People learning fantasy languages is nothing new; for example, there are more enthusiasts who can speak Star Trek's Klingon fluently than there are for some actual languages. And, well, there's no sign of it stopping: Ahead of the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game, YouTuber 2Chrispy posted a video titled "I Decoded the Ancient Monkey Scrolls of Donkey Kong Bananza," in which they – surprisingly – decode the ancient monkey scrolls of Donkey Kong Bananza.
During the reveal trailer for the game during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, 2Chrispy noticed that some of its signs had some banana-based glyphs, and after poring through the Nintendo Treehouse, gameplay clips, and the Nintendo Today app, they managed to put some things together.
Starting with the Chip Exchange sign, which features a big banana chip and these glyphs, 2Chrispy was able to figure out the word "exchange" (two vowels!).
They then used the letters to cross-reference other signs in the game. And while some of these translations were built from guesses using words with the identifiable letters, so far, it's making total sense.
At the end of their almost month-long endeavor, and just under two months away from Donkey Kong Bananza's July 17 release date, 2Chrispy managed to narrow down most of the banana alphabet (or Bananabet, as they call it), with only five letters to go for a complete set (B, J, Q, V, and Z, to be exact).
Of course, there's always the chance Nintendo reveals some more signs and letters ahead of Bananza's release, so there's still a chance for the full alphabet to be translated before launch.
If not, it'll be sorted at launch, and we can all have the chance to read banana language.
Donkey Kong isn't the only title gracing the Switch 2 this year; be sure to check out our list of upcoming Switch 2 games.
