Comments on: Cryptorthography: Hiding your writings in plain sight

By: Notes from a Linguistic Mystic may be dormant, but it’s far from dead : Notes from a Linguistic Mystic

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:02:25 +0000

[...] Using IPA fonts with Mac OS X: The Comprehensive Guide (recently updated with new information) – Cryptorthography: Hiding your writings in plain sight – What can computer image processing teach us about language? – im in mai blog, postin’ bout [...]

By: Ryan Robinson

Ryan Robinson — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:11:35 +0000

Man I’m such a Fan of Language. I have cryptic Message lying everywhere in my House, haha. Unfourtunately I get bored with them and throw them and forget how to read them and then I throw them out and then I find something later and can’t for the Life of me read it. Haha. I make them very complex. I’m working on one now, that I think would be tough to crack. But there IS a Way, and if you find it, it will still take a long Tyme to crack. :) I’d love to take Part in a Contest like this. :)

By: Basha

Basha — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:04:57 +0000

Loved this page, which I stumbled upon, and think a contest is a great idea! Shall check back frequently.

By: will

will — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:47:51 +0000

Well, I’m confirming that the contest is going to happen. Tell your friends, and come on over to this thread to share some contest format ideas:

http://linguisticmystic.com/2007/12/31/cryptorthography-contest-update/

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:39:05 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the points you list are features of the semi-phonetic writing system I created and have been using for the last four years. It was never really intended to be any sort of in-depth cryptographic thing, just an aesthetically pleasing way to write notes to myself in plain view that retained an element of privacy, which incidentally would work in more than one language.

As time passed, I have adopted little quirks in the writing of it that reflect my desire to eliminate redundant letters and simplify complex vowel and consonant sounds — all of which makes each symbol just a bit less of a direct correlation to the standard English alphabet. When I write to-do lists or reminders on my hand, people have asked me if it is some sort of exotic tattoo design.

Keep me posted on a contest, or else just let me know if you aren’t going to do it, and I’ll send over a basic breakdown of my system. Thanks for posting this, it made my day!

By: Damien

Damien — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:06:58 +0000

oops. this one I meant to stumble!

By: will

will — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:48:26 +0000

I’m thinking long and hard about the format of a possible contest. If enough interest gets drummed up (maybe 5 or 6 people), then I’ll definitely do something a bit more formal. Feel free to spread the word a bit.

If anybody else is interested (above and beyond Khawaji, QE and the other Will), leave a comment, and watch this site for more info for when I formalize something.

By: khawaji

khawaji — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:24:10 +0000

oooh… please do the cryptorthographic contest!! I just wrote a similar post, and I am sure there would be enough interest.

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:12:46 +0000

I did something like this a couple years ago:

http://jdueck.net/article/17/a-cipher-for-christmas

By: (other) Will

(other) Will — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:24:13 +0000

I occasionally write (English) notes to myself in Cyrillic. Problems arise when h’s are needed (or when, for instance, I want to write my name), but these can be solved pretty easily by introducing new letters or reusing old ones (Cyrillic x for h is pretty natural).

I also redesigned some of the letters of the cursive alphabet, but this was mainly to eliminate inefficient letters like t,x,i, and j, not to hide anything. Though I also redid all the vowel letters just for fun, so it is pretty difficult to read at first glance.

I usually don’t go about writing super-secret-sensitive stuff, and these are enough to protect from a casual glance, but still, a cryptorthogrpahic system sounds cool, and I might just have to develop one. The contest idea also sounds cool if I have enough time.