Copyright Prof. K.V. Zvelebil + Dr. M.J. Zvelebil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER 1 Section 1: PHONEMIC INVENTORY of VULCAN Premiminary remark: 1) This phonemic inventory represents modern Vulcan. 2) The English equivalents of the pronunciation of the phonemes are only very approximative. VOWELS: i u i: u: e o e: o: short ^ ^: long a a: There are many vowel sequences which may be described as 'diphtongs'; ai (transcribed in broad Eng. transcription usually by -y- as in the Vulcan word "t'hyla" [t'haila]. (p.s. there shloud be accents on the ai - can't do that on this computer. Will have to send the post August version via snail on PC disks). ei, oi, au,eu,ou, etc. Nasalized vowels: e~, o~, a~ i - as in Eng. pit u - as in Eng. put e - " set o - " not ^ - " but in fast speach; almost as final vowel in "teacher". a - as in French patte i: - as in Eng. mean u: - as in Eng. prune e: - as in French prenez (emphatic) o: - as in Eng. fault ^: - " sir ; lengthened pronunciation. CONSONANTS: p b f v w~ w m t d th dh n c z sh zh k g x h ng ks q j r l w~l rh p - as in Eng. put b - " but f - " folk v - " veal w~- " no Eng. equivalent; voicless w (voiceless bilabial fricative) w - " white m - " man t - " top d - " door th - " t with aspiration (i.e. t with h-release; not like Eng. the) dh - " d " " " d " " " " " n - " not c - " [ts] as in tse-tse fly z - " zero sh - " shoot zh - " measure, but even more strongly voiced and with slight h-release ch - " church dzh - [d]+[zh] pronounced as one voiced sound. k - as in Eng. clock g - " go x - as in Scot. loch, ach; or German Bach (J.S.Bach) h - as in Eng. hut ng - " hung ks - " lax q - " quote, but still more "velar" and emphatic. j - " yolk, yes. r - as in Italien bravo, or rather in Spanich Carrera, very strongly articulated (voiced vbrant). l - as in Eng. logic ( that famous word again) w~l - voicless bilabial fricative + lateral as one sound rh - voiced retroflex vibrant, somewhat like American or Irish 'r'. n~ - as in Span. man~ana, Fr. mignon ' - glottal catch; this serves also as syllable-boundary. Thus e.g. the word t'hyla "friend etc" is pronounced so that there is a strong onset [t] followed by offset overshort pause with glottal catch ['], with main dynamic accent on the first vowel of the diphthong, hence [t+'haila]/ Consonent clusters are not avoided; on the contrary, clusters of two consonants are frequent kroy (stop), Katra, plak (blood), t'kahr (teacher), T'Pring, etc. Attention should be paid to the fact that consonant ( and vowel) sequences with ' are NOT to be intepreted as consonant clusters (vowel diphthongs): t'hyla, t'kahr, Kahs'wan, ka'athyra. (Pronounced [Kat' athaira] with very brief pause between the two vowels a, and with stresses distributed like `' i.e. secondary stress on [Ka] and primary stress on [tha]. ---------------- Section 2: Minimal contrastive pairs for phonemics will be privided at a later date. CHAPTER 2 WORD-CLASSES (Part of speach system) There are in Vulcan (V.) isolatable units which can be classified as either free forms or bound forms. We can distinguish among six word-classes. 1a: Action-words, e.g. Kroy (stop), Imroy (walk), Ran (kill), Spara (eat), Tichoy (live), Matoy (die). 1b: State-words, e.g. Kya [kaia] (exist), Kyani (non-exist); e.g. with interrog. particle - Qa kya qa kyani - (interrog. exist, interrog. non-exist) or loosely translated "To be or not to be". others: Mata (be dead), Tich (be alive) etc. 2a: Sentient-entity words, e.g. t'hyla (Friend/lover etc), Sehlat ( Vulcan "teddy-bear"), Le'matya (Omnivorous Vulcan predator), Horta ( sentient sillicon-based living thing). 2b: Non-Sentient-entity words, e.g. Kreyla (Vulcan biscuits), Ka'athyra (Stringed musical instrument) etc. This division does not correspond to carbon- vs. non-carbon based dichotomy. 3: Deictic words; there are five degrees of deixis: 1. this here (visible), e.g. i-plak (this blood) 2. this near (not visible) e.g. e-plak (this blood) 3. that these (visible) e.g. a-plak (that blood) 4. that these (not visible) e.g. u-plak (that blood) 5. that (distantial) e.g. o-plak (that blood) Under Deictic words, we include in this description what is generally described as the system of personal pronouns. This system distinguishes between the categories of inclusive (we-speakers + you-listeners) and exclusive (we-speakers - you-listeners) in 1st person plural. It also distinguishes between five degrees of Deixis in the 3rd person. And it also has a special paradigm for honorific ( suffix -kan (elder/more honorific) and -kam (to younger (effectianate) honorific. e.g. when Spock speaks with Savik he address her as Savikam). SINGULAR: 1. th' I th'kan(m) I-hon. 2. s' you s'kan(m) you-hon. 3.1. iw' he (visible) iw'kan(m) he-hon. 3.2. ew' he (not visible) ew'kan(m) 3.3. aw' he (visible: see above) aw'kan(m) 3.4. uw' he (not visib. see above) uw'kan(m) 3.5. ow' he (distantial) ow'kan(m) 3.2.1 iwl' she (visible) iwl'kan(m) . . . 3.2.5 owl' she (distantial) owl'kan(m) 3.3.1 in' it (visible) 3.3.2 en' it (not visib. see above) "it" can have honorific . form when applied to 'sexless' . sentient phenomena 3.3.5 on' PLURAL 1. the's' we (inclusive) the's'kan(m) we hon. the' we (exclusive) the'kan(m) 2. se' you se'kan(m) 3.1 iwe' they (m.vis.) iwe'kan(m) . . 3.2. iwle' they(f.vis.) iwle'kan(m) , . 3.3. ine' they (n.vis.) ine'kan(m) . etc e.g. plaks'ran (leukokupricytosis) lit. "blood you kill" 4: QUALIFIERS 4.a. Qualifiers of antity-words, e.g. Krup (blue), Sbah (red), e.g. "Spock'at krupat'oram u-plak" (Spock{gen. poss} green that-invisible -blood), or (That green blood of Mr. Spock) and "Kirk'at sbah i-plaplak" (This red [precious] blood of Kirk)*. Other qualifiers are e.g. near ditant, large, small etc. 4.b. Qualifiers of action/state words. e.g. Brax (fast) as in e.g. " Brax imroy" (walk fast), or, "Brax imimroykah" (walk very fast!!)**. * cf. explication of colours: Literally; Krupat'oram< (blue)+at'or (0.7+0.3) + ram (Yellow)=blueish green (Colours will be delt with later, numbers too). ** See below for intensive reduplication. 5: NUMBER WORDS. Vulcan has pentagonal system. Also there are many words axpresions dealing with calculative vocabulary of the Vulcans and only the most basic is given below. 1=ri' 6=ti' 2=ra' 7=ta' 3=ro' 8=to' 4=re' 9=te' 5=ru' 10=tu' 0=i' Vulcan has also specific words for fractions from 0.1 to 0.9 ; 0.1 = ir, 0.2 = ar, 0.3 = or, 0.4 = er, 0.5 = ur, 0.6 = it, 0.7 = at, 0.8 = ot, 0.9 = et. e.g. 2.156 = ra'irurit 10.461 = tu'eritir (said at great speed). On the pentagonal system is based the system applying to entity-words expressive specially of quantities from 1 to 5; thus we have singular, dual, trial, quatral and quintal. In Archaic Vulcan there are traces of these systems in the verb, expressed by incorporation of numeral forms. e.g. (you-2 stop-emphesis-command): in modern Vulcan; "s'ra' krokroykah" in ancient Vulcan; " s'ra' krokroyRAkah" or e.g. (you-3-humans walk-fast) in mod. Vulcan; "s'ro' qomiro' brax imroykah" {ancient; imroyRAkah). "qomiru" = five humans, BUT ti'qomie = six humans. 6: PARTICLES. Particles are free (emphasis, interrogation-words etc) or bound forms used prefixed, infixed or sufixed with free forms as auxiliaries: "qa" interog. prefix e.g. "qaram" = interrog + kill; "nirsh" =no, not, "a:" =yes. 7: CONJUNCTIONS ETC. ong = and e.g. Spockong Kirkong (Spock and Kirk) azh = or e.g. "Spockazh Kirkazh" (Spock or Kirk) niazh = neg. or e.g. " Spockniazh Kirkniazh" (neither Spock nor Kirk) ni-+-a not A but B e.g. niSpock Kirka (not Spock but Kirk) uks = but etc. CHAPTER 3 INTENSIVE REDUPLICATION A characteristic feature of Vulcan language is intensive reduplication which is employed with action words, entity-words as well as qualifiers: 3.1. With actio/state words, e.g. "Krokroykah" (Stop definitelt at once!) 3.2 With entity words e.g. "th'at t'hyleat i-plaplak" (This {precisous} blood of my friends) "the'at t'hyleat a-plakhi krokroykah" (Stop {intensive} that {visible} blood of our {exclusive} friends!). 3.3 With qualifiers, e.g. "Kirk'at sb'sbah plakhi kroykah" (Stop the {very} red blood of Kirk!). 3.4. Grades of qualifiers: Grade 2: infixation of repeated stem-vowel, Grade 3: further reduplication of final syllable. Examples: "atsk" (big) > "atsak" (very big) > "atsakak" (immensely big) "itsk" (small) > "itsik" (very small) > "itsikik" (infinitely small) CHAPTER 4: POSSESSIVITY Expressed by possessive suffix "'at" with entity-words and deictic words; e.g. "qomia'at" (of humans) "Spock'at (Spock's) th'at - my (mine) s'at - yours iw'at - his (male, visible, prox.) iwl'at - hers (female, visible prox) the's'at - our (inclusive) the'at - our (exclusive) e.g. "the;at katra" - our katra (spoken by a Vulcan towards non-Vulcan) versus "the'a'at Enterprise" - our Enterprise (Spoken by Kirk to Spock aboard the ship). cf. also "the'at orkike" - our ancestors. CHAPTER 5: SYNTACTIC RELATIONSHIPS OF ENTITY-WORDS. These are expressed by suffixation like in agglutinative languages. Paradigm Singular Dual Plural t'hyla - friends t'hylara - 2 friends t'hyle ( more than 5 friends) (analogicaly trial, quatral, quintal) t'hyla'at "of the friend" t'hylara'at t'hyle'at t'hyla'ha "to the friend" t'hylara'ha t'hyle'ha t'hyla'hi [direct object] t'hylara'hi t'hyle'hi t'hyla'he "in the friend" t'hylara'he t'hyle'he (location) t'hyla'ti "with friend" t'hylara'ti t'hyle'ti (instrument, association, etc.) t'hyla'a: [allocative] t'hylara'a: thyle'e: To this paradigm there are no formal exceptions. Examples: t'hyla'at sharien - 'sword of the friends' t'hyla'ha shroyat'ha - ' in order to listen (i.e. verbal noun + ha) to the friend' i-qomi'hi rankah - 'Kill this human!' (not often used by a Vulcan) qomi'he sbah plak - ' red blood in the human' Sharien'ti rankah - ' kill with the sword' Further syntatic relationships (such as 'inside in', 'ouside of', 'from' 'by', 'for the sake of' etc) are expressed with further infixation or suffixation of certain particles and form of action-words. CHAPTER 6: ACTION-STATE WORDS. 6.1. There is no abstract "verb" (state-word) 'to be'. "Being" always refers to a concrete state/situation/quality/quantity, i.e. ' being so-and-so' e.g. 'to be alone', 'to be sick', to be red', 'to be tall', to be alive', to be dead' etc. There is no copula "is" either. Equotional sentences are expressed by simple juxtaposition in a certain syntactic order: X Y , where X= old information, Y = new information. Thus 'Spock is tall' is literally 'Spock talls' and 'Spock is commander' is 'Spock (X) - commander (Y). 6.2 In contrast, there is a state-word 'to exist' in opposition to 'to non-exist'. Hence, 'Spock was sick' > 'Spock sicked + ended being sick' 'Spock was commander' > 'Spock-commander + precise temporal' 6.3. In addition, Vulcan has a state-word which cannot be translated only interpreted as meaning, approx., "neither exist, nor non-exist" or, in certain situational context, "being beyond" i.e. being beyond categories of time-space, beyond space-time continuum. This refers to "regions" wheter actual or mental (e.g. in meditation) which are beyond 'our' space-time coordinates. 6.4 Action/State words do have a category which can roughly be designated as aspectral or "Aktionsart". 1. Timeless action/state (still being in the state of preliminary discussions). Probably an action/state which has neither beginning nor end, and still is. e.g. th'kroy - I stop [?] 2. Continuous present; Action/state which exists at the present time without determination of its begining or end. Morphene - infix MU. e.g. tixoy (live); in Cont. Pres. tiMUxoy, e.g. s'tiMUxoy - 'you are living' 3. Action/State to be contintued; e.g. 'I am eating ( and have not finished eatingm but once shall finish eating).' Morphene - infix CU [tsu] e.g. spara (eat); th'spaCUra - 'I am eating' 4. Action/State to be terminated; e.g. ' I (finish) eating fast' Morphene -infix KSE e.g. th'spaKSEra - 'I (finish) eating', brax th'spaKSEra - 'I'll be finished eating fast/soon' 5. Action in past still going on; e.g. ' I stopped to talk to my friend' i.e. 'I stopped {and am still standing and talkinf}' Morpheme -infix ZO: e.g. Kroy (stop); kroyZO: - 'to have stopped (and still not moving) cf. th'at t'hylaha prala'at'ha th'kroyZO: - literally 'my friend [ dative] speaking [dative] I stopped'* * Dative of verb-noun = "in order to" i.e. I stopped in order to talk to my friend. 6. Action in past finished (terminated); Morphene -infix PE e.g. th'spaPEra - ' I have eaten' 7. Intentional Future;, Morphene -infix DZHA e.g. th'kroyDZHA - 'I will stop' 8. Non-intentional Future; Morphene -infix DZHU e.g. th'ranDZHU - 'I might kill' (I may have to kill in the future). 9. Negative verb Morphene -infix I e.g. th'rIan - 'I don't kill' rIankah - 'Do not Kill!' 6.5 Action/State words have the following basic forms. 1. STEM; e.g. Kroy (stop) Ran (kill), Kapra (calculate) 2. IMPERARIVE; .e.g. rankah (ran-kah) 'Kill!' PROHIBITIVE e.g. rIankah (see above) 3. PERMISIVE; e.g. Kroma (Kroy-ma) 'may stop' 4. VERB-NOUN; e.g. ranat (Ran-at) ' killing' EXAMPLES of utterances: 1. Kirkhi rankah - 'Kill Kirk!' Not to be confused with: Kirka: rankah - 'Kirk, Kill!' 2. Spockhi smoniyatha th'kroyDZHA - 'I will stop in order to wait for Spock' (Lit. Spock[object case] wait[verb-noun dative] I stop[intential future]) 3. Spock kreylaong plomikon spaCUra - 'Spock eats Vulcan biscuits and Plomik-soup. To conclude this section consisting of 6 Chapters our Vulcan advisor (name and address has to be witheld for privacy reasons) has given us a Vulcan poem that MAY have been composed by Surak. Loosly translated it goes thus: (It has to do with Life and Death) " Suddenly light Sudden;y dark - I am a shooting star too." in Vulcan: " Kh'liorah brax (light fast/suddenly) Niorah brax - (dark fast/suddenly) kahs'khiori th'thya." (shooting star self) Observe the initial "rhyme" of the syllables -io- which carry the main stress, as well as the sequence -io- in the 3rd verse. -A- a: yes ang and ahn weapon ahn'woon a particular Vulcan weapon. arie'mnu mastery of passion and emotion. arie emotion a'Tha 'immanence' direc experience of the being or force responsible for the creation and maintenance of the universe. Apperently all Vulcans posses this. (Spock's World) azh or -B- brax fast/suddenly -C- Cha' game of the word - also Sim're At cha = masters game (DITC) c'thia 'logic', reality-truth, the way things are. -D- d'mallu omnivorous plant dopra announce (action-word) droy answer (action-word) -E- eschak destructive psychokinetic effects (STN44) -F- fal-tor-pan refusion of body and 'katra' (ST3) -I- imroy walk (action-word) -K- Ka'athyra Stringed musical intrument kaiidth "What is - is" (from kya - to exist) katra essential essence of person (ST3) inner consciousness (the soul). There are exercises to consciously strengthen and ground the katra against dissolution. kahs'khiori shooting-star kahs'wan test of passage to adult hood, ordeal of Maturity kapra calculate khiori star kh'liorah light khostri race kreyla Vulcan biscuits (STN 12) kunat kalifee mating or challenge (TOS "Amok Time") kroykah stop! (TOS "Amok Time") krup blue kumi awake kya to exist kyani not to exist -L- lahso advise le'matya omnivorous Vulcan animal, has poisonous claws and diamant-shaped markings. -M- matoy die mnu mastery -N- na'Tha'thhya passing-on. The investitute of one's self-that- has-been in 'katra' mode. nehou feeling, vibes. niazh nor nidroy ask niorah dark nirsh no -O- orkika ancestor -P- plak blood plak tow blood fever [during mating season](TOS "Amok Time") plak s'ran "the blood killing" a Vulcan disies - leukokupricytosis. Hemocyanin blood cells become deformed, blocking the flow of Oxygen. causing edema in the lungs. (Genetically linked) pon farr mating cycle (TOS "Amok Time") prala talk -Q- Qir'lal a bening edible fruited thorned succulent root qomi human -R- ram yellow ran kill (action word) -S- sbah red Shafor Eridian teak. used for the backboard of the Ka'athyra. Shar city S'harien Antique Vulcan sword. Named after ancient Vulca weaponsmith who crafted them. S'harien means "Pierceblood" (STN:The Romulan Way) shroy listen sim're high masters (DITC) smoni wait skan family spara eat -T- tal'shaya a quick painless breaking of the neck (STN12) Tela'at Elder Teresh-Kah Silver bird-like vulcan animals. tesmur prosper t'hy'la friend-lover-lifelong companion tich live t'kahr form of polite address. Meaning among others a teacher. tor long tow fever tviokh derogatory term meaning neighbour used for a stranger (alien). -U- uks but -V- viproy call Additional Vulcan vocabularly (All from Diane Duane's Spock's World, page number will be give) KHU - {verb} to watch (cf. T'Khut female name for the noun "Watcher" - the planet accompanying Vulcan [pp 55]. A'KWETH - the hidden [pp94] TCHA-BESHEH - the undelies [ pp 94] HEYA - mountain (derived from the first high mountain seen by The Wanderer as a "cry of surprise and delight" [pp 97] TIKH - native grain-bearing grass that is a Vulcan staple, growing in plain sand CHAKH' - plant; its dried strings were used for weaving nets [pp127] AH'HRAK - the forge (Old Vulcam) one of the designations for the World. LASHA - precious stone ASHV'CEZH - revenge (lit. revenge-worse-than-death) NAKH - unit of currency ? [pp 198] 'ANKH - "the" war (pp254), great war What Diane Duane transcribes as T we can designate as "retroflexed" t*, and analogically, Th = retroflexed th*. H occures only in ancient (Old) Vulcan., cf. ah'Hrak. It may be described as velar h with strong and emphatic friction, voiced similar to Arabic 'rain'.