Re: Vulcan
Saul R. Epstein 
Fri, 11 Apr 1997 22:51:36 -0500

From: Jacqueline Y. Comben <hotlisp*rhossili,demon,co,uk>
Date: Friday, April 11, 1997 4:22 PM
 
> Can anyone tell me what Vulcans actually call their own planet?
> I suspect it isn't actually 'Vulcan'.

This is something I've wondered as well. Someone intimately familiar
with _Spock's_World_ can tell us if Duane gave the planet a name.

I'm almost as curious to know an explanation internal to the ST
universe as to how the planet/people came to be known in Standard as
"Vulcan." My preferred explanation would be that the actual name
sounds something like it. Actually, this looks like a perfect place
to use Professor Zvelebil's /w~l/ sound. Suppose the planet's name is
W~L'q^n.

I've always wanted to refer to the planet as "Vulca" in Standard,
which would make "Vulcan" a regularly derived adjective. I've also
seen the planet referred to as "Vulcanis."

> Also what does it mean? (e,g. 'where we live', 'land' etc.).

That could depend on how long they've been calling it whatever they
call it. A recent name could take into account that it is one of many
planets, while an ancient name could imply that it is all-space. Of
course, they have c'thia for that...

> Also, I believe it has been shown that all languages evolved
> from simple sounds, easy to make and meaning either simple
> imperatives like 'come', 'go', 'hide', 'run', or
> things like:'how', 'why'
> or 'Mama' and 'me', 'my'!!!

I would be interested to know how this has been shown. It does
parallel language acquisition in children, but really the sounds in
languages are all roughly equal in difficulty. It's just that some
languages have sounds that are more different from any of one's own
language's sounds, which makes them difficult to hear properly, which
in turn compounds the difficulty of pronouncing a strange sound in
the first place. Actually this is just as true in terms of sounds
that are very much like sounds in one's own language: it may be that
you pronounce such sounds all the time, but you can't hear the
difference so you can't produce a specific version on demand.

It would make sense, however, that the meanings and arrangements of
words began simply. But I've heard arguments that syntax and
phonology both become simpler over time.

> Clearly  Vulcans may find sounds easy which humans do not,
> but I wonder if anyone has thought about the evolution of
> the language?

I still think the single most important influence, in language and
other things, that we're going to need to take into account is
telepathy. No, I'm sorry. Telepathy and geography. And probably
something else...

--
from Saul R. Epstein
Terran, Late 20th-Early 21st Century
liberty <at> uit <dot> net
www <dot> johnco <dot> cc <dot> ks <dot> us <slash> <tilde> sepstein
posse circumuertutus libertas satis est