A universal language for humans, machines & everything between
The 9-Bit Language is a universal communication system built on a single 3×3 grid of pixels — each either filled or empty. Nine binary positions. 512 possible combinations. One complete language.
It is simultaneously a number system, an alphabet, a vocabulary, a binary encoding, and a pictographic writing system — all sharing the same simple visual grammar. Readable by human eyes, fingertips, phone cameras, and computers without any translation layer.
The symbol is the data.
Every number, letter, word and punctuation mark uses the same 3×3 grid. Learn one system. Read everything.
Each symbol is a 9-bit binary number. No encoding step. No lookup table. The visual symbol and the machine data are identical.
Symbols are designed to look like what they mean — a mountain looks like a mountain. A smiley face means hello. Meaning is visible.
No patent. No corporation. No subscription. A language belongs to everyone who speaks it. Propose new words. Let it evolve.
| Dots | Combinations | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | Empty / Zero / Silence | □ |
| 1 | 9 | Digits 1–9 | 1, 2, 3 … 9 |
| 2 | 36 | Letters / Phonetic symbols | A, E, I, K, S, T … |
| 3–8 | 420 | Pictograms / Ideograms | 😊 HELLO, WORLD, MOUNTAIN, TREE, SUN, BE, GO, CAT, DOG, NORTH … |
| 9 | 1 | Full stop — the Full Dot | ■ |
420 core morphemes. A definite endpoint. Unlike any natural language, you can achieve complete fluency and know you are done.
One 9-bit symbol encodes a complete concept. Up to 90% compression versus Unicode at the semantic level.
So efficient it runs on a simple LCD with a small solar cell. No charging infrastructure. Works anywhere on Earth.
Readable visually, by touch like Braille, by phone camera for OCR, and directly as binary data — the same symbol works for all.
The symbol IS the binary data. No encoding step, no lookup table, no font rendering pipeline. Direct pixel-to-meaning correspondence.
Based on Japanese phonology and universal pictograms. No Latin alphabet bias. Readable left-to-right or adapted for any culture.
Pictographic symbols look like what they mean. One rule — dots in a grid — unlocks numbers, letters and vocabulary simultaneously.
Sign languages encode meaning through position and configuration in space — exactly the logic of 9-Bit. Some symbols map naturally to sign language handshapes, potentially connecting deaf signers and 9-Bit readers without an interpreter.
One dot moves through the 3×3 grid left to right, top to bottom. Nine positions — nine digits. The empty grid is zero. Simple, learnable in minutes, and directly binary.
Two dots encode 36 phonetic symbols — more than enough for any alphabet. Vowels occupy the left column and centre row. Consonants follow a spatial logic based on Japanese phonology: universally pronounceable, culturally neutral.
Vowels — two dots in characteristic positions:
Consonants — columns encode consonant families (K/S left, T/N centre, H/M right):
Words are pictographic — symbols look like what they mean. Pronouns are mirror diagonals. Verbs fill rows or columns. Natural elements are tiny pixel pictures. The vocabulary evolves openly: propose new words and let the community decide.
Pronouns
Core verbs
Natural world
Creatures
The 9-Bit Language did not appear from nowhere. It is the latest expression of the oldest human impulse — making marks that mean something. The same instinct that drove a prehistoric human to notch a bone 40,000 years ago drives every pixel on this page.
Notched bones found in Africa and Europe show humans counting with straight cuts — the same straight-line logic that would become Roman numerals, tally marks, and eventually binary code.
The world's oldest known pottery, marked with cord impressions and incised lines. A completely independent tradition of systematic marking emerging from the same human instinct.
Horizontal strokes for one, two and three — identical logic to Roman tally marks, developed entirely independently. Two civilisations, no contact, same solution.
Likely descended from notches cut into wooden tally sticks — I for one cut, V for a double cut at five, X for a cross-cut at ten. Straight lines because straight lines are what blades make in wood.
Notches cut into the edges of standing stones. Groups of one to five cuts encoding the letters of an alphabet. Found across Ireland, Scotland and Wales — and in the National Museum of Archaeology, Dublin.
The great leap: positional notation and zero. Possibly descended from nine numerals originally drawn as groups of vertical lines — tally marks that evolved into cursive shapes as ink on paper replaced cuts in wood.
The Abbé de l'Épée formalises the first sign language school in Paris, proving that human language needs neither sound nor written symbols. Sign languages encode meaning through position and configuration in space — the same positional logic that underpins every 9-Bit symbol. A handshape in one location means one thing; the same shape moved to a different position means something else entirely. Your 9 pixels are doing the same thing in two dimensions.
A 2×3 grid of raised dots encoding the alphabet by position. 64 combinations. The direct ancestor of the 9-Bit Language — same principle, smaller grid, touch only.
Claude Shannon proves mathematically that information can be encoded as binary — ones and zeros. The 9-Bit Language is Shannon's theory made visible to the human eye.
Conceived on a Saturday night in Dublin after visiting the National Museum of Archaeology. Starting from Roman numerals. Ending at nine pixels. The same human instinct, 40,000 years later.
The 9-Bit Language is open. No patent. No owner. If you have a symbol that should mean something — draw it, describe it, send it. The best ideas will be added to the dictionary.
✉ Send your proposal