Rihannsu (language)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihannsu_%28language%29)

Rihannsu is a fictional language invented by author Diane Duane which is spoken by the Rihannsu (Romulans) in Duane's Star Trek novels. In her novel The Romulan Way (ISBN 0743403703), as the inhabitants of the planet Vulcan turn to the philosophy of Surak en masse, the followers of S'task decide that they can no longer remain on Vulcan. As part of their exodus, they intentionally invent a new culture and a new language, based on Old High Vulcan and "aged" in a different direction. This language, described as sounding somewhat like Latin and Welsh, came to be known as Rihannsu.



External link

On Inventing a Romulan Language... (http://www.owlsprings.com/romlang.htm) by Diane Duane, accessed on January 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_5), 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006).Note: No Dictionary is currently known, though the book series did list some terms in glossary form.

Romulan language (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Romulan_language)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

The Romulan language is used within the Romulan Star Empire. Its written form consists of square and rectangular letters. By the 22nd century, the Romulan spoken language is no longer comprehensible to Vulcans.

Contents

1 Words and phrases
2 Language samples
3 Background
4 External Links
Words and phrases

jolan true: a salutation, used in the same way as "hello" and "good-bye". (TNG: "Unification, Part I")
veruul: an expletive.
Commander Will Riker was familar with the term, and used it against Alidar Jarok, when the Romulan disparaged Lieutenant Worf. (TNG: "The Defector")
Vorta'Vor: the source of all creation. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Language samples
Part of a Romulan self-destruct countdown aboard a Romulan Warbird:
Setha-tri par trukatha.
Setha-ki par trukatha.
Setha-mille par trukatha. (TNG: "Contagion")

Romulan ultimatum to the Enterprise inside an annexed star system:

Uhn kan'aganna! Tehca zuhn ruga'noktan!
Uhn Kan'aganna! Tehca zuhn! Neemasta kan'aganna uckwazta!
Kuhn'ukchtacht zuhn vockwadai!
Bar'ak t'stu annankana. (ENT: "Minefield")

Background

Since Picard and Data had no trouble with Language on Romulus one might assume they know how to speak the language rather well, although that was never explicitly stated on screen.

It is possible that Romulan is related to the Vulcan language, though this is by no means certain.

In the non-canon novel Vulcan's Heart, Spock notices Romulans cursing in old Vulcan.


External Links

Institute of Ra'tleihfi (http://atrek.org/Dhivael/rihan/rihan.html)
Rihannsu.org (http://www.rihannsu.org/)