Vulcan (Star Trek)

Vulcans are a humanoid species in the fictional Star Trek universe who reside on the planet Vulcan and are noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic.

Language

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.

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The Vulcans appear to have three written languages; two of which which can be used separately or in combination with each other:

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• 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.

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 ' episode "Awakening"), yet by the time she is an elder (as seen in the ' episode "Amok Time"), she speaks with a thick accent. 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.

Related Topics:
American - British - Slavic - Universal translator - T'Pau

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