Zelda fan Sarinilli has become the first to successfully create a font based on the Hylian language seen in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Each letter of the Hylian alphabet seen in the game, like the Hylian alphabets seen in previous instalments, corresponds to a character in the English alphabet, but had not yet been deciphered; ongoing efforts were having some trouble.

Hylia Historia, a book released exclusively in Japan last year, claims that Skyward Sword’s Hylian language is “too ancient to translate”, which surely discouraged some efforts, but Sarinilli has apparently dashed that presumption. Sarinilli found the entire alphabet written out in order in the first few characters of each line on a certain tablet in Lanayru, he says.

Using his character reference, fans have transliterated actual pieces of Hylian from the game, such as the word “Hylian” on the sword pedestal inside the Statue of the Goddess, or the word “Factory” on a sign in the Lanayru Mining Facility. You can find some more speculation and translation on Zelda Universe here.

Sarinilli’s font is now available for download on deviantArt from this page, and you can read more about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on our dedicated game page here.