Hylians

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Revision as of 16:11, 19 April 2006

The term "Hylian" generally refers to a member of the Hylian race, a race of humanoids with certain magical abilities. They have pointed pixie-like ears, and resemble elves. It is believed that these ears allow them to hear the gods and that they were created to tell the other races their message. According to the ALttP manual, "with their magic infused blood, the Hylian people were endowed with psychic powers and skill in wizardry. It was also said that their long, pointed ears enabled them to hear special messages from the gods, so they were held in high esteem by many people in Hyrule. Their descendants settled in various parts of the world and passed on their knowledge and magical lore to all people." The Royal Family of Hyrule is traditionally Hylian.

"Hyrulean", on the other hand, means from or related to the mythical land of Hyrule. Note that not all inhabitants of Hyrule are Hylian: only those with pointed-ears, such as Link, are Hylian. The spelling "Hyrulian" was used interchangeably for "Hyrulean" by fans until Nintendo announced that the latter is the official and correct spelling. However, "Hyrulian" is still sometimes used.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, most Hylians principally live within the fortified walls of Hyrule Castle Town. Besides living in the bustling marketplace, other citizens of the kingdom inhabit territory outside of the protected city. Talon owns and lives in Lon Lon Ranch along with his daughter Malon and their ranch servant, Ingo. In southern Hyrule, Lake Hylia's two lone residents are the Lakeside Scientist and the Fisherman. The remaining Hylians dwell in the northern plateau hamlet of Kakariko Village.

Many items created by the original Hylians make reappearances in other Zelda games, like the Master Sword. The Book of Modura in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|A Link to the Past allows Link to translate things written in the ancient Hylian language. In BS Zelda: Kodai no Sekiban, the hero is not from the land of Hyrule, so Princess Zelda comes along to use the Book of Modura and translate the Hylian text herself.

The language of the Hylians

The Hylian written language is derived from Japanese hiragana, katakana, and romaji. The script is syllabic or more precisely mora (linguistics) moraic, and each symbol represents either a vowel, consonant-vowel combination, or a syllable final n.

Note that the character set and structure of the written language varies significantly between games. The Hylian text in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is simpler and less complex than the one used in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The reason being Ocarina of Time is set long before Wind Waker, and as such the script was less developed, e.g. The old version of the script made no distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, palatalization consonants and geminate consonants. The new version of the script makes all these distinctions. Also the modern script is more suited to being written with a brush whereas the old script was more angular, suited to being carved on stone.

The script used in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the same as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's, so it is to be assumed that this is now the standard.

The Hylian Text was uniquely different in the Japanese and English versions of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.