Old Code

Old Code was invented in about 2001 by Ronan Hindle to pass notes in class. It is designed to confuse teachers. The letters have evolved a lot over the course of four years, for example the symbol Nail used to look like 'zz' and the symbols Hox and Eye were shaped 'I' and '(-)'. Several of the names have also changed; Hox was called 'Hii', Eye was called 'Hodash' and Nail was called 'Zidum'. Kaxe was also once called 'Kixpa'.

Notable features

Each symbol represents a letter of the latin alphabet. These could be easily modified to include accents (which go above other symbols) or special letters, for example ß in German could be done with relative ease.
Old Code is based on the Latin alphabet in order to be easy to remember, but distorted enough so that the letters cannot be guessed. For most letters there is a way of remembering them from their shape in relation with the latin alphabet.
Spaces are indicated with a raised dot/circle.
Punctuation marks are placed above the letter (or space) that the punctuation should follow, and then the specific symbol for that punctuation is placed under the first letter of that word (or directly underneath in the case of a space). One type of punctuation requires one punctuation symbol above the preceding symbol, and additional punctuation of the same is shown by adding it's specific punctuation more than once (stacking downwards).
The symbols were given names to be easier to remember.
Numbers are written from left to write (as is text) and should be preceded by a #.

Old Code alphabet

Old Code numerals

Old Code punctuation

Old Code stand-alone punctuation marks

Old Code stand-alone punctuation

Sample text

Sample text in Trantanese

Transliteration

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

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