The idea for this project came originally from Mark Jurries, who has had an interest in D'ni from the beginning. He found out all that he could about the language, but that knowledge was, so to speak, one star out of a galaxy. He recognized that being able to translate the amount of D'ni text in existence would enhance knowledge of the language by innumerable amounts. However, we didn't have a chance at being able to translate D'ni with out a minor start on the alphabet. This was graciously supplied by an unknown source, in the form of a neatly-done .GIF image sent to Mark via e-mail. With this in their arsenal, he and James Lanning embarked on this project.

In the beginning we hadn't had much time to download the D'ni text off the Web, so things were slow. We were focusing most of our attention to D'ni script found in Riven. Once we began to comprehend the alphabet, however, the pace picked up considerably. After minor corrections were made to our alphabet key, we began working entirely on other D'ni texts found on Cyan's website, which described certain places on the map of D'ni. Slowly on, our knowledge and understanding of the language grew. We found the meanings of various forms of punctuation, different vowel and consonant sounds depending on whether or not a dot was involved, and more letters were added to our Translation Key (the new name for the alphabet table). These advances all came with careful translation and study of all the various texts which were available to us. With the help of Richard Watson, our knowledge of the D'ni alphabet became complete. Reading D'ni became as easy as reading any other English texts. The final translations became more and more frequent, and we saw the project coming to a swift conclusion.

Will we ever be able to truly speak D'ni? This is very possible. First of all, now we can read it. Second, the groundwork for the language has been laid: an alphabet, some vocabulary, and various different noun and verb cases, moods, and tenses that are absolutely necessary for a true language. Now all that is needed is more of the two latter. It will take a while, but if everyone persists in the quest for knowledge of D'ni, more knowledge will become available, and the final conclusion of this project will be at hand... complete learning and knowledge of an actual D'ni Language.

Visit the Fruits of Labor to view the translated texts. About this project. Write to: Mark Jurries or James Lanning

* After this project became known among the Myst/Riven community, objections were made on using the word "translation" for this project. Some said that "transliteration" was more accurate, while others thought "transcribing" was more appropriate. We have considered all these possibilities.

** This Translation Guide describes the method thought best by the authors. It's sort of like any other language textbook: each has it's own particular style, and none can be said to the most accurate.