Alien Prop Tablets/Screens ongoing translation project
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2022 1:52 pm
Preempting the question, "what do those tablets say?"..
✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ Translation of Alteran Prop Tablets ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯
Sometimes the engraved symbol is too crude or misrepresented for a clear and definitive translation. Tis the life of an exoarchaeologist.. meh.
..
(another to come in this same post, but will take a while)
(4/29/23 Update: click here for complete tablet text)
(*puts on earphones to listen to Loreena McKennitt "The Mummers Dance"*, adjusts prescription glasses and starts deciphering next tablet*)
.
..
... meh
..
.
.. mm
...
.... (* sigh *)
.....
...... (* increased finger tapping *)
.......
........ (* leans back with growing frustration and nearly falls to floor *)
.........
.......... AAUUuugghhh
I'm afraid that referencing the above tablet against that of the Alteran alphanumeric "Alpha" & "Beta" lexicon group which I'm utilizing, produced no legible results. Just an incoherent mess of random alphabet symbols which may have been intentional if this prop was a rush job to simply put something out in front of the camera without thought to if someone would later actually try and decipher it. I'll try and research older forms of the Alteran lexicon to see if maybe this tablet was from a much older version of their civilization. I'd really like to try and crack the language to see what all that writing was about.
.........
(..The hands on the clock go round and round..)
..2 hrs later (funny how time seems to stop when you're focused on one thing, yet still flies by outside of your little bubble)
I am now of the thought that the tablet prop may well have meaning as I have come across canon showing new symbol lexicony for the Alteran language. As seen in the episode "Window of Opportunity", Teal'c stands in front of a chalkboard with (new?) Alteran lexicon symbols from the pillars on P4X-639. Daniel believes this form of Alteran language shows a close relation to Latin (still am checking into this for similarities but haven't found any as of yet). But as you can see on the chalkboard, there are symbols not represented on the standard Alteran language. I'll post-it note my current progress on my laptop and try and continue chipping away at this mystery tomorrow evening. Hopefully I can turn up some useful information. Too bad the series doesn't publish a "Daniel's Fieldbook" of handwritten notes he jotted down concerning ancient languages. It would be most helpful (and the franchise owner could find many a SG-1 field archaeologist/researcher willing to pay for it simply so we can be "in-the-know").
..and no Teal'c, I must not give up. Too many tablets left to translate for people to enjoy.
.
..
...
(5 minutes later watching Jack O'Neil at the chalkboard)
Ahh.. okay. The Alteran words relating to Latin then needs to be translated into English (thank you Google Translate). Now I just need to update my original Alteran lexicon dictionary with these new symbols that Daniel, Jack and Teal'c attaches a known (English) letter to. Is it technically accurate to call this chalkboard a Rosetta Stone?
(thanks to this project, I found the alphabets to Wraith, Nox, Furling, Gau'uld, Asgard, standard Ancient, old Ancient.. but not latin)
....................
(Couple days later, I think)..
I printed out the tablet image at the library in 3 parts to provide a closer look at the letters on each 1/3 section. Then I tried to translate short 2-4 letter words which (I thought) should be relatively easy (*sound of bubble about to burst*). From my point of view, with referencing the tablet lexicon language against my notes for 3 versions of Alteran language ("Alpha" -the oldest, "Beta" -not so old, and "Gamma" -the newest). The prop is figured to simply be a visual prop without any meaning given to the arrangement of lettering. Rows of random consonants with few vowels. Not quite what I hoped to find, but sometimes a prop is simply a prop.
✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ Translation of Alteran Prop Tablets ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯
Sometimes the engraved symbol is too crude or misrepresented for a clear and definitive translation. Tis the life of an exoarchaeologist.. meh.
..
(another to come in this same post, but will take a while)
(4/29/23 Update: click here for complete tablet text)
(*puts on earphones to listen to Loreena McKennitt "The Mummers Dance"*, adjusts prescription glasses and starts deciphering next tablet*)
.
..
... meh
..
.
.. mm
...
.... (* sigh *)
.....
...... (* increased finger tapping *)
.......
........ (* leans back with growing frustration and nearly falls to floor *)
.........
.......... AAUUuugghhh
I'm afraid that referencing the above tablet against that of the Alteran alphanumeric "Alpha" & "Beta" lexicon group which I'm utilizing, produced no legible results. Just an incoherent mess of random alphabet symbols which may have been intentional if this prop was a rush job to simply put something out in front of the camera without thought to if someone would later actually try and decipher it. I'll try and research older forms of the Alteran lexicon to see if maybe this tablet was from a much older version of their civilization. I'd really like to try and crack the language to see what all that writing was about.
.........
(..The hands on the clock go round and round..)
..2 hrs later (funny how time seems to stop when you're focused on one thing, yet still flies by outside of your little bubble)
I am now of the thought that the tablet prop may well have meaning as I have come across canon showing new symbol lexicony for the Alteran language. As seen in the episode "Window of Opportunity", Teal'c stands in front of a chalkboard with (new?) Alteran lexicon symbols from the pillars on P4X-639. Daniel believes this form of Alteran language shows a close relation to Latin (still am checking into this for similarities but haven't found any as of yet). But as you can see on the chalkboard, there are symbols not represented on the standard Alteran language. I'll post-it note my current progress on my laptop and try and continue chipping away at this mystery tomorrow evening. Hopefully I can turn up some useful information. Too bad the series doesn't publish a "Daniel's Fieldbook" of handwritten notes he jotted down concerning ancient languages. It would be most helpful (and the franchise owner could find many a SG-1 field archaeologist/researcher willing to pay for it simply so we can be "in-the-know").
..and no Teal'c, I must not give up. Too many tablets left to translate for people to enjoy.
.
..
...
(5 minutes later watching Jack O'Neil at the chalkboard)
Ahh.. okay. The Alteran words relating to Latin then needs to be translated into English (thank you Google Translate). Now I just need to update my original Alteran lexicon dictionary with these new symbols that Daniel, Jack and Teal'c attaches a known (English) letter to. Is it technically accurate to call this chalkboard a Rosetta Stone?
(thanks to this project, I found the alphabets to Wraith, Nox, Furling, Gau'uld, Asgard, standard Ancient, old Ancient.. but not latin)
....................
(Couple days later, I think)..
I printed out the tablet image at the library in 3 parts to provide a closer look at the letters on each 1/3 section. Then I tried to translate short 2-4 letter words which (I thought) should be relatively easy (*sound of bubble about to burst*). From my point of view, with referencing the tablet lexicon language against my notes for 3 versions of Alteran language ("Alpha" -the oldest, "Beta" -not so old, and "Gamma" -the newest). The prop is figured to simply be a visual prop without any meaning given to the arrangement of lettering. Rows of random consonants with few vowels. Not quite what I hoped to find, but sometimes a prop is simply a prop.