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An unintended characteristic of the seven-segment display is that many numbers, when read upside-down, resemble letters of the Latin alphabet. Each digit can be mapped to one or more letters, creating a limited but functional subset of the alphabet.
Contents
Examples
The graphic below illustrates with the sequence "250714638" appearing inverted as "BEghILOSZ":
Certain calculators omit the topmost stem on the digit "6" and the bottom-most stem on the "9". In such cases, "6" renders a lowercase "q" when turned upside-down, and "9" appears as a lowercase "b".
Other variants of calculator spelling alphabets consider "0" to be a capital "D" instead of "O", "6" (not used in the standard Beghilos) as a lowercase "g" (as opposed to uppercase represented by 9) and "9" as either a reversed lowercase "a" or an at sign (@), both of which represent the letter A.
Extending the available alphabet to hexadecimal notation (generally available on lower-end scientific calculators, though not on basic models), "b" and "d" correspond to "q" and "p" respectively. "F" transforms to a mixture between a "J" and a "t". A and C do not transform readily to recognizable letters. E transforms to 3. C transforms to an open O. Upside-down A is the # sign.
Using leet, additional letters can be represented by combinations of letters (11/II or 2 ["Z" being very rare in English] representing "two" or "to", 111/III representing "three", 15/SI, 935/SEa or 335/SEE for "C", etc.). This is generally rare and, especially in the last case (using a spelling-out of a letter) severely limits readability.
Only certain calculators are capable of being used for beghilos calculator spelling. LCD, VFD, LED, and Panaplex displays are best for spelling words. The ability of dot-matrix displays, fourteen-segment and sixteen-segment displays to render most characters defeats the purpose of spelling with a limited alphabet.
If the calculator is instead rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise from upright to create a vertical display, a different, but less useful, set of letters can be reproduced, including:
If the calculator is instead rotated 90 degrees clockwise from upright to create a vertical display, still a different, but less useful, set of letters can be reproduced, including:
Placing a calculator in front of a mirror produces the following character set, including:
Vertical
90° CW
90° CCW
Upside-down:
Applications
Aside from novelty and amusement, calculator spelling has limited utility. The popularity of pagers in the 1990s gave rise to a form of leetspeak called pagerspeak. Students, in particular, experimented with calculators to discover new words.
English
The 'original' attributed example of calculator spelling, which dates from the 1970s, is 5318008, which when turned over spells "BOOBIES". Another early example of calculator spelling offered the sequence 0.7734, which becomes "hELLO". Other words possible with the traditional "BEghILOSZ" set include "LOOSE", "ShELL", "BEIgE", "gOBBLE", "gOOgLE", and very many others. Two of the longest, at 11 letters, are "hILLBILLIES" and "SLEIghBELLS" (these require 12-digit displays, such as those used in adding machines). Hip hop slang applications include the sequence 3722145 which spells "ShIZZLE". On certain 10 digit calculators the number 5304577351 spells "I SELL ShOES", the number 77151345 spells "ShE IS ILL", or the number 7715134 spells "hE IS ILL". Another common number, 7734206, spells "gO 2 hELL". 8008 is special in that it can spell "BOOB" upside-down or right-side up.
Scientific and programmer calculators
Scientific calculators that feature hexadecimal readout using the letters A through F offer more flexibility. Using a scientific calculator with hex capability, the earlier "b00b1E5" example can be improved with the A–F keys to spell "B00B1E5", without needing to rotate the display (a practice known as hexspeak).
Students often use this capability and the improved "alpha" feature that use the letters "A" through "Z" to write messages, separating words by using the minus sign ("-") or other punctuation. In the "B00B1E5" example above, for instance, a factorial product sign ("!") can be added to create "B00B1E5!" Most of these calculators do not use seven-segment displays, instead using dot matrix displays for greater versatility.
Programmable devices
When accessed through programming, calculator spelling can provide a form of textual feedback in devices with limited output ability. A programmer creates a wider set of letters, which does not require a reader to turn the device upside-down. Many consumer devices including digital cameras resort to variants of calculator spelling in order to display diagnostic or status information in non-alphanumeric displays. For example, many Minolta cameras display "Err" or "HELP" to indicate various problems.
Other languages
Calculator spelling is also used in other languages: