How A Gacha Created Its Own Language

[@lens_the_martyr]

Banger

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Couldn’t have done it without you!

[@PlasuMinasu]

This thumbnail told me to click the video

[@eskayseries3587]

Hi Plasu big fan

[@PlasuMinasu]

@@eskayseries3587

[@sonaimus2953]

It’s actually “my final gift to you” 🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Thank you PlusMinus!

[@16Vessel]

Fun Fact! Logos' chapter 11 art, E2 art, and S1 ring all spell "Scribo Imperium" or "Scribo Imperiumvoco" multiple consecutive times. That roughly translates to "I write the domain" or "I write and speak the domain" It's a domain expansion. His casting is just "DOMAIN EXPANSION DOMAIN EXPANSION DOMAIN EXPANSION"

[@16Vessel]

Also, we know some extra words (And can probably derive meaning from them) from the IS5 menu UI (Which would give us an approximate or direct translation with the UI they represent), such as Esqa Lonam, Tesauro, Tabulo, or Sarağul. There's also the already known words like Sarkaz, "Those without home", Teekaz, "Those with home", Kazdel, "Homeland", Wis'adel "Wishing for (a) home", and probably names such as Laqeramaline Duq'khanfaliz (Aefanyl's mother) or Duq'arael (The Sanguinarch)

[@ArachnoParadox]

it is imperium voco scribo, "i write, therefore i command". he says it in game he also has a hidden line in his e2 art which probably says (because some of the words are too hidden) cresco iunci ravi supra collem dominae non errabits banshee

[@lexalot8337]

I think the language is not just Sarkaz, but the language of the First Civilization. The Teekaz probably adopted it in order to use Civilight Eterna.

[@taka_0012]

Then why did Doctor have to learn the Sarkaz language, when he/she woke up the first time. Doctor read the notes to learn it.

[@Pertiopa]

@@taka_0012 the doctor had to relearn a lot of things after he woke up he would remember stuff afterdoing it like relearning sarkaz, also im not sure about sarkaz being an first civilization language but the docter would definitely learned sarkaz before losing his memories

[@taka_0012]

@@Pertiopa Doctor woke up the first time, he/she didn't lose his/her memory. Kal'sit says the sarcophagus does not remove memories. If the language of the first civilization was Sarkaz, why would the Doctor have to relearn it, when it's his/her language? That's what I'm asking. And in my opinion, the Sarkaz alphabet is the Talos-2 civilization alphabet. It was said by Doctor him/herself, that Sarkaz took its civilization form from Talos-2. He/she even woke up, and spoke with kal'sit using the unknown language (the language of the first civilization). without having to learn, he/she has activated his language unconsciously.

[@typeoddnamehere2362]

​@taka_0012 the other thing that comes to mind it that the other languages on Terra resemble our real world languages, yet this one doesn't really resemble anything we have in the same way that Ursine is Russian, for example. I've heard that the Sarkaz language might most likely be Yiddish, while the Teekaz language could very well be Hebrew. It also kind of lines up with how the Banshees' arts work. To me, how their arts work brings to mind where the concept of golems originated, and 'words of power' being a key thing to make the golem work in said story.

[@Guildmarm]

@@taka_0012 The text written in first civ language isn't what is spoken by the sarkaz or other species on terra. If it were the doctor would have understood them right away. This written language is not remotely common on Terra otherwise we'd see it everywhere. The only location we see it is on the amiya conversion menu meaning it's specific to the civilite eterna, which is a first civ piece of technology. The only other places we might be able to see such a language would be cearula arbor, the stargate, or the celestial fulcrum (aka. The Law). Additionally with regards to logos, the Sarkaz rely on a bloodline of Teekaz that fused with originium, with the CE at its epicenter. These abilities are drawn from and originate from the CE and first civ technology. Also most of what floats around logos basically says "emperium" or some such. Further, as far as we know, Talos 2 does not contain a single Teekaz/Sarkaz civilization and we know Talos 2 was an anchor point for the first civ, being an important and strategic point they had (source: babel/ep14)

[@SteppingStairs]

Hypergryphics

[@stef2337]

Lowlighics

[@Area_GnC]

HyperGlyphs..

[@feralchimaera99]

One thing I can say They probably did the same on Ex Astris, since that game even has it's main songs have an alien language. Makes you think they really put a lot of thought on world building The song is "Ottobesser"

[@bakutie]

god i wish they gave us the whole language

[@lancergt1000]

They actually did, Allindish (Ex Astris's planet) writing is based off of Akkadian script

[@gribberoni]

Hoederer would be proud. Absolutely stellar work! I came into this thinking I'd just watch someone talk about the Sarkaz alphabet, but in addition to that I got a video talking about how real life language, alphabet, and typography work, AND a look into a really cool typeface project for the Sarkaz alphabet! I really hope they release Sarkaz Serif as an actual usable font in the future!

[@SUPAH_SUPAH_SUPAH]

Making a new Sarkaz font really elevated this video.

[@eskayseries3587]

Hi Supah also big fan

[@nekotine5920]

knee surgery

[@HelterwithoutSkelter]

supah what happened to your toes

[@domi-mbmb]

peak

[@aetheraiuxhsjzususj800]

Omg its gummy's spouse

[@istri_]

Most common HalfACupOfRice masterpiece

[@stef2337]

and some noodles

[@talos198]

13:34 you made me think about one detail in old sarkaz architecture. It's always adding and reshaping. Houses builded one to another, originium crystals in walls not removed but mixed with other things. Even Soul furnance is metal shapes layering each on another like sarkaz keep adding pieces overtime. Even sarkaz themselves are giving their names to each other either by creating one based upon personality or claiming it from passed away people. Maybe sarkaz language looks like shapes because earlier they reshaped different pieces of metal and added it on metal piece bigger, just like with soul furnance.

[@kiragnia]

Linguistics my beloved..... And it's from the game I'm currently having some kind of hyperfixation towards the lore too.... Thank you for sharing this!

[@HalfACupOfRice]

I’m glad that I was still able to share something insightful even if this subject is outside of my own area of expertise. If you want to others who can talk way more about the linguistic aspect of Sarkaz, I highly suggest joining the Arknights Wiki discord server (and I do believe they’re looking for linguists atm).

[@TheOnlyMrFake]

Good video, but it's about the ALPHABET, not the language. The language itself is based on various real world semitic language like Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew. (In fact, every language in Arknights is just a variation of real world languages. Teekaz/Sarkaz is noteworthy because it's less directly copied from the source material.) It's honestly a fascinating topic of its own. As for the alphabet, I'd like to point out that the scripts used for those languages (especially Ancient South Arabian and Geʽez) are also weirdly geometric because they're in a transitional state simplified from the original pictograms but not adapted to be quickly written by hand. I'm not convinced that the Sarkaz alphabet is directly based on any of those scripts, but it might be an influence on its graphical design. And one more thing, which another comment already mentioned: The Teekaz/Sarkaz might've adopted their alphabet from the civilization that the Doctor and Kal'tsit belonged to, potentially through the Civilight Eterna (which Amiya's module's story shows stores memories by members of that civilization). You brought up that it's seemingly designed to be displayed, rather than written by hand. I think so too, but displayed by computers rather than originium arts. (If the theory is correct, the alphabet is likely way older than originium itself).

[@16Vessel]

Noteworthy: Sarkaz didn't do Originium Arts, they do Witchcraft, which is not the same (Though Logos is working on a theory to unify Arts and Witchcraft, since he seemed to notice similarities). Also, Sarkaz as a language is based on latin too. There's plenty of Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic, but plenty of Latin stuck in there as well

[@TheOnlyMrFake]

​@@16Vessel Are there any Latin parts not tied to the Sankta?

[@16Vessel]

@@TheOnlyMrFake Logos' written incantarions are in Latin, and the IS5 menu has words derived from Latin, specifically Misionam for the "Missions" tab

[@GrimoireLeSot]

Besties wake up New HalfACupOfRice Banger just dropped

[@bakutie]

woot

[@velvetra29]

Man, this really reminds me of Typography History & Design class back in college. Great stuff!

[@bionicfactory1]

100000000 years of Sarkaz lore and a whole ass language. Thank you HG

[@DanilKaliyzhniy]

Don't know what to write here, just happy to see a new piece of a great Arknights content. Well done!

[@akmalrafiaa4772]

Sheesh bro, I honestly never expected Arknights' lore would grow to be this expansive, it's very cool and heartwarming to see

[@ardianata752]

I never thought that a video about a gacha game could educate me about the history of fonts and how they are made, this is the same as the lecture material I studied at my uni. anyway impressive video

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Thank you! I’m glad that you found the video interesting.

[@lingerlights]

Sea born language when

[@m_imran7957]

Seaborn don't have language since they don't have their own culture and a need of identifier that connect them with same interest since they more focus on their survival instinct. I think what you referring to is previous civilization language

[@lancergt1000]

That don't count, that's just funky English

[@Bylov6812]

Community is chiming in, therefore all is right in this world

[@_aqualion]

When you pointed out the small gaps in sarkaz letters that don't make sense for most writing forms, I had another idea for how they might have come about. Sarkaz culture also places tremendous significance on weapons, so my idea is that perhaps this script was originally carved, such as with a knife or sword.

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Interesting theory!

[@Glittr_]

Super interesting the exact kind of niche information i need to fill more of my brain with

[@please_be_an_operator_soon]

"For the sake of worldbuilding, we created a new language, or modified the already existing one." -HG, probably

[@stef2337]

People 1000 years later: These ancient scribbles in game looks interesting

[@please_be_an_operator_soon]

@stef2337 I could imagine there is some troll in HG that use their own made up language to say "yo mama's gay" or smth to someone who are willing to translate it XD.

[@zenalias3131]

Nice, this is a cool project to follow. For example, I play mtg and there is a dedicated group of fans who actively decipher an invented script language for one of the game's BBEG. *Phyrexian language if anyone is interested.

[@Cyber_Quant]

Such an interesting video, damn I was never as interested in Arknights lore and world building but this video made me want to learn it whole now

[@ducky9446]

13:45 Just noticed you wrote M twice when you meant D, great video though love your stuff on Arknights

[@HalfACupOfRice]

And this is why you don't push back editing to the last minute and think you can get away exporting a video without QC (；一_一). Thank you for the catch!

[@dokutahblob]

Nothing to say but applaud you for such an informative video. Bravo indeed.

[@Spiderrtank]

It's Tunic all over again 😀

[@candywitch3390]

INSANE worldbuilding. Also great video.

[@arknightsfunnyman]

That was a really nice watch! I've always been interested in the story of Arknights, so learning more about one of its languages, something I didn't think about until now, was really cool.

[@VCE4]

Even though there were not much of editing, it is still a great video. Somehow this linguistic-bomb in Endfield went completely under the radar for me. Can totally agree on importance of languages, as well as the fact that we almost always take them for granted. But still.. running Babel OST throughout the whole video is just cruel, lol I though I already started to recover from it a bit, but you just pressed the dagger into a yet fresh wounds 😭 Thank you

[@LiterallyLozyl]

In the world of the First Civilization, thoughts and feelings are transferred instantly. So one can imagine a single line of their "text" must include an underlying mountainous amount of data. AK has left me in shock over and over

[@ChaseddiHondo]

AK lore so complicated you can make a field of study for it

[@stef2337]

whole course work for it and free S+

[@Itashafan]

Man I love arknights 🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@YoiYoisasa]

Another masterpiece! Outstanding summary and explanation of Arknights' world construction. HG has indeed put in an unimaginable effort here, which is not what we usually look for in Gacha Games...... But it is a great undertaking, worth the effort, without a doubt.

[@mistared4021]

This was probably a pretty big time investment, and it's a great and fascinating video.

[@RyukiOokunami]

Holy shit seeing another Arknights analysis video from ya! I'm so in and no regrets enjoying it. do keep it up!

[@JullOxW]

Hello HalfACupOfRice, do you think you could share with us the "Sarkaz font" used through the video? It's really cool looking and I'd love to be able to use it for some Arknights related stuff I make sometimes

[@Purplepentapus_]

Wow, that serif version looks INCREDIBLE

[@DeepCognition-iu5bv]

I'm sorry, I heard the Babel ost and couldn't see the video because tears clouded my vision.

[@Absolute__Zero]

Arknights is absolute peak in the lore/world building department 🙏

[@angelcarranza1558]

more HalfACupOfRice peak AK video lets fucking go

[@dennisgonzales9521]

another quality content, thanks for the video!

[@legacyZerox]

New vid on the meta / graphic design concepts of AK? Instant Like

[@rabies6418]

THIS VIDEO ESSAY… IS A BANGER…

[@tice7217]

Seaborn and sami languages next (or maybe more like alphabet than languages)

[@bloodyfisht6877]

I had a feeling i saw those symbols before and looks like it was about Ex Astris, the in game language has similar symbols although its not 1:1 copy, guess the same language creator was hired for both of them.

[@kuroized5605]

Great video as usual. I hope you also look into how text written inside HG other game "ex astris" which looks really similar to the "sarkaz text"to me

[@martimsousa2601]

GG really good video my man keep going

[@yon9533]

ohhh niceeee another arknights analysis vid to watch

[@Yammatti]

The fictual newspaper is insane

[@fischwell]

Are you sure its a language, what if its just an alphabet, to my knowledge sarkaz is a species just like human is a species and human has a lot of language. I mean, the symbol 'u' in russian and english is pronounced differently.

[@porokichin7878]

That's an interesting point

[@lens_the_martyr]

Qe malihate qlim Sarkazo. Yeah, it's a language, but it's only properly elaborated on once IS#5 comes out.

[@dreadfulman5191]

The Sarkaz language may exist since the game does distinguish it from english in the dialogue but the Sarkaz script is for the most part a typeface or font for the english alphabet, except for the few outliers which don't make sense as shown in the video

[@HalfACupOfRice]

From what I have heard, Sarkaz early on was based primarily on other languages. However as Arknights has continued to evolve, we’ve seen a unique lexicon for the Sarkaz language. What we can say for certain is that our understanding of Sarkaz is evolving as we discover new information about Sarkaz which Hypergryph is continuing to release.

[@McFennec]

wooooow you just became alan turning

[@overloader7900]

> Is this new language or font? > Its a good language sir. > Look inside > Font

[@erfanthered9801]

Great video

[@ERAS3ROFFICIAL]

You guys should check they other game called "Ex Astris" They made a song in a new language with their own alphabet. Also you can download the font and instal on your desktop 🤣🤣🤣

[@llennamaru]

AK community 🔥🔥🔥

[@tieradlerch.217]

Its Hyperglyph after all 😂

[@Star0w]

When it comes to languages from a game, Warframe always comes to mind because theres factions and they all use different languages. Idk i just thought it would be a fun fact

[@TheRyderShotgunn]

(Lungmen profanity)

[@SzaraWydra]

People, why you don't subscribe this guy, he got 6,5k views at the time of writing this comment and he got only 2,4k subscribers.

[@insulindianmarechale]

shouldve covered Honkai Star Rail instead since they have a language for each planet you go to, with intergalactic basic in the herta space station, belobogian on jarilo-VI, xianzhouan (probably the most interesting one, since the language does not contain vowels, example being kafka's name written as"KFK") on the Luofu, and Penaconian on Penacony.

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Unfortunately I don’t play HSR nor am I a part of the HSR community so I stuck with what I’m most familiar with. HSR’s languages do sound interesting though!

[@billcosbee2057]

I just wanna know what (Sarkaz expletive) actually is so we can know what W kept saying in ch.14 lol

[@sophiecheng2384]

Fun fact: Latin can be written from right to left (and most character is flipped)

[@beambreaker300]

Very interesting video, gives me a lot of food for thought! Would you mind sharing the regular and serif font tables as .ttf files? The serif version is especially curious, since it reminds me of existing letters that were modified into new shapes. I wonder if the rotation of the letters reveal a different meaning; like instead of going from A to Z in the alphabet, the starting point is determined by the exact rotation. Another very intriguing detail is that some of the numbers carry its meaning by displaying a certain amount of shapes in its own form (examples: 0, 2, 3, 5, 6), while others resemble Arabic numerals (1, 4, 7, 8, 9). Funnily enough, you can alternatively solve the numeral glyphs by giving each triangle a value of 1: While 0 is not having any triangles, 1 is missing exactly one, 2 is missing two, 3 is missing three. 4 seems to change up the pattern, filling up 3 triangles and taking one away (It is fascinating though, that 4 is the same shape as 1 but mirrored and turned to the right by 90 degrees). 5 on the other hand offers two full and two empty triangles, leaving one big rectangle as the fifth element. 6 follows the same trend as 5 with three full and three empty triangles, leaving an untouched block (Alternatively, you can look at it as filling up the two triangles from 5, carving three new ones, with the block leaving the last element to 6). 7 is very tricky, but here I figured out that it follows the opposite rulings of 1-3, 7 is ten with three triangles removed, leaving seven. 8 is the same, ten with 2 triangles removed to form eight. 9 is ten with one removed, standing at nine. (Again sharing its shape with 1 and 4, but this time it is turned by 90 degrees first and then mirrored. It seems that rotation and mirroring changes the value of the glyph in some way, doing it for one numeral would've been a coincidence, two make a pattern.) Even though there seem to be different rules at work between all of them, there are shared traits to all of them it seems. If we translate the rotation and mirroring to letters, I wonder what we could come up with, since it seems that the standard value is 1, first mirroring and then rotating results in 4, first rotating and then mirroring results in 9. Perhaps the letters have to be moved along the alphabet depending on the technique used to change their position? I'm not sure if any of this can be of help, but I like to give my opinion on this all the same!

[@soybeans8587]

Guess Whose back When LoneTrail Exist

[@starcatcherksp1517]

Next video: How a WW1 vet created his own multiple languages

[@taka_0012]

You know, the alphabet that looks like the letter in the Endfield trailer. That alphabet is from Talos 2 civilization.

[@ArachnoParadox]

endfield is future arknights, they brought it there

[@bakutie]

@@ArachnoParadox but we know the past civilization did build on talos 2 before

[@bakutie]

my brain exploded

[@hellx141]

this isn't a language, this is just an encryption

[@HeliPotter2000]

Minecraft enchantment table

[@selensewar]

This is very cool, but i somehow expected it to be more than just "latin letters reskin". That would require so much more effort, though, and wouldn't be worth it.

[@YoiYoisasa]

In the history of fantasy works, there are indeed some fictional characters that are not just about Latin letter skinning, such as the Ar tonelico series' hymmnos' - an absolute genius World Building. However, even it focuses more on grammar and building completely independent logical systems. It is usually difficult to start with letters, mainly because there are only so many syllables that humans can produce. Letters correspond to the sounds of humans themselves, making it difficult to truly create new things. Ancient people had already completed almost all the work.

[@selensewar]

@@YoiYoisasa yes, i agree. I honestly not sure why i expected anything else, given that simple premise.

[@lens_the_martyr]

Oh, it's not just a latin letters reskin, but actually a very intriguing language. I'll list an example poem from IS#5 for you: Manerit ele qirmam Maradit ele agašlehemam. Et in eld urbusil nečateliš. In eld qav’parifanil benulitel. Maraditazam luqidi kerda passam isfaeliš. Qri eld şwiǧemam, šeraqimam koneliš. Qri šeraqimam, kazdelimam koneliš. Passam sarkazo isfit

[@selensewar]

@@lens_the_martyr oh! See, this, this is what makes me smile, this is satisfactory. IS5 is going to be so cool, i can already feel it.

[@smiles4045]

Wait so W's name is literally written as \\ but thicker and slightly more straightened up? That's kinda funny

[@akmalrafiaa4772]

Interesting, so there are cases where simple transliteration works but then in other cases it gives random jumbles of letter. How likely do you think those cases were written for aesthetic purposes? Like those examples you gave in Endfield

[@HalfACupOfRice]

That is a question that would probably be more suited to someone actually involved in the deciphering of the Sarkaz language lol. If you had to ask my perspective on it, I would say that it is quite likely the Sarkaz characters were used decoratively rather than have a deeper meaning behind them. But who knows? Perhaps there is some deeper meaning once we understand more about the language.

[@okboi5723]

Sarkaz,sami,aegir and i thinks sargon/old sargon also have alphabet too?

[@vappie]

Is the text seen in Reclamation Algorithm 2 also Sarkaz then? Can be seen underneath the Headquarters, though some of the characters there don't quite match to any of the symbols in the chart shown in the video.

[@lens_the_martyr]

It's the geometric font Lot.

[@ch1ngch3nghanji14]

22:07 did he just read latin 💀

[@freakdeath1020]

We need to understand the conlang

[@ArsSteMar]

I was here at 666 likes (I did the 666th one), and as an Arknights player, this is real

[@Fizzyon71]

Watching this video reminded me that Star Wars also has their own written language: Aurabesh, which look quite similar to serif Sarkaz

[@stef2337]

Lowlight who just draw random kanjis and people believe it's new language: guess it's canon event now... If be serious, I guess he really was having inspiration from mythologies to create his own language (I hope he at least was having inspiration in end and not actual random symbols lmao)

[@hideandslide4586]

yooooooooooooooooooooo

[@sliralisk]

Not sure if your video style is inspired by Rhystic Studies(Magic the Gathering content creator) but there are definitely similarities

[@Laurentina_enjoyer]

and yet most of the sarkaz are illiterate 😭

[@putrairhamni8883]

You must didn't know path to nowhere huh,

[@OnMyLunchBreak07]

Here to help with the algorithm 😈

[@Qyoh3]

Finally a new language to learn!

[@alicjacaban2226]

Gatcha better than most of AAA games novadays.

[@rhael42]

No. Never will be. No matter how bad AAA games are, a gacha is still a gacha and will be worse simply because of how it's monetized, regardless of its other qualities.

[@Xedllin]

​@@rhael42reminder that the yearly mtx-filled sports games are under AAA soooo nope gacha mtx isn't the "worst".

[@SkyFireYZ]

@@rhael42 Never bought pokemon cards as a child huh?

[@alicjacaban2226]

@@rhael42 hm at last no one try to spread The message by Gatcha🫣.

[@ImmortalAbyss]

​@@rhael42 Concord

[@Ultra_DuDu]

The "language" is just a code... clickbait and boring.

[@JAG_The-Arbiter]

For anyone wondering, the thumbnail contains the characters for the word "Sarkaz" Also this video is excellent bait. Lure gacha players in and give them a history lesson. Brilliantly done. 🟥🚬

[@HalfACupOfRice]

Come for the cute girls, stay to hear about how controversial the origin of serif is.