NULLTONGUE v0.3.0 · language ed. 0.2

A hacker language hiding in plain UTF-8.

Nulltongue is a terminal-safe visual writing system: a monospace font family that reskins ordinary a-z, A-Z, digits and punctuation as an alien syllabary and logograph set — while the underlying text stays completely normal Unicode.

Same text. Different reality.

DejaVu Nulltongue
Weight

Type anything below — it renders live in the selected font. Same keystrokes, same Unicode, different glyphs. Nulltongue Mono — Regular

What is Nulltongue?

Nulltongue is a constructed hacker language and matching monospace font family, currently at font/tooling release 0.3.0 (language edition 0.2). It ships as three practical terminal weights — Regular (400), Bold (700), ExtraBold (800) — each exported as TTF, OTF, WOFF and WOFF2, plus matching Nerd Font variants carrying over 10,070 imported private-use icon codepoints for terminal/TUI use.

  • UTF-8 stays ordinary. Nulltongue never remaps letters into Private Use Area codepoints — it only changes how existing Unicode is drawn.
  • Lowercase is a syllabary. a–z render as five sound families (Z · K · R · T · SH) plus the standalone z → ZEN glyph.
  • Uppercase is logographic. A–Z are independent hacker-concept glyphs, not capitalised lowercase.
  • Higher Unicode is protected. Box drawing, arrows, Braille and other scripts stay inherited from the donor font unless a Nerd Font range is deliberately patched.
  • Terminal-safe. Every printable ASCII cell keeps one fixed advance width, so TUIs and box-drawing layouts never shift.
Security note: Nulltongue is visual obfuscation, not cryptographic protection. Changing the font back, or inspecting the underlying bytes, reveals the original plain-Unicode text.
Specimen sheet comparing Nulltongue Mono Regular, Bold and ExtraBold weights
Official v0.3.0 weight specimen — Regular / Bold / ExtraBold.

Lowercase syllabary

Each key renders a syllable. Click a glyph to drop it into the live preview above.

Family Z

a ZA
b ZE
c ZI
d ZO
e ZU

Family K

f KA
g KE
h KI
i KO
j KU

Family R

k RA
l RE
m RI
n RO
o RU

Family T

p TA
q TE
r TI
s TO
t TU

Family SH

u SHA
v SHE
w SHI
x SHO
y SHU

Family ZEN

z ZEN

Uppercase logographs

Every capital is its own hacker-vocabulary concept — not a capitalised lowercase form.

A system
B user
C file
D network
E execute
F read
G write
H process
I memory
J machine
K data
L security
M power
N time
O location
P command
Q control
R interface
S logic
T terminal
U virtual
V hardware
W software
X encrypt
Y decrypt
Z unknown

Digits & punctuation

Digits keep their decimal value under a redesigned numeral shape; punctuation keeps its Unicode meaning.

0 0
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8
9 9
! exclam
" quotedbl
# numbersign
$ dollar
% percent
& ampersand
' quotesingle
( parenleft
) parenright
* asterisk
+ plus
, comma
- hyphen
. period
/ slash
: colon
; semicolon
< less
= equal
> greater
? question
@ at
[ bracketleft
\ backslash
] bracketright
^ asciicircum
_ underscore
` grave
{ braceleft
| bar
} braceright
~ asciitilde
Syllabary Logographs Digits Punctuation Nerd Font (10,070 codepoints, in the downloadable kit)

Get the Language Kit

Fonts, the reference dictionary, the learner textbook and three graded reading tests — everything in one signed release.

Download v0.3.0 (19.9 MB)
3font weights
4formats (TTF/OTF/WOFF/WOFF2)
10,070Nerd icon codepoints
2reference books + 3 reading tests
SHA-256 6446348188bc186ad4b1a4dbf8b673bd6ca1f8fa546d1e912f766c07a7936803