Xardn: The Alien Language in Caretaker

Learn more about Xardn: the alien language in Caretaker

Xardn is a dead alien language that is the main field of study for Ethan Bryant, the main character in my novel, Caretaker. This language has been one of my favorite parts of writing Caretaker, because it beautifully marries the fields of English and Math, which are two of my true loves in life. I often joke that if I hadn’t become a writer and teacher I would have wanted to be a prime number theorist. I just love the beauty of math and the power within it.

I’m especially taken with parabolic curves. They are beautiful. I was drawing them when I came up with the seed of the idea for Caretaker.

Xardn is a language based on parabolic curves like these:

Aren’t they beautiful?! In the novel, each parabolic curve represents a different word in the Xardn language and conveys a unique meaning. The language is mathematical and can be written either through the curves (as seen above) or through their parametric equations:

x(Ɵ)=(111-222)cos(Ɵ)+(205)cos(((111-222)/222)Ɵ), y(Ɵ)=(111-222)sin(Ɵ)-(-205)sin(((111-222)/222)Ɵ)

x(Ɵ)=(53-124)cos(Ɵ)+(205)cos(((53-124)/124)Ɵ), y(Ɵ)=(53-124)sin(Ɵ)-(-205)sin(((53-124)/124)Ɵ)

x(Ɵ)=(113-210)cos(Ɵ)+(150)cos(((113-210)/210)Ɵ), y(Ɵ)=(113-210)sin(Ɵ)-(150)sin(((113-210)/210)Ɵ)

A few common Xardn words and their English equivalents:

Want to try it out on a friend? Click below to share one of the following pages with them through Email, Facebook, or Twitter. The included link will bring them back to this page to decode your message!

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