Is there an offical Ancient alphabet? Or Ancient to english conversion?

[auroraclass1]

Whats up, I recently was gifted a pretty cool leather bound journal, i don't know if I will ever use it but I thought if I do it would be cool to write it in Ancient (preferably SGA Ancient or SGU if there is a difference). I have found conversion charts online but I want something that is production accurate. Dose anyone even know if there is an official conversion that the shows used or was it just made up? Anyone know anything?

[P-90_177]

Ancient is essentially completely made up in terms of the "Alphabet" you see in the show. As indicated by SG-1 it sounds like a derivation of latin, but no, otherwise there is no official language or dictionary like Klingon or Elvish or things like that.

[auroraclass1]

I understand that it is fake but I do remember Brad Wright in a SGA interview saying that the letters on the steps in the Atlantis gate room said something in Ancient, or maybe he was just BSing the camera idk but there are these online Ancient_alpahabet.png

dose anyone know if there is an official alphabet guide that the show used at least for some episodes? Obviously there is no way they did it for every episode.

[Falcon Horus]

I doubt they thought that far ahead. If they had had a show bible they might have probably taken the time for it, but they didn't.

[DigiFluid]

Officially and in-universe, Ancient is a root language of Latin, and we've never been provided with any kind of translation guide.

Unofficially, about halfway through SG-1 and all of SGA (possibly SGU too but I've not checked), they started using a consistent 1:1 letter pattern whenever they wrote stuff in Ancient. IE: A always looks like this, B always looks like that, etc. And it's consistent to the point that there are frequently things written in the show which translate into English phrases.

Converting the individual Ancient letters on the Atlantis gate room stairs actually reads:

WE HOLD THESE AS THE TRUTH:
A HEARTY WELCOME TO THOSE OF OTHER WORLDS
VISITING OUR HOME FOR THE FIRST TIME. (W)ELCOME AGAIN
TO THOSE RETURNING. YOU Y HAVE BEEN GONE TOO LONG AND YOUR
ABSENCE HAS WEIGHED HEAVILY ON OUR SOULS. WE ARE
WHOLE AGAIN THAT YOU ARE AMONG US AND WE CELEBRATE YOU BEING HERE AGAIN.
AS WE LEAVE FOR DISTANT WORLDS WE PLEDGE TO RESPECT THE LANDS OF
OUR NEIGHBOURS AND TO ACT WITH INTEGRITY AS AMBASSADORS IN PEACE TIME
OF OUR PEOPLE. TRAVELLERS WITH OPEN HEARTS WILL ALWAYS BE WELCOME. REFUGEES
FROM TYRANNY MAY SEEK SHELTER UNDER OUR ROOF AND KN(OW TH)AT OUR PEOPLE WILL LAY
DOWN THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT THE WEAK AND THE JUST. LET THIS BE OUR PLEDGE TO THOSE
INHABITANTS OF THIS WORLD. AND ALL WE MAY EVER KNOW WE WILL ALWAYS STRIVE TO
COME IN PEACE AS WE GO IN PEACE AND YOU WILL BE WELCOME ON OUR SHORES FOREVERMORE

[garhkal]

Nice.. It is surprising though they never did something official.. like trek did with the klingon dictionary, or starwar's Hutteese to english..

[P-90_177]

Nice.. It is surprising though they never did something official.. like trek did with the klingon dictionary, or starwar's Hutteese to english..

Stargate has never had a large enough popularity to warrant it.
Klingon for example was only created properly over the course of the original films, by which point star trek was already a cultural phenomenon. Stargate never has had, nor will it ever really reach that status.

[garhkal]

True. I don't remember any cons specific for stargate, unlike trek cons, and the various starwars focused ones..

[P-90_177]

True. I don't remember any cons specific for stargate, unlike trek cons, and the various starwars focused ones..

While if you say "Chevron 7 locked" or "close the iris" to someone thry're more likely to just stare at you blankly. You say "shields up. Red alert." They know instantly what you're talking about.

[ajay]

While if you say "Chevron 7 locked" or "close the iris" to someone thry're more likely to just stare at you blankly. You say "shields up. Red alert." They know instantly what you're talking about.

Same as if you said to someone "I speak Ancient" vs "I speak Klingon".

[garhkal]

So is it more a lack of marketing or pushing gate to teh world, or was stargate just not as 'fan friendly' as trek or SW was to the general masses?

[P-90_177]

So is it more a lack of marketing or pushing gate to teh world, or was stargate just not as 'fan friendly' as trek or SW was to the general masses?

It's a lot of reasons.
In my mind stargate is more what I'd describe as 'casual sci-fi'. It doesn't tend to deal with real world issues in the same way as star trek does and nor does it create a universe as original or as vast as star wars does.
It's based very much in the real world so it doesn't offer the same level of escapism as Doctor Who, but at the same time it isn't so ground breaking in it's drama that it keeps up with Battlestar Galactica.
All in all when you run through everything SG1 and SGA has to offer they're really quite middle of the road compared to a lot of sci-fi. Thisbisn't necessarily a bad thing of course since SG1 has since become the longest running American sci-fi series with 10 seasons. But sadly it does mean that it's always going to be the show where people go: "isn't that the one with MacGyver?"

[garhkal]

Which to me is a disservice to how good SG was (imo).

[MonicaL]

There have been specific cons for Stargate over the years. Creation is doing a big one in Chicago (I think) this fall, and there used to be one in Vancouver B.C. every year. There've been others around the globe as well.