Silent Bob
02-17-2006, 12:16 PM
Taken from the Wikipedia Entry on Vulcans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_%28Star_Trek%29#Language)
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The Vulcan language has developed so much over time that writings from the era of Surak required translation to be understood upon discovery in 2154.
The Vulcans appear to have three written languages; two of which can be used separately or in combination with each other:
The most common script on Vulcan resembles a vertically-written chromatic scale, having a central staff line on which vertical spirals and horizontal dashes are written, along with dots in various combinations. While no official translations for these symbols exist, it is assumed that the dots and dashes represent consonants and the spirals are the vowels. The script is written in vertical columns from top to bottom, left to right (like Mongolian).
The second script written in the same direction consists of swirly curved symbols (like Japanese hiragana). It is assumed that these symbols are also phonetic, perhaps syllabic or consonantal. The first two scripts can be used separately or in combination with each other. When this is the case, the swirl symbols accompany the staff writing symbols as annotation written to the right of the staff.
A third script consists of rectangular blocks cut into geometric shapes. They have only ever been seen on the hulls of some Vulcan ships and bear no relation to the first two scripts. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Reunification II", Spock meets a Romulan youth who shows him children's toys -- marble-sized objects in various shapes -- marked with symbols identified as "the syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language." Spock is intrigued that some Romulans want their children to learn to read Vulcan; the boy says "to prepare for the day when we will live again with our Vulcan cousins."
Vulcans are fluent in English, usually speaking it with an American-like accent, though occasionally British and Slavic accents have been heard. There is some debate among fans, however, as to whether the accent heard isn't a creation of the universal translator used at the time. The character of T'Pau, for example, speaks with only a faint accent as a young woman (as seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Awakening"), yet by the time she is an elder (as seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time"), she speaks with a thick accent, being played by a Hungarian actress. It has been pointed out that humans have been known to change accents over the course of a lifetime, so the same may hold true for Vulcans; although the difference in accents may just have been the result of a different model of Universal Translator.
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The Vulcan language has developed so much over time that writings from the era of Surak required translation to be understood upon discovery in 2154.
The Vulcans appear to have three written languages; two of which can be used separately or in combination with each other:
The most common script on Vulcan resembles a vertically-written chromatic scale, having a central staff line on which vertical spirals and horizontal dashes are written, along with dots in various combinations. While no official translations for these symbols exist, it is assumed that the dots and dashes represent consonants and the spirals are the vowels. The script is written in vertical columns from top to bottom, left to right (like Mongolian).
The second script written in the same direction consists of swirly curved symbols (like Japanese hiragana). It is assumed that these symbols are also phonetic, perhaps syllabic or consonantal. The first two scripts can be used separately or in combination with each other. When this is the case, the swirl symbols accompany the staff writing symbols as annotation written to the right of the staff.
A third script consists of rectangular blocks cut into geometric shapes. They have only ever been seen on the hulls of some Vulcan ships and bear no relation to the first two scripts. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Reunification II", Spock meets a Romulan youth who shows him children's toys -- marble-sized objects in various shapes -- marked with symbols identified as "the syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language." Spock is intrigued that some Romulans want their children to learn to read Vulcan; the boy says "to prepare for the day when we will live again with our Vulcan cousins."
Vulcans are fluent in English, usually speaking it with an American-like accent, though occasionally British and Slavic accents have been heard. There is some debate among fans, however, as to whether the accent heard isn't a creation of the universal translator used at the time. The character of T'Pau, for example, speaks with only a faint accent as a young woman (as seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Awakening"), yet by the time she is an elder (as seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time"), she speaks with a thick accent, being played by a Hungarian actress. It has been pointed out that humans have been known to change accents over the course of a lifetime, so the same may hold true for Vulcans; although the difference in accents may just have been the result of a different model of Universal Translator.