The Zombie Speech Translators were created in an effort to promote communication between zombie players in game using
Death Rattle, and a code that could be expressed through it.
They began as a thread on an RPG.net forum in which people were discussing phrases one could say while using Death
Rattle; the conversation then evolved into discussion of using a code to represent the full alphabet, instead of using
the letters available to produce phonetic approximations. Eventually, two codes were created that used a combination of
the characters available to represent a single character. After the codes were developed, three scripts were created to
simplify the encoding and dechiphering of them, and these are what are known as the Zombie Speech Translators.
The first translator (as originally proposed) used letter case delimiting to allow use of letter combinations which
would otherwise result in mistranslations (for example certain letters such as 'w,' would come through the translator
as 'lm' when it is translated into Zombie and then back into English without this caps delimiting). This feature of the
scheme is often ignored or misunderstood, resulting in a broken scheme. The very first version of this scheme had a
couple of duplications in the Zombish codebook; these were quickly rectified. Furthermore, when you type a number, say
'9,' into the first translator, it will return the identical character in the Zombish, in this case '9.' The problem is
that, if you type a number into the Zombie speech box in Urban Dead, it will be scrambled or deleted, thus the
information will be lost when someone attempts to decipher your message on the other end. Again, extensions to the
codebook were proposed to handle this; these new codes have been adopted by the latest version of the firefox extension
(see below.)
The second translator uses a different code based on ascii characters, translating all letters and numbers correctly,
and maintaining capital letters.
First Code ("Zombish")
E stands for English
Z stands for zombie
E Z E Z
-----------
a A n N
b B o HR
c ZZ p BZ
d GB q GHG
e HA r R
f MB s RZ
g G t BG
h H u NM
i AR v BB
j GA w MNM
k BM x M
l MN y RA
m M z Z
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Second Code ("Zombese")
E Z E Z E Z E Z
-----------------------------------
space aa 8 ga S mh k zh
! ab 9 gb T mm l zm
" ag : gg U mn m zn
# ah ; gh V mz n zz
$ am ? g- W m- o z-
% an @ g, X m, p z,
& az A g. Y m. q z.
' a- B g! Z m! r z!
( a, C g? [ m? s z?
) a. D ha na t -a
* a! E hb ] nb u -b
+ a? F hg ^ ng v -g
, ba G hh _ nh w -h
- bb H hm ` nm x -m
. bg I hn a nn y -n
/ bh J hz b nz z -z
0 bm K h- c n- { --
1 bn L h, d n, -,
2 bz M h. e n. } -.
3 b- N h! f n! ~ -!
4 b, O h? g n?
5 b. P ma h za
6 b! Q mb i zb
7 b? R mg j zg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Code ("Zomban")
E Z E Z
------------
a A p Ha
b Aa q Hb
c Ab r R
d Ag s Ra
e B t Rb
f Ba u M
g Bb v Ma
h Bg w Mb
i G x Mg
j Ga y N
k Gb z Z
l Gg ch Za
m Gh sh Zb
n Gm th Zg
o H " Zh
Note -- "A" alone will appear as "hra" when spoken.
Note -- To capitilize, put a "-" after letter.
This code is a new creation and is still being accepted by the zombie community, though it has a strong logical basis.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zamgrh or kiZombie
Zombies are slowly developing a distinctive language (not code), based on a phonological system of 14 consonants, 2
vowels, and 5 clicks. In English this language is known as kiZombie, and in kiZombie it is known as zamgrh. Rather than
being a symbolic translation as the previous cases, this is a distinct and organic language following simplistic and
natural rules.
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Much like English Zamgrh consists of a phonetic alphabet, in which a letter or combination of letters may take several
tones. Previously it was theorized that there were only 21 distinct phonemes available. In written language these can
be denoted by the following characters: z, a, m, g, r, h, n, b, and ! serving as letters in the English sense, with -,
., ,, ?, and ! serving as punctuation. By combining the basic sounds the modern zombie is able to communicate
additional sounds.
The use by zombies of the ! as a glottal stop or "i" sound does require the careful attention of humans to make sure
that they're interpreting kiZombie correctly.
z h g b r m n ! a
z! h! g! b! r! m! n! !! ! !
za ha ga ba ra ma na !a a a
zn hn gn bn rn mn n !n an n
zm hm gm bm rm m nm !m am m
zr hr gr br r mr nr !r ar r
zb hb gb b rb mb nb !b ab b
zg hg g bg rg mg ng !g ag g
zh h gh bh rh mh nh !h ah h
z hz gz bz rz mz nz !z az z
The following is a basic chart of possible sound combinations that a zombie might use when forming words. The yellow
and blue colored squares offer additional meaning as "replacement letters" that zombies use to replace survivor sounds
that they cannot pronounce. This chart is by no means complete. It does not take into account the other sound
combinations that can be made such as "hra" or "ahz".
1. A vowel may never be pronounced in isolation. Any isolated vowel will have the sound "hr" prefixed.
e.g.: a zambah --> hra zambah
2. Words ending in "r" will have "h" suffixed.
e.g.: Gahgar Marr --> Gahgarh Marrh
3. "Clicks" or the English punctuation characters may never be uttered in isolation, and are always preceded by a
consonant, vowel, or other click.
Given that most zombese is largely an adjustment on American English (AmE) or British English (BrE), field studies have
yielded the following chart. It is hoped that the casual user of the internet in Malton will find this rubric useful in
dealing with zombies in Malton.
Ahz rangraaz hab Zambahz ahn Marban gan aaz zaz hab zam garg ahz harmanz, arzah. (We linguists hope zombies in Malton
can use this to help them speak with humans, also).
This table has been formulated using X-Sampa. A careful user will notice that the list occasionally has an "x" in two
places, signifying the use of both sounds. For example; dZ shows b and z as sounds to be used, thus the kiZombie usage
would be bz.
Any questions should be addressed to the Linguistics Department of Oxford which has spent specific effort on the Malton
Zombie problem.
Recent field work has discovered that the "t" sound of English is sometimes associated to a "g" sound, and sometimes to
a "z". If unsure use "g".
Syntax and Morphology
kiZombie follows a loose Subject-Verb-Object syntax. Questions can simply be suffixed with a ? or have the verb and
subject inverted. Verbs can be conjugated, however a full lexicon of verbs is not available at this time (see Zombie
Lexicon for up-to-date vocabulary).
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT OTHER
harmanz arh har.
Humans are here.
A more advanced example:
ah barg brahnz har.
I eat brains here.
Zombies are known to drop helping verbs at times when they can easily be inferred, yielding the following examples:
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT OTHER
harmanz * har.
Humans * here.
A more advanced example:
Mah Zambah bargz brahnz har.
I eat brains here.
Passive
har arh harmanz.
Here are humans.
[edit] Adjectives
Adjectives precede the nouns that they modify. In this example we use the first-person possessive adjective "mah":
mah zambah az har.
I am here (or literally "My Zombie is here").
Proper Nouns
Zombies may choose to address each other or survivors by name. Names are capitalized and a suffix is added to determine
the status of the addressee. zam refers to a zombie, man refers to a survivor, and bar refers to a building.
Bahbzam, arh habbah?
Bob, are you happy?
[edit] Questions
A present tense verb can be conjugated into a question by adding the ? to the end of a sentence or by inverting the
verb and subject.
"Zah bang bang man gan bam mah?"
"Ganna bam mah bang bang man?"
"Will the Zombie Hunter attack me?"
[edit] Negative
Verbs can hold opposite meaning by compounding the subject and verb with the click ! as seen in the logical statements
that survivors use. Or the word nah may be used between the subject and verb to conjugate negatively.
mah zambah nah barg gramma brahnz.
mah zambah!barg gramma brahnz.
"I do not eat grandma's brains."
Negative questions can be made to infer additional meaning:
harman nah ganna bam mah zambah?
Are you not going to attack me human?
[edit] Future
Any verb can be conjugated into the future tense by adding the word ganna infront of the verb.
ah ganna gangbang harmanz zammarrar.
I will utterly destroy humans tomorrow.
As a question:
ganna gangbang harmanz zammarrar?
will you utterly destroy humans tomorrow?
Nonfuture
Zombies have a hard time distinguishing between the past and the present, and the grammar of their language reflects
this. Any verb not conjugated in the future tense refers to an action that began some time in the past and which may or
may not still be going on at the present time.
mah zambah barg harmanz brahnz.
I am eating human brains / I ate human brains.
However, if an action has been completed the auxiliary haz may be preposed before the verb.
mah zambah haz barg harmanz brahnz.
I have eaten human brains.
Conditional
Conditional statements are made by using the ? character as a suffix to the end of the phrase and comma.
harmanz bam mah zambah,? ah ganna zmazh harman manbagz.
If humans attack me, then I will smash human testicles.
Imperative
The imperative form of verbs is conjugated by adding arz as a suffix. Note that the sentence structure stays the same.
This is different from English where the subject gets transplanted to the end of the sentence.
mah zambah brazzaz barmarz zah barragahz!
Attack the barricades my zombie brothers!
Advanced Sentence Structure
Contrary to popular survivor theory zombies ARE capable of complex thought and communication in their own language.
Here is an example:
mah mamma bam mah ahn Gagarh Marrh, an ah grh mamma, "mamma az hra bang bang man".
Mah zambah!az habbah, an ah grh, "gragh." (also seen as 'mah zambah az nah habbah')
My mom attacked me in Caiger Mall, and I told mom, "Mom is a Zombie Hunter."
I am not happy, and I say "Gragh".
This is an emotional zombie saddened by the internal rift of family by the survivor mentality of "kill zombies" where
even mothers would attack their own children.
Orthography
kiZombie has no standard capitalization or punctuation. Capital letters indicate a rising tone which often signals a
change in meaning, and the 'punctuation' marks actually indicate various grunts, which also carry specific meanings.
All utterances are preceded by a short silence, which is orthographically represented by a space. So 'I am a zombie' is
spoken not *"ah z zam" but rather " ah z zam"
Lexicon
KiZombie has a dictionary and a lexicon. Both are incomplete at present, but viewed as reliable resources.
Numbers
To help zombies in speech, some linguists have proposed a punctuation based number system.
kiZombie would thus have a base 5 numbering system:
. ! ? - , !. !! !? !- !, ?. ?! ?? ?- ?, -. -! -? -- -, ,. ,! ,? ,- ,,
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
!.. !.! !.? !.- !., !!. !!! !!? !!- !!, !?. !?! !?? !?- !?, !-. !-! !-? !-- !-, !,. !,! !,? !,- !,,
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
?.. ?.! ?.? ?.- ?., ?!. ?!! ?!? ?!- ?!, ??. ??! ??? ??- ??, ?-. ?-! ?-? ?-- ?-, ?,. ?,! ?,? ?,- ?,,
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74
-.. -.! -.? -.- -., -!. -!! -!? -!- -!, -?. -?! -?? -?- -?, --. --! --? --- --, -,. -,! -,? -,- -,,
75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 89 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99
,..
100
Note that due to the base 5 system, 5 is the first number that has two digits, and 25 (52) the first to have three
digits. 125 (53) would be the first number to have four digits.
Number Prefixes
In kiZombie, numbers are never spoken in isolation but always with a prefix.
Default Prefix
The default prefix is
For example:
manz b?!? z hrh
human.PL NUM.57 be here
'57 humans are here'
ah habh b!!.
1.SG have NUM.30
'I am 30 years old'
Cardinal Directions
There are four prefixes for each of the cardinal directions: N (north), A (south), M (east), Z (west)
hambargarz N!!
human.eat.IMP NORTH.6
'Eat the humans six blocks to the north'
barbamarz A!Z!.
barricade.attack.IMP SOUTH.1.WEST.5
'Attack the barricades one block south and five blocks west.'
An example of advanced zombie speak.
Mah zambah brazzahz Baba (Our Father)
Mah zambah brazzahzz Baba
g!az ahn Barhahraz
zaBarhah Babaz namm
Brang Babaz Raz
Brang Babaz habganna
ahn Marzan, az ahn Barhahraz
Brang mah zambah brazzahz bra!nz rah nah
an na grab mah zambah brazzahz gangbangz
az mah zambah brazzahz na grab na harmanz gangbangz
na brang mah zambah brazzahz ahnna na harmhabganna
barra brang mah zambah brazzahz na-ahnna bang bang man
Baggaz Baba haz Raz, haz Ganarazharh, haz BARHAH!
Rah nah an zahmarrah,
Aman.
Mah zambah brazzahz.z Baba
my zombie brothers.poss father
'Our father'
g!a.z ahn Barhah.raz
who.be in Barhah.kingdom
'who is in heaven'
za.Barhah Baba.z namm
of.Barhah father.poss name
'your name is holy'
Brang Baba.z Raz
bring father.poss kingdom
'bring your kingdom'
Brang Baba.z hab.ganna
bring father.poss have.going to
'bring your desire'
ahn Marzan, az ahn Barhah.raz
in Malton as in Barhah.kingdom
'on earth, as in heaven'
Brang mah zambah brazzahz bra!nz rah nah
bring my zombie brothers brains right now
'give us food today'
an na grab mah zambah brazzahz.z gangbangz
and no look at my zombie brothers.poss sins
'and forgive our sins'
az mah zambah brazzahz na grab na harmanz gangbangz
as my zombie brothers no look at no human sins
'as we forgive human sins'
na brang mah zambah brazzahz ahn.na na harm.hab.ganna
no bring my zombie brothers in.to no harm.have.going to
'don't bring us into temptation'
barra brang mah zambah brazzahz na-ahn.na bang bang man
but bring my zombie brothers no in.to zombie hunter
'but bring us away from the evil one'
Baggaz Baba haz Raz, haz Ganarazharh, haz BARHAH!
because father has kingdom has generator has Barhah
'because you have the kingdom, the power, and the glory'
Rah nah an zahmarrah,
right now and tomorrow
'now and always'
Aman.
Amen
'Amen'
[edit] G!nn Azgama (Quinn the Eskimo)
Abargargazz am maggang zhabz bagh an nabagh
Zamm am maggang zgabzhaz
Agharhz zgrabga naagz,
Abargargazz am nahabbah
Abara hazbrabagz an hazmanbagz
Barra hhan G!nn Azgama ran haarh
Abargargazz ganna zhamb anragz.
Ran abar na-ahn, ran abar ahn!nn,
Nah ganna Z naz!ng raag Hazarmz G!nn.
Abargargazz am maggang zhabz bagh an nabagh
Everybody be make ship big and small
Everybody's building the big ships and the boats
Zamm am maggang zgabzhaz
Some be make monument
Some are building monuments
Agharhz zgrabga naagz
Others write note
Others, jotting down notes
Abargargazz am nahabbah
Everybody be sad
Everybody's in despair
Abara hazbrabagz an hazmanbagz
Every have.breasts and have.testicles
Every girl and boy
Barra hhan G!nn Azgama ran haarh
But when Quinn Inuit run here
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here
Abargargazz ganna zhamb anragz
Everybody will jump joyfully
Everybody's gonna jump for joy.
Ran abar na-ahn, ran abar ahn!nn,
Come all without come all within
Come all without, come all within
Nah ganna Z naz!ng raag Hazarmz G!nn.
Not will see nothing like Mighty Quinn
You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn.
The end.
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