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Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 29 Apr 2014, 21:39
by IronMagus
So I noticed something the other day...I was looking at the various written words around my Sim Town, and I realized I could actually read some of them! Like the Galactic Standard Alphabet from the Commander Keen series of PC games in the 1990's, and the Aurebesh used in the Star Wars films before that, Simlish is a simple "substitution cipher" where each letter of the alphabet has been substituted with a different symbol. I first discovered this while I was in the Community Center, and I noticed that the first three letters written on the first aid kit, were also the same as those on the fire extinguisher sign.

"FIRst aid" and "FIRe extinguisher," maybe?:
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After looking around at some more writing, I determined that that is exactly what they said, and I can also read a lot more. For example, this poster says "BALLET":
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...and the Sim Town Sign says, obviously, "SIMTOWN":
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The Town Hall building says "TOWN HALL," of course:
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...and the signs in an empty premium housing lot, or outside the Real Estate Agency, say "HOUSE":
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The drink machines found at the swimming pool and community center say "COFFEE":
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Outside the community center, the top part of the sign says "COMMUNITY" and underneath, it says:
COMMUNI
TY DTARTS
WITH YOU

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(Yes, it says "dtarts," with a D. If you don't believe me, check my work. And the other sign, on the left side of the entrance, has this same phrase, but rotated 180 degrees)

The Supermarket is perhaps called "Y MART," although it uses a fancy lettering that doesn't quite match up with the rest:
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It's pretty hard to make out, but in the window of the pet store, it says "PET STORE" (click image for larger version):
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And here, at the very top of the picture (I had to take it from this angle so you could read it underneath the awning) in the window of the promotion store, it says what's probably "SALE" (click for larger version again):
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Some things, like the "Uni Sign" from the Neo Tokyo and other pre-made houses, are like chopped in half and then one side is mirrored on the other. This one says "[...]ER." A neon "BEER" sign, maybe, like you might see in pubs and college dorms, if you're old enough to be in such places?
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...and this warning sign in the community center's woodshop says:
DA[...]
SIM[...]
BES[...]

(Danger, sims...something?)
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I can't quite make out what this one is, and the letters all appear to be reversed as well:
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On the bottom is "HALB" (or "BLAH," if you read it in a mirror so the letters appear the right way), while on the left appears to be "AHC?" and on the right is "DHE?" where the ?'s are the same, unknown character. Based on what else has been decoded so far, there aren't that many letters it could be, but none of them seem to make actual words. The only unknown letters at this point are G, J, K, P, Q, V, X, and Z (I presume there's an X and G on the "Fire Extinguisher" sign, but they're too small and blurry to make out.)

I was hoping to use all this to decipher what it says on the sign by the windows in the community center, where the living dolls try to escape. Unfortunately, however, the letters are small, blurry, and backwards, and I can't make enough of it out:
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If you mirror the image so the letters look right, it looks like this:
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...and all I can make out there is "[something] THE [something] BE??RE" -- I can't tell if that last word is "beware" or "before," and I can't make out the other two at all. Any guesses?

Re: Simlist Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 29 Apr 2014, 22:02
by HordePrime
Interesting; you've done a lot of work there! :)

IIRC, doesn't one of them (the karate one maybe) say something quite rude when translated, or was that from another Sim game??

Re: Simlist Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 29 Apr 2014, 23:44
by telemwill
HordePrime wrote:Interesting; you've done a lot of work there! :)

IIRC, doesn't one of them (the karate one maybe) say something quite rude when translated, or was that from another Sim game??
I've heard it was the multiplication table, but maybe it's a rumor or urban tale kind of thing. Really interesting post!

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 00:21
by Cyril
Thank you IronMagus,

Really interesting stuff. I'd presumed it was all gibberish.
You've got me wanting to look out for more Simlish signs, and see if the writers have hidden anything in there!

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 00:53
by Delphine
There are a Lot of web sites that have translated the simlish language. You can even download the simlish font for word. I don't have the links hère (i am in bed with my ipad) but they are all saved on my computer. If you are interested, i Will post them hère by tomorrow. It Will Save you some time if you want to translate everything. (You can also search for simlish in Google )
I have noticed that Catherina used it to introduce her Janet spaceship on the vidéo :)


ÉDIT : a quick search in Google gavé me the same links again

http://m.imgur.com/a/WSs6K
http://kotaku.com/5990925/there-are-a-l ... s-freeplay

http://darkchocandwine.blogspot.fr/2013 ... eplay.html
http://youtu.be/hfU6hujR2qc

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 01:38
by SIMazing
The community center karate sign used to be different. It had something rude for a short time but then it was changed.

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 02:26
by IronMagus
Delphine wrote:There are a Lot of web sites that have translated the simlish language. You can even download the simlish font for word. I don't have the links hère (i am in bed with my ipad) but they are all saved on my computer. If you are interested, i Will post them hère by tomorrow. It Will Save you some time if you want to translate everything. (You can also search for simlish in Google )
I have noticed that Catherina used it to introduce her Janet spaceship on the vidéo :)


ÉDIT : a quick search in Google gavé me the same links again

http://m.imgur.com/a/WSs6K
http://kotaku.com/5990925/there-are-a-l ... s-freeplay

http://darkchocandwine.blogspot.fr/2013 ... eplay.html
http://youtu.be/hfU6hujR2qc
Thanks for those. All I had found were references to the spoken form of the language.

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 03:12
by Hufflepuff Karen
This is what I love about this forum! So much fun to see what other people are doing with the game and all the little details that make it fun. I want to write a letter in Simlish and mail it to my son - see if I can stump him :) Mailed him a letter written in Hobbit Runes once, he went crazy trying to figure it out, because he couldn't remember where he'd seen the characters before (they were in the back of my 1970's printing of the Hobbit, but apparently his newer copy didn't have it). That was years ago, before Google, he had to find a copy of the book in the library and copy the rune page so he could decipher it.

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 30 Apr 2014, 05:12
by travneva
Nice work Ironmagus.

Re: Simlish Text - The Written Language of The Sims

Posted: 01 May 2014, 08:45
by syeirahu
I LOVE this! :D Now, what if we could decode that gibberish they speak?