- This page contains non-standard Greek letters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of runes. For more information, please click here.
Throughout Last Exile and Last Exile - Fam, the Silver Wing, the Greek writing system and language is used for writing and communication. Specifically, in Last Exile most words are rendered accordingly in the correct Greek form, however, in Silver Wing, Greek letters are used only in replacing their approximate Roman letter equivalent. For example, the ship Urbanus in Last Exile is rendered as υρβανυς (usually in its uncial form ΥΡΒΑΝΥΣ). In Silver Wing on the another hand, a letter is written 'about the invasion' and is transcribed letter-for-letter without actual translation 'αβουτ τηε ινϖσιον.'
The Last Exile Alphabet[]
This alphabet is used to rewrite words from the Latin alphabet to the Greek, like Χλαυδια for Claudia and ωανσηιπ for vanship. There are many idiosyncracies that conflict with actual Latin to Greek transliteration. For example, the Latin letter H is written as the Greek letter Eta (which is a vowel rather than a consonant in Greek) and upper case letter V as Stigma (a ligature - that is a character representing the sound of two letters - of sigma ς and tau τ, στ) while the lower case letter V is represented by ϖ (which is the Medieval Greek cursive letter for pi, mostly common represented in Greek by π). Additionally, there are some quirks that arise from the differences between Japanese and English pronunciation, most notably certainly letters being used interchangeably—B and V, and L and R.
There are some occasions when the transliteration seems to have been used correctly, for example Urbanus as υρβανυς. However, the -us inflection is a Latin inflection, whereas the corresponding Greek inflection is -ος. Accordingly, the correct Greek translation would have been υρβανος (urbanos).
Image of Last Exile's Alphabet, as shown on the inside cover of the Travelers From the Hourglass manga.
| Greek | Latin | Greek | Latin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Αα | Aa | Νν | Nn |
| Ββ | Bb | Οο | Oo |
| Χχ | Cc | Ππ | Pp |
| Δδ | Dd | Θθ | |
| Εε | Ee | Ρρ | Rr |
| Φϕ | Ff | Σσ | Ss |
| Γγ | Gg | Ττ | Tt |
| Ηη | Hh | Υυ | Uu |
| Ιι | Ii | Ϛϖ | Vv |
| ϑφ | Jj | Ωω | Ww |
| Κκ | Kk | Ξξ | Xx |
| Λλ | Ll | Ψψ | Yy |
| Μμ | Mm | Ζζ | Zz |