Witch Runes

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note New Edition, page 187
Features all English alphabet letters in the Archaic variant, in order. Numerals, punctuation and German letters were not included.

Witch Runes (マジョ文字 Majo Moji)[1], more commonly referred to as just Runes by fans, are a recurring element in the Madoka Magica franchise. Witch Runes are used by Witches and can't be read by magical girls.[footnotes 1][2] Four different Witch Rune alphabets exist, which were named Modern, Archaic, Musical and Latin by fans. The Witch Runes correspond to letters of the real-life Latin and Cyrillic alphabets (with extra letters with German diacritics also being known), Arabic numerals, and punctuation marks. The alphabet was at first deciphered by fans, and the findings were eventually partially confirmed through the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note.

Table of Witch Runes

If multiple values for "Character" are specified, this means the left character is in the Roman alphabet, while the right one is Cyrillic.

Letters
Letter Modern Archaic Musical Latin Letter Modern Archaic Musical Latin
A / А P / Р
B Q
C / С R
D S
E T
F U
G V
H W
I X
J Y / У
K Z
L Ä
M / М Ö
N Ü
O ß(ẞ)
Я
Unidentified (Possibly an "N" variant).[footnotes 2]
Numbers
Number Archaic Number Archaic
0 5
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
Punctuation and mathematical notation
Symbol Archaic Symbol Archaic
^ −
? ? %

Official Translation

  • Gertrud, Charlotte and Oktavia's names were typed in Japanese for some products and merchandises.
  • In the English dub of the Magia Record Anime some Witches' names are translated in English. When a Witch's name was displayed in Witch Runes, her name was also shown in English.
    • This was eventually provided for the English dub of the original series as well, the english letters appeared more rune-styled, sometimes even borrowing runes to replace similar-looking letters, such as the runic H (H) being used as the latin T.
    • Witches that were given official translations are:

Trivia

  • The Witch Runes are an original art by Inu Curry.
  • During the Aniplex USA Madoka Premiere, the production staff was very surprised when overseas fans cracked the Witch Runes. It was stated that even obsessive Japanese fans had not gone that far.
  • Even though punctuation marks rarely appear in Witch Rune texts, it is notable that the marks don't receive new arts and will be similar to their actual symbols. As of now, exclamation marks, caret characters, negative symbols and question marks are the only punctuation marks to have been seen in Witch Runes.
  • Latin O takes the appearance of a Soul Gem.
  • There are many minor alterations used by Witches and Familiars. One such alteration can be seen here.

Witch Runes by appearance

Using Witch Runes on this wiki

You can use Witch Runes on this wiki with the {{Runes}} template, e.g. {{Runes|HOMULILLY}} becomes HOMULILLY (use uppercase for archaic variant and lowercase for modern variant).

To use musical Witch Runes, add |variant=musical to the template, eg. {{Runes|OKTAVIA VON SECKENDORFF|variant=musical}} becomes OKTAVIA VON SECKENDORFF. The font does not distinguish uppercase and lowercase letters, so either will produce the same results.

Notes

  1. ↑ While Sayaka does make a comment amounting to "These letters, why can I read them?" in Concept Movie, it is nearly impossible to prove a negative. As this is the only known incident of a magical girl reading witch runes that is known of, such conjecture of their capability should be treated as "not a given".
  2. ↑ The origin of this rune is Episode 1. See the talk page for more information.

See also

  1. ↑ Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note New Edition, page 187
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140803162817/https://feral-phoenix.livejournal.com/685568.html#:~:text=Fans%20in%20the%20real%20world,%20can%20do%20so.
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