How to Write in Gallifreyan

Many hardcore fans of the TV show Dr. Who love the idea of writing with the alphabet of the
Timelords. The creators of Doctor Who never made the language or alphabet official, but the
most popular and widely accepted fan version is known as Circular Gallifreyan. It can seem
fairly confusing at first, but the symbols of the Circular Gallifreyan alphabet follow most of the
rules of written English.

Part One of Three:

Learning the Structure of the Alphabet

1. Understand the basic set-up. Instead of being character/letter based like English, circular
Gallifreyan is based, as the name implies, on circles. The symbols that make up letters are
collected into words by larger word-circles. Many word-circles are collected together in even
larger sentence-circles.

o The Gallifreyan alphabet was created by a fan of Dr. Who named Loren Sherman. He created
this way of writing so he could transform English words to mimic the artistic representations
 of the Doctors native language, Gallifreyan. It is not used by the show and is not a real
language.

2. Look for an alphabet chart online. There are many online resources that you can print out
so you have your own Gallifreyan writing references. You might also find the official
Sherman site for circular Gallifreyan useful, as there are Gallifreyan guides for writing
words, math, and music. These resources can be found at Shermans Planet.

o The general guide to writing Gallifreyan has three different charts and a brief explanation of
numbers. One chart displays consonants, one vowels, and the third punctuation marks.
o If a printer is unavailable and you cannot print these resources, you might keep them open in
a tab on your computer or open them in the browser on your phone. This way, youll be able
to compare your practice words to the Gallifreyan symbol references.
3. Understand the four consonant-symbols and five diacritic marks. A diacritic is a mark
used to add meaning, stress, or emphasis to a letter. In Circular Gallifreyan, there are four
basic symbols used to represent consonants. These symbols can be written alone, or you can
add one diacritic mark or another to modify the base meaning of the symbol and change it
into another consonant.

o With the four consonant-symbols and five diacritics, there are a total of 24 consonants in
Gallifreyan, which is slightly larger than Englishs 21 consonant alphabet. The reason
Gallifreyan has more consonant-symbols is because Gallifreyan use a graphed alphabet
instead of one based on characters/letters. Because of this, Gallifreyan has special symbols
for the letter combinations: TH, SH, CH, NG, and QU.
o Circular Gallifreyan does not make use of the letter C. If you are trying to write an English
word with the letter C, use the consonant the C most sounds like. For example, in the word
cake in Circular Gallifreyan would be spelled kake. The word office would be spelled
offise.
o The four base consonant-symbols, without any diacritic marks, represent B, J, T, and TH. By
adding the appropriate Gallifreyan diacritic mark, for example a pair of dots, you will
transform these four base consonant-symbols into every other consonant.
4. Memorize the four consonant-symbols. It will take some time before you have memorized
the shape of and become comfortable with drawing the consonant-symbols. You should take
some time practicing drawing each consonant-symbol and so that youre comfortable using
them when its time to write your first practice word. To improve memorization, you may
want to try to draw the consonant reference chart from memory.

o The consonant B is shaped like a full circle with a small gap at the bottom. By adding a
diacritic mark to the B-symbol, you can change it into the letters CH, D, F, G, and H.
o The consonant J is shaped like a full circle placed on the inside of larger sentence circles. By
adding a diacritic mark to the J-symbol, you can change it into the letters K, L, M, N, and P.
o The consonant T is shaped like an open horseshoe oriented with its open side facing the
perimeter of its word-circle. By adding a diacritic mark to the T-symbol, you can change it
into the letters SH, R, S, V, and W.
o The consonant TH is shaped like a full circle with a horizontal line through the middle. By
adding a diacritic mark to the TH-symbol, you can change it into the letters Y, Z, NG, QU,
and X.
5. Memorize the five diacritic marks. Each base consonant-symbol can be modified by a
diacritic mark to transform it into different letters. Each consonant- symbol may only ever
have one diacritic mark modifying it. A short description of the five diacritics and the letters
they create follows:

o The first diacritic is represented by two dots. These can be applied to the base consonant-
symbols to make the consonants CH, K, SH, and Y.
o The second diacritic is represented by three dots. These can be applied to the base consonant-
symbols to make the consonants D, L, R, and Z.
o The third diacritic is represented by three vertical lines. These can be applied to the base
consonant-symbols to make the consonants F, M, S, and NG.
o The fourth diacritic is a single vertical line. This can be applied to the base consonant-
symbols to make the consonants G, N, V, and QU.
o The fifth and last diacritic is represented by two vertical lines. These can be applied to the
base consonant-symbols to make the consonants H, P, W, and X.
6. Familiarize yourself with Gallifreyan vowels. Gallifreyan uses the same vowels as the
English alphabet: A, E, I, O, and U. These vowels are depicted as small circles that either
float freely, sit within, or sit on the perimeter of a consonant-symbol.

o The vowel A is a small circle that should be placed below, but not touching, the perimeter of
the symbol it modifies.
o The vowel E is a small circle that should be placed in the center of the symbol it is
modifying.
o The vowel I is a small circle that should be placed so that it is in the center of the symbol it
modifies. However, the letter I will also need a line coming off some point of its perimeter
pointing inward at the center of its word-circle.
o The vowel O is a small circle that should be placed on the topmost part of the perimeter of
the symbol it modifies.
o The vowel U is a small circle that should be placed at the center of the symbol it is
modifying. It should also have a line coming off some point on its perimeter extending
outward, away from the middle of its word-circle.
7. Attach vowels to consonants as you like. Vowels in Gallifreyan can be represented as either
a freestanding circles or they can be attached to preceding consonants. Just like many people
have different kinds of handwriting, there are many different ways you can create intricate
patterns with Gallifreyan writing thats unique to you.

o By connecting vowels to preceding consonants, you gain the benefit of more consistency
with your Gallifreyan symbols, which will likely make your writing easier to read.
Freestanding vowels may be more confusing to read at first, but can allow for more intricate
patterns.
o Generally, freestanding vowels only occur when a word begins with a vowel. In this case you
will orient your vowel with regard to the perimeter of the larger circle that contains all the
letters together into one word. The letter A will float just outside the word-circle; E, I, and U
will rest on the perimeter of the word-circle; O will float just inside the word-circle.
o Shorter words will have less vowels. You may be able to make these look more aesthetically
pleasing by keeping the vowels freestanding. Freestanding vowels can also make some words
easier to read.
8. Follow a circular pattern when writing. Each word should begin with a circle that is about
the same size around as a normal cup. Once you improve your Gallifreyan, you can adjust the
size of these word-circles, but for now, a cup sized circle will give you room to make
mistakes. This circle will contain all of the letter-symbols that form your word. Your first
letter-symbol will occupy the very bottom of the circle. The following letter-symbols should
be written around the circle counterclockwise until the word is complete.

o Complicated words might require larger word-circles. Try to arrange your letter-symbols to
be evenly spaced throughout your word-circle. This will create better balance in the overall
appearance of your word-circles.
9. Remember the stylistic rules of reading and writing Gallifreyan. You should write out
words with the same spelling you would normally use in English, except for a few consonant
pairs where one Gallifreyan symbol will represent two letters. Other irregularities youll need
to keep in mind include:

o A reading order that starts at the bottom and moves counterclockwise. So, in the example of a
sentence-circle, your first word will be at the bottom of the sentence-circle, and the next
word-circle will be counterclockwise, and so on. In a word-circle containing letter-symbols,
the first letter will be the bottom-most symbol, and the next letter will be counterclockwise,
and so on.
o Interlocking letters and words together. By interlocking letters and words together youll
make your Gallifreyan writing look most authentic. In particular, the symbols used for the
consonants R, S, SH, T, V, and W can be extended throughout word-circles and sentence-
circles to connect letters of the same word or words of the same sentence.
o The use of double circles for doubled letters. You can use double circles to indicate double
consonants or vowels. For example, the word bookcase would use a doubled circle for the O.
You may want to keep your double circles separate for shorter words though, like bee, took,
and foot. Writing out both doubled consonants in shorter words will give them a more
intricate appearance.
Part Two of Three:
Writing Sentences and Paragraphs

1. Indicate sentences with large, doubled circles. Sentences behave similarly to words in
Gallifreyan. Just as letter-symbols are gathered into medium-sized word-circles, words are
gathered together in large, doubled sentence-circles. In every sentence-circle, the bottom
word-circle will represent the first word in the sentence. Moving counterclockwise, the next
word-circle indicates the next word, and so on.

o Two circles will make up the perimeter of your sentence-circle. These two circles should be
drawn differently. The outer circle should be mostly smooth arcs with maybe one or two
inward curving sides. The inner circle should have random inward divots to give your
Gallifreyan a more intricate appearance.
o The inner and outer parts of the sentence-circles are used for the purpose of conveying
punctuation and connection. The inner circle is where youll add your punctuation marks to a
sentence. The outer circle, though mostly circular, should follow the divots created by the
inner circle in some places. This will create one or more inward curves in which you can nest
other connected sentence-circles.
o Circular Gallifreyan makes use of standard English punctuation. For example, the periods
you put on the divotted, inner sentence-circle will always occur after the last word-circle.
Punctuation should always immediately precede or follow word-circles.

2. Use a punctuation chart. To write Gallifreyan effortlessly, youll have to spend some time
memorizing the symbols it uses. Until then, you may want to print up a punctuation chart or
copy one freehand onto a blank sheet of paper. There many resources online, and
downloaded versions are available at Shermans Planet.

o Create a period by drawing an open circle on the inner ring of your sentence-circle.
o Create a question by drawing two closed floating close to, but not touching, the inside of the
inner ring of your sentence-circle.
o Create an exclamation mark by drawing three dots floating close to, but not touching, the
inside of the inner ring of your sentence-circle.
o Create quotations by drawing a single line oriented away from the center of the sentence-
circle.
o Create apostrophes by drawing two lines oriented away from the center of the sentence-
circle.
o Create a hyphen by drawing three lines oriented away from the center of the sentence-circle.
o Create a comma by drawing a filled in circle or solid dot on the inner ring of your sentence-
circle.
o Create a semicolon by drawing a single closed dot floating close to, but not touching, the
inner ring of your sentence-circle.
o Create a colon with a double circle (a circle inside of a circle) on the inner ring of your
sentence-circle.

3. Connect your sentence-circles like a Timelord. Timelords have a very fluid idea of time,
and this concept is a central to Gallifreyan culture. In the Doctor Who universe, some events
are more probable than others, but for most events, there are many possible outcomes. You
can emulate this in your writing by connecting your sentences together so that each sentence
has multiple branches. This will represent multiple possibilities each of your sentences.

o For example, you might want to explore different aspects of a central idea. To do so, you
could write that idea in a sentence-circle and branch off from it to the right in different
chains. These chains would represent the explored aspects of the idea.
Part Three of Three:
Writing a Word in Gallifreyan

1. Gather some circular objects. A sturdy compass will likely be the most versatile tool you
can use to draw circles of various sizes. However, you might find it more convenient to trace
circular household items, like the bottom of a bottle/glass, circular lids, large coins, mason
jars, etc.
o Your circular objects dont have to be perfect. You might want to try your own oblong
variation of Gallifreyan that uses an oval shape as the base.
o You could also rotate between several different circular shapes when drawing your word-
circles. For example, your first word could be bordered by a circle, the second by a fat oval,
and the third by a tall oval.

2. Use a sharp pencil and a quality eraser. If youre still getting used to drawing the symbols
of the Gallifreyan alphabet, you should probably write in pencil so you can erase any
mistakes. Once you are finished writing your message, you can always go over your pencil in
pen to give it a professional look.

o While writing in Gallifreyan, you may want your computer or cell phone browser open to the
alphabet and punctuation pages online. You could also print out the alphabet and punctuation
forms, or copy them onto a blank sheet freehand. Shermans Planet, being the home of
circular Gallifreyan, has many resources you could use.

3. Try your hand writing doctor in Gallifreyan. First draw your word-circle using a
compass, lid, or some other round object. All the letter-symbols for the word doctor will be
around or in this word-circle. The first letter begins at the bottom of the circle. On your
alphabet chart, the first letter, D, should look like a loop with a gap at the bottom. First draw
 a loop inside your word-circle at its bottom. Then you can erase a small portion at the base of
the loop/word-circle to create the gap. Next youll need to add a diacritic mark to change the
letter from B to D. Ds are represented by three dots floating inside, but not touching, your
loop.

o On your chart, you may notice that the base symbol for the letter D looks something like a
horseshoe with flat lines coming off its tips to the left and right. These flat lines should not be
drawn when you write this symbol. The flat lines represent the larger word-circle inside
which youre drawing your letter.

4. Draw an O. Moving counterclockwise within your word-circle, attach an open circle to the
upper right hand portion of your loop. If you think about your loop as you would the face of a
clock, you should attach your O-symbol at about two oclock position. Remember, vowels
are usually attached to preceding consonants.

o When thinking about the placement of a vowel, imagine the dotted grid that represents the
placement of the vowel as shown in your vowel chart. Then imagine the base symbol for the
consonant you will write. Overlay the vowel with the consonant so the circles match. This
will show you approximately where on the consonant you should attach your vowel.
o Your letter-symbols should always move around your word-circle in a counterclockwise
fashion. As the outside of your word-circle becomes crowded, spiral inward toward the
center of your word-circle.

5. Create the letter C. Though in this case youre going to use a K. Remember, Gallifreyan
doesnt use the letter C, so whenever you need to write an English C you should substitute a
K or an S depending on the sound the C makes. Continuing to move counterclockwise along
your word-circle, draw a floating circle to the right of your loop. This circle should be close
to but not touching your word-circle. Then add two solid dots to the inside of your floating
circle and add two filled in dots inside it. This free floating circle with two solid dots inside
represents K.

o The dots inside your K can be arranged in any way you please. However, you might find that
by orienting your diacritic marks, in this case the solid dots, in the direction of the next letter,
you may have an easier time reading your Gallifreyan.
o At this point you should have a large circle with a small gap at the bottom. Springing up from
both sides of the gap is a loop. On the upper right hand part of the loop is an open circle.
Counterclockwise (to the right) to the loop is a circle with two solid dots in it. These symbols
represent the letters doc.
6. Take a bite out of your word-circle to make the letter T. Continuing to move
counterclockwise, draw and inward curving semi-circle in the upper right hand portion of
your word-circle. If you think of your word-circle like the face of a clock, this would be the 2
oclock position. Then erase the outer boundary of your word-circle that runs between the
ends of your semi-circle.

o Make sure the mouth of your T symbol is wide so that it isnt confused for another letter. The
letter B is shaped similarly except it has a narrower gap at its base.
7. Form the letter O again. This vowel is again preceded by a consonant, so you should attach
it to T-symbol. Continue with the counterclockwise reading style by placing an open circle
(representing the letter O) along the upper left portion of the inward curving semi-circle
(representing the letter T).
8. Create the last letter, R. Take a bite out of your word-circle by drawing an inward curving
semi-circle in the upper left hand portion of your word-circle. Along the outside of this semi-
circle, place three solid dots to make an R. This completes the word doctor!

o Be careful when drawing the letter R. It can sometimes be confused for a wide mouthed letter
B.
Consonants

When writing out a word in Gallifreyan, it is done based on English spelling with the exception
of the letter C and a few phonetic letters (CH, SH, TH NG). Since 'C' makes either a 'K' or an 'S'
sound, we use those letters as replacements Here are some examples of Gallifreyan spelling
exceptions:

1. 'Cat' would be written as 'Ka T' (don't worry about that a, we'll get to vowels in a second)
2. 'Sauce' would be written as 'Sa U Se'
3. 'Thing' is written as 'THi NG', not 'T Hi N G'
4. 'Shale' is written as 'SHa Le' not 'S Ha Le'
5. 'Change' is written as 'CHa N Ge' and not 'C Ha N Ge'

If you feel that you absolutely have to write a C, write it like a K but with four dots.

Consonant designs, that is, the dots or lines that differentiate the consonants, do not rely on
placement or size to distinguish. So long as the appropriate number of lines or dots are placed
on that consonant, then it is correct. More on this later.

Vowels
Vowels are a bit trickier. Vowels are either attached to the preceding consonant or they float on
their own - either way they are smaller circles than the consonants and have slightly different
rules.

In the diagram to the left, you can see how each vowel looks both attached and unattached to a
consonant. 'A' is written as a small circle just outside of the main line of the word. 'E' is a small
circle either centered on the line of the word or centered within any full-circle consonant. 'I' is a
small circle with a line extending towards the inside of the word, either centered on the line of
the word or centered within any full-circle consonant. 'O' is a small circle that rests inside the
line of the word when it stands on its own, and when attached to a consonant it rests bisected on
the inside edge of the letter. 'U' is a small circle with a line extending towards the outside of the
word, either centered on the line of the word or centered within any full-circle consonant.

A vowel does not have to be attached, and can stand on its own at the writer's discretion. As a
general rule, however, a vowel should stand on its own if you want to elongate a short word (for
example, 'T H E' might be put instead of 'T He'). In cases where a word starts with a vowel ('E Le
P Ha N T' for example) or you have two vowels in a row ('Re A L' for example), a vowel will
need to stand on its own because it has no consonant to attach to.
Words

Words in Gallifreyan are based around circles. A word begins at the bottom of the circle (that is,
the part of the circle closest to the bottom of the image/paper) and proceed anticlockwise around
the word. An example can be seen to the right.

Notice both attached and unattached vowels in action in this word. You also have two letters, 'P'
and 'Ha' which are connected by lines. Since both 'P' and 'H' have two lines, we can draw those
lines connecting the two letters. This does not have to be done, so long as both letters have two
lines, they are written correctly. 'N', you can see, has a single line which is extending beyond the
circle of the word. So long as lines do not intersect with letters that should not have any
additional lines, they can extend as far as the writer wishes.

Sentences

Sentences are essentially just words made up of words. Just like a word, they are based in a circle
and you read them starting from the bottom and then proceeding around anticlockwise.
Punctuation can be added along the edge of the sentence circle. Sentences are contained within
two circles, the inner of which you place the punctuation around, and the outer which is simply a
containing circle.

As you can see in the example to the left, you can also add "divots" into the inner circle which
contains the punctuation. This is done simply for style and carries no additional meaning, it's
basically just there to use empty space. Reading anticlockwise from the bottom as you do with a
basic word, you should read each word as follows:
 1. OH
2. MY
3. GOD
4. HI
5. Re D Di T
6. !

Or as a coherent sentence: "Oh my God hi reddit!"

The three dots in the outer circle are an exclamation mark. This and the rest of the punctuation
marks can be seen in the table below. Sadly, there does not seem to be a comma available at this
time.
Claudia

Kristen
Karl

Dettlinger