Krypton's existence.
- Rokyn: Name of Kandor's new world. It comes from RO, the possessive form of Rao, and KYN, meaning "gift". Thus Rokyn is "Rao's Gift" or "The Gift of God".
- Rao: In the mythology of ancient Krypton, the sun-god, who was deemed the chef of all gods. So great was the respect for the red sun of Krypton that any soldier of Erok's time automatically became an officers if he had red hair. When Jaf-El preached the worship of one god, he gave Him the name of Rao, though no longer identifying Him specifically with the sun. Note that in the wedding ceremony, the phrase used was "Rao, who kindled the sun." showing HIm to be the sun's creator, but not the sun itself.
- Yuda: one of the chief goddesses of ancient Krypton. She was the patron of love and Krypton's two moons, which, when they seemed to come together in the night sky, were believed to represent marriage. Through her worship ended with the flood, she was remembered in in folklore, and at one time mechanical statue of her was at certain festivals in Kryptonopolis.
Now I'm not sure if DC Comics even uses any of this information anymore (I know they still use some of the name but maybe not the definitions they had 1981). I did think that it was cool that at one time they thought enough to come up with these terms. Feel free to use them with your friends & show how nerdy you are.
Until next time Stay Jazzy!
Until next time Stay Jazzy!
- Brian
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