Glyphs

"Nanachi"

- to Mitty

About
Runes are the informal name given to the collective glyphs encountered in the world of Made in Abyss. Throughout the series, various glyphs have been referred to as Nether Glyphs, Pictographs, Beyond Glyphs, or Distant Characters.

Nether Glyphs
Nether Glyphs used by the people from the city of Orth occasionally appear in the series and directly match the Japanese syllabic kana alphabets.

The easiest way to decode them is reading the anime opening and end credits, where the names of the staff are laid over the corresponding Orth runes. Since each symbol is a match for a kana sign, they can be decoded with a moderate knowledge of Japanese. As a result, people decoded them independently; the result could be found on the Internet. Manga readers faced the problem earlier and thus found the solution first. There are some differences in style but overall it is possible to read both manga and anime texts.

Written text is mostly used for illustrative purposes to create a mysterious look, but does not bring any significant new information. In the table above, the translation from Orth runes to katakana is presented, and below there are some examples of translated text.

All runes are strictly linked to the Japanese language.

Examples from the Anime
1. Kaminoke (Hair) 2. Moemasen (doesn't burn), Katai hada (hard skin) 3. Kohi chotto gakai Like coffee (skin) 4. Teheso (belly button), Chinchin (childish term for penis) 5. Chotto kawatta beruto (Strange belt) 6. Herumetto (Helmet), kawaii (cute or tiny, in reference to "chinchin" in 4) 7. Saiten (Markings) 8. Nande chinchin ga tsuiterun tarou (Why is there a penis attached? Why does he have a penis?) 9. oshikko suru? (does it pee?)

The lamps indicating life signals appear in the manga, anime, and in the second movie when Bondrewd notices Mitty's lamp has gone out. When transcript with English equivalent letters most of these names are: Isuke, Iroso, Pueru, Temuu, Hinika, Sumiko, Toran, Jitowa, Temu, Petora, Maruka, Kinshii, Kebihi, Shiyaroko, Susumu, Toimu, Shipube, Emupo, Iroso, Iitan. Some of these names are repeated multiple times.

Beyond Glyphs
Pictographs are glyphs in drawing form with more than one meaning. Glyphs are based on them and according to the interaction between Menae and Sherumi, the characters are seemingly unlimited in number and new kinds are still being found. They are considered separated from the Nether Glyphs used in Orth and are called Beyond Glyphs.