# Moonspeak Moonspeak is internet slang for any text a reader cannot decipher, most often Japanese or another language written in a non-Latin script. The term crystallized on 4chan's /b/ board in the mid-2000s from a mash of anime fandom and a Tick comic panel, and became the go-to shorthand for anime fans staring blankly at untranslated screenshots. ## Origin Two competing origin stories circulate for the term. The first traces it to fans of the 1999 anime Turn A Gundam, whose story features a lunar civilization with its own script, which viewers nicknamed 'moonspeak' when complaining about untranslated on-screen text[3]. The second traces it to a thread on 4chan's /b/ board that posted a panel from The Tick comic in which the hero brushes off Japanese-speaking ninjas by saying he does not understand their 'moon language,' with Google Insights placing the thread around October 2004 or July 2007[3]. 'Moon language' never quite stuck, and the punchier 'moonspeak' took over as the standard form on imageboards[3]. Because the original /b/ thread was not archived, the exact first use cannot be pinned down. - **Platform:** Anime fandom / 4chan (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview Moonspeak is a mildly derogatory internet slang term for text the reader cannot parse, typically applied to languages written in a non-Latin alphabet[1]. Japanese is the default target, though the word gets stretched to cover Chinese, Korean, Cyrillic, Arabic, and occasionally dense legal or technical jargon that reads as gibberish to the recipient[1]. The joke works on two levels. On the surface it treats a foreign script as if it were the alien writing of another planet, and underneath it flags the speaker's own inability to read it, usually with self-aware annoyance rather than hostility[2]. Companion slang includes 'moon runes' for the individual characters and 'moon language' for the parent form the shortened version replaced. ## How It Spread The term picked up steam on 4chan first, where it was mainly deployed on non-English threads and on screenshots of raw, untranslated Japanese anime and games[3]. From /b/ it bled outward to other imageboards, IRC channels, and general anime forums, where multilingual users started using it as casual shorthand for anything they could not read[2]. Anime and manga fandom carried the word furthest. Untranslated raws, fan-translation projects, and JRPG imports all attracted the label, and by the early 2010s Wiktionary was documenting 'moonspeak' as established internet slang for non-English text, especially Japanese[1]. Urban Dictionary entries around the same period logged it in the wild in IRC contexts, with sample sentences showing users tagging French and other Latin-script languages as moonspeak simply because no one in the channel could read them[2]. The related coinage 'moon runes' spread alongside it as the term for the individual glyphs, particularly kanji, and stuck in gaming communities discussing Japan-only releases[4]. ## How to Use Moonspeak is typically dropped as a one-word reply to a screenshot, quote, or block of text the commenter cannot read. Common convention is to use it self-deprecatingly, meaning 'I have no idea what this says' rather than mocking the language itself. It often appears next to raw Japanese anime frames, untranslated game menus, or any wall of characters the poster wants to flag as unreadable. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Moonspeak? Moonspeak is internet slang for any text the reader cannot understand, most often applied to Japanese or other non-Latin scripts[1]. ### Where did Moonspeak come from? It grew out of anime fandom around Turn A Gundam's lunar language and a 4chan /b/ thread quoting The Tick's 'moon language' line, likely from 2004 or 2007[3]. ### What does Moonspeak mean? It means unintelligible writing, usually a foreign language in a non-Latin alphabet, though it sometimes stretches to cover dense jargon[1]. ### How do you use Moonspeak? Post it as a short reaction to untranslated text, typically Japanese screenshots or raws, to flag that you cannot read what is on screen[2]. ### Is Moonspeak still popular? It is a classic bit of imageboard and anime-forum slang that stayed in circulation long after its mid-2000s origin, alongside the related 'moon runes'[4]. ## References 1. [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moonspeak]() 2. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Moonspeak]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/moonspeak]() 4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moon+runes]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/moonspeak Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library