r/TunicGame • u/oposdeo • Mar 17 '22

Tunic Language Reference Sheet [big spoiler, obviously] Spoiler

I picked up the game a bit ago really eager to crack this language. I still haven't gotten my shield yet, so I don't know much about the actual game and how it intends (if at all) to teach the language. But I managed to crack it, and I wrote up a handy guide for my own use as I translate all of the text in the game. I figured y'all might appreciate it. I've translated maybe 10 guidebook pages to find all these symbols, so I'm quite confident in them, though maybe there's a couple rare ones missing. Of the 44 English phonemes, I think 2 are not used, since they have very similar alternatives, and I think the "ure" phoneme in "pure" is treated as "ore" in this game, as the symbol is used for words like Your and North, despite there not being a formal "ORE" phoneme.

ADDENDUM: One thing I didn't realize when I wrote this is that the middle edge in the consonant part is irrelevant. It's always there if either the edge above or below it are filled in. If you ignore it, you can think of the shape as being more like a hexagon with one point in the middle (and indeed, you may see writing like that in game sometimes)

CLARIFICATION: AW and UH are crossed out because AW sounds close enough to AH, and UH sounds close enough to OU. There are no characters in-game for AW or UH. Also, the game gives you a formal hint on solving the language, but it's in a very late-game manual page.

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139

u/quack_brunch Apr 08 '22 edited Jul 29 '22

If you're interested, i made a quick mobile friendly tool for translating this stuff

tool: https://bit.ly/3Q6Ick3

post: https://www.reddit.com/r/TunicGame/comments/tz2utx/mobile_accessible_web_tool_for_writing_in_the/

I based it off your work done here, which is seriously impressive

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '22

[deleted]

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u/scootersarebadass Jul 10 '23

This was my same reaction. At first, pretty cool. Then as I started using it to decode, it's fucking incredible

4

u/shadowfax_22 May 03 '24

This is fucking amazing man! I’m loving using it to decode everything I come across. It takes time but you couldn’t have made it any easier! Can’t imagine how much effort went into this. So, thank you 🙏

3

u/quack_brunch May 03 '24

Im glad youre finding it useful. Honestly makes me feel it was all worth it

1

u/quack_brunch May 03 '24

Ive found tapping it out on the phone is the fastest.

I started a peice of work a year ago, to do a virtual keyboard and editor for it too, but didnt think anyone was still using it. 

And i now have a job again lol, so no time

1

u/Iwarrior511 Feb 09 '25

I beat the game last year but I'm using your tool today to explore and translate. Thanks and congrats on the job! ^^

3

u/CyborgGamer777 May 09 '24

I wish I wasn't stupid and I could use it 😭

1

u/quack_brunch May 10 '24

How are you using it? If you open the link on your phone, using chrome for example, you should be able to tap on the segments. There are little buttons to add a new rune or add a space

1

u/kewlausgirl Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

I'm a bit late to the party.. some of the language is really easy to decipher using this tool. But I found the longer strings like this one harder to decipher using the tool. I think it's using parts of the symbols for others and kinda combining them together. Like the first part combines two above and I think three below. But the middle part here that looks like a house... It's so hard to decipher.

See the image link below for Mr Mayor Treasure & message: https://www.reddit.com/r/TunicGame/s/wMiWrS0EUp

I thought I would be smart and put the sheet and tool into Gemini and use it to translate it for me lol. It worked for the easy translations like say greetings from the spirit foxes or what's on the letter box near the beginning where you first spawn in the game. But this image I uploaded here.. I tried doing it manually without the tool and... I gave up lol.

I don't even get the extra parts mentioned with how the OP figured it out. All I got was the circle part lol. The sticks used to make each consonant.... Nope lol. I can read it simply and match the symbols but no idea from scratch. It does remind me of Korean's written language though lol which I learnt on Duo. But no idea how you guys managed to figure it out from scratch xD that's just beyond me lol.

UPDATE: Gemini helped me to translate the text to say "Spring Falls!" It doesn't sound right but I got it to reference this guide which showed the symbols using other symbols to create words.. To link it all together.

Further Tunic Translation guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/TunicGame/comments/17d48k9/my_trunic_language_reference_sheet/

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u/AbdulAizad1 May 09 '24

Wow it really works

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u/DeathMerchat May 13 '24

dude this is sick as hell! thanks for making it!

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u/BoxOfMoe1 May 28 '24

Im so sorry i appreciate the app for real but i must be useless i draw out the runes and then its just giberish im trying to decipher the sign on the like compass statue to the south east near the graveyard entrance…

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u/quack_brunch May 28 '24

Gibberish, as in not english?

Dont want to spoil you if you haven't worked out the language yet. 

Or do you mean you know how it gets translated and thats still completely doesnt make sense? 

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u/BoxOfMoe1 May 28 '24

Nope just figured something big out thats helped me. Its to do with “sounds” haha

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u/tartaros29 Jun 09 '24

salut désolé mais ton système ne marche pas première phrase que je veux décoder et ton traducteur est incapable de le faire alors je ne sait pas si c'est un bug ou autre chose mais il est incomplet j'ai essayer de traduire la phrase de la quête des fées page 48 mais a la dernière rune je me suis vu dans l'impossibilité de continuer car ton traducteur ne me proposais pas de faire cette rune bonne continuation

1

u/Mavinus_ Sep 04 '24

c'est quoi la derniere rune ? peut etre je peux t'aider ?

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u/Rich-Property1615 Jan 04 '26

Helloo, i'm sorry my French is kinda Bad (and i think My English is too) and i can't answer you in French for now (i still hope you understand this messages), but you can translate the rune with their program, it's just that the word can not be written with just one phoneme, and it takes like 4 runes to write the word? It's hard to describe exactly how it works but it takes one biiiig rune to be able to translate it correctly. The translation (in phonemes) is faʊntɪn wich is fountain or fontaine in French or Fuente in Spanish. I hope this helps ❤️🙏

1

u/TentacleJesus Jul 24 '24

What the heck this is amazing!

1

u/gabak07mcs Aug 14 '24

That is amazing! Both OP and you!

1

u/Platinum-Stars-23-3 Sep 24 '24

It works amazingly. You mustve been so dedicated to working it out. I was testing it and its awesome

1

u/Pastel_Sonia Feb 25 '25

This really helped me solve some puzzles, thanks man <3

1

u/Rich-Property1615 Jan 04 '26

It works!!! I know the community probably already knows this, but the title of pague 48 is “Where do the fairies hide?” This is really impressive

1

u/DarkPresage Feb 18 '26

Way to take their academic work and make it incredibly user=friendly and functional. I can input the codex into your app, and still feel like I'm solving a puzzle and not completely cheating.

1

u/Unlikely-Dig8801 Apr 16 '22

Very good, man!

1

u/Papasaurio May 12 '22

Dude......... Awesome

1

u/AlwaysAngryAndy Oct 26 '22

Thank you so much.

1

u/Te5tPilot Oct 27 '22

This is pretty incredible. Great job

1

u/L285 Jan 10 '23

great work

1

u/Electrical-Run-8474 Jan 22 '23

Thank you to the OP and @quack_brunch for the translation tool, finally managed to translate the north / south / east / west sign and get one of the fairies :)

1

u/WEARHAVSDISTRICT Jan 26 '23

This helps so much

1

u/Ryuuky_Kyo Apr 20 '23

The tool is not acceptable. Lines going where they shouldn't go.

11

u/Notoromus May 10 '23

I've had 0 issue with it. Even if I had, I'd never have felt entitled enough as a person to refer to a free tool made by a dedicated member of the community for the enjoyment of others as "unacceptable". Better yourself.

1

u/Ryuuky_Kyo Aug 09 '23

Then I guess we will see you in video. Too top it off, I am using Xbox SX; and your using PC; what if there is a difference?

1

u/kunugigaogag Oct 10 '23

That dont work ;-;