Described, not drawn

Each English letter has a invented glyph in the original design. Those glyphs are not reproduced and not described stroke by stroke. The table below is the letter’s name in the fiction, which is what a translator search actually needs.

Standard Galactic Alphabet is a trademark of a fan alphabet; Minecraft’s use is Microsoft / Mojang. It is named here for identification. The lexicon does not reproduce it.

Standard Galactic Alphabet

Also called SGA, the enchanting table

Designed in 1991; used in Minecraft from 2011

Fiction symbols

Standard Galactic Alphabet meaning

The Standard Galactic Alphabet is a substitution cipher drawn by Tom Hall in 1991 for Commander Keen. Each English letter has a nickname. Minecraft has used the glyphs on its enchanting table since 2011. The nicknames are listed here. The glyph shapes are not.

A substitution alphabet for jokes in a game, later a table in another game.

The name. Standard Galactic Alphabet is Tom Hall’s name for a letter-substitution he drew for Commander Keen. The names of the letters, Ahen through Zerek, are part of the joke. The shapes are a cipher. This page gives the names and does not give the shapes.

Where it comes from

Tom Hall, a designer at id Software, made the alphabet in 1991 so signs in Commander Keen could look alien and still be readable by a player who enjoyed a puzzle. It is a one-to-one mapping. A is Ahen, B is Beth, and so on through Zerek. The jokes of the names are the content that can be printed without handing over a typeface: they sound like a solemn script and they are a game. In 2011 Minecraft began using the same glyphs on the enchanting table, the interface where item names appear as the cipher. Mojang, and later Microsoft, did not invent the mapping. They used a mapping players already knew how to post. Use is not authorship. Hall’s 1991 file is the authorship. Because the shapes are a designed cipher with a living use in a current game, this lexicon does not redraw them. A translator who needs the mapping of names has the table. A translator who needs the pictures can find them in the games, which is where a cipher that is still in use belongs.

Fiction

A joke that learned to be a standard

The word standard in the name is part of the comedy. Nothing was standardized except inside a platform game. The comedy worked so well that a later, larger game could rely on players to recognize the jokes. Recognition over twenty years is how a private cipher becomes a public puzzle. It does not become an ancient script. The Elder Futhark is an ancient script, and it is in this cabinet with its own cautions. The galactic alphabet is a 1991 amusement. The table is here because the search for a translator is a real search, and the honest answer is a list of names plus a refusal to redraw the pictures.

Fiction

Names, not strokes

Ahen, Beth, Cresh: the list is the part that is verbal. Verbal is what a lexicon can print without becoming a font vendor for a game. If you came to copy the enchanting-table glyphs into a logo, this page will disappoint you on purpose. The disappointment is the policy on described marks. The names are enough to prove the mapping is a game’s. A real alphabet’s letter names, aleph and the rest, are on the aleph page and do not sound like these.

In popular culture

game · 2011

Minecraft enchanting table

Random cosmetic SGA phrases including 'klaatu berata niktu', 'embiggen' and the Cthulhu prayer; they do not affect enchantments.

Random cosmetic SGA phrases including 'klaatu berata niktu', 'embiggen' and the Cthulhu prayer; they do not affect enchantments, a later reading.

Source

Worth knowing

Added to the Under-ConScript Unicode Registry in 2019 at U+EB40–EB5F. Source
The Minecraft word list has no J or Q, though both glyphs float from the bookshelves. Source

Questions

What does the Standard Galactic Alphabet mean?

Where does the Standard Galactic Alphabet come from?

Tom Hall, a designer at id Software, made the alphabet in 1991 so signs in Commander Keen could look alien and still be readable by a player who enjoyed a puzzle. It is a one-to-one mapping.

Why does Minecraft enchanting table use Standard Galactic Alphabet?

Random cosmetic SGA phrases including 'klaatu berata niktu', 'embiggen' and the Cthulhu prayer; they do not affect enchantments. Random cosmetic SGA phrases including 'klaatu berata niktu', 'embiggen' and the Cthulhu prayer; they do not affect enchantments, a later reading.

Letter to Standard Galactic name

A	Ahen
B	Beth
C	Cresh
D	Dorn
E	Erek
F	Forn
G	Geth
H	Heth
I	Ith
J	Jeth
K	Krith
L	Leth
M	Mern
N	Nern
O	Orth
P	Pern
Q	Quen
R	Resh
S	Seth
T	Trith
U	Ul
V	Vev
W	Wern
X	Xesh
Y	Yirt
Z	Zerek

Near this

Sources

Named when the entry depends on a text, a date, or a standard. Catalog numbers are not invented.

Your margin

Private. It stays in this browser and never joins the canon.

symbol.wiki, edited as Sigilla. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. A reading of public tradition, not a ruling.