Interestingly, I received my copy of the brand new Doctor Who novel,
Shada, this morning from Amazon. This is the Douglas Adams story, rewritten by Gareth Roberts.
Just before Chapter 1, is the following page:
Fig. 1. These words are carved into the machonite plinth upon
which rests The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey
,
one of the Great Artifacts of the Rassilon Era. They are here
reproduced by kind permission of the Curator of the Panopticon
Archives, the Capitol, Gallifrey. Translated from the Old High
Gallifreyan they read, roughly: 'If this book should care to roam,
box its ears and send it home.' I realise that this is Old High Gallifreyan, and not the modern circular Gallifreyan, but in theory, the modern language is based on the old one. I've tried to figure out this passage, but even knowing what it says, I am unable to even begin to figure out the translation process, so posting it here in case anyone has any insights...
I thought it looked vaguely like the Gnomish language used by Eoin Colfer in his Artemis Fowl books, but that translated directly to english, just substituting pictograms for letters. This seems more complicated, but I find it hard to believe that this is just random symbols...