30

Inspired by the question about the Klingon language, how fully realized is the Vulcan language?

I believe Mark Okrand is credited on Star Trek II for the Vulcan dialogue. Has there been a similar effort on the Vulcan tongue as there is with the Klingon?

|improve this question
17

The most extensive Vulcan language was made by fans in the 60's, especially by linguist Dorothy Jones Heydt. It had roots, grammatical rules and syntax, and was used in her own stories.

|improve this answer
  • Interesting, I didn't know that. Was the on-screen Vulcan heard in the films derived from that? – neilfein Feb 1 '11 at 5:21
  • 1
    It looks like it was only used in the books, though they were very popular, even Nimoy liked it. The ship Ni'Var, which appeared in an episode of Enterprise, was named after the story; the original association with Heydt's seminal conlang had been forgotten. – Teknophilia Feb 1 '11 at 22:06
22

I disagree that the moniker “most extensive” should be applied to Dorothy Jones Heydt’s language. It's true that it is well know and some of her vocabulary survives today. Her work is deserving of tremendous respect. I’ve done a LOT of research on this as of the Fall of 2010 and I have to give the title of “most extensive” to Mark R. Gardner’s Golic Vulcan series. The vocabulary is well over 12,000 items (almost unheard of for any SF-related constructed language) and the grammar allows for very thorough, descriptive translations. To see examples of Vulcan in “everyday use” visit Korsaya.org. To learn the language from square one, I suggest the Vulcan Language Institute Reclamation Project at STOGEEK. The full online dictionary (of multiple dialects including Golic Vulcan) is online at the VLD.

Marc Okrand worked on the few lines of ADR dialogue in the film STII WoK between Spock & Saavik (Kirstie Alley) and wrote the lines for Robin Curtis (again as Saavik) in STIII SfS. Curtis actually spoke the lines live. ADR was not a factor. However, he did not write the few words spoken by Dame Judith Anderson later in the same film. He also created the brief dialog between T’Pol and her mother in the TV episode ENT::HOME (Oct., 2004). I’ve learned these details directly from Dr. Okrand via personal correspondence.

Most of the words created for the first three motion pictures are incorporated into Golic Vulcan.

|improve this answer
2

The Vulcan language has been mostly developed by Mark R. Gardner from the Vulcan Language Institute, and it has different scripts too: Vulcan numbers I can't tell the difference though between Golic Vulcan and regular one.

|improve this answer
2

Here is a link to the Vulcan Language Institute if anyone is curious as to how developed this language is. James Doohan (Scotty) initially worked on the language for the first film and Mark Okrand worked on it for the second film. We took over when nobody else continued work on it and developed an entire language based on the little bit from the movies.

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.