Re: VL: Old Vulcan
Adam Ophir Shapira 
Wed, 22 Oct 1997 20:51:56 +0100

At 4:00 PM -0700 10/22/97, Patrick J Ferree wrote:
>I have heard many people ask, why isn't there a completed written
>language for Vulcan or font, or something along those lines, and until
>now, I didn't know myself.  The reason there is no Old Vulcan writing is
>explained in the Omnipedia, I will quote.
>
>"Note that in most cases we have deliberately refrained from developing a
>translation for written alien languages.  The reason is that if the words
>or symbols have English equivalents, it is much more difficult to
>organize the patterns of writing in an alien fashion.  This is why most
>written languages on Star Trek don't have "normal" word groupings or
>paragraph blocks. For example, Ferengi is based on a branching flow
>chart, using lots of 60-degree angles, whereas ancient Vulcan seems to be
>based on some kind of musical scales."

I know that to the un-critical eye, this Paramount explanation
may sould *very* plausible ... but to the critical eye, it does
not.

Different alien cultures may have differences in the way they
write ... but one thing they would have in common. They would
all want their writing system to be correspondent to speach.

To have a writing system based on musical scales would only make
sense if you're spoken language is a musical one. Humans have a
written language of musical scales (as a matter of fact, more than
one, but there is one writing system that is pretty much intercultural
nowadays for writing Terran music). However, the Terran musical system
of writing is used only to write music, NOT speech.

Also, about this Ferengi flowchart alphabet, it is also not
capable of standing up to scrutiny. We Terrans also have
flowchart systems of writing ... several of them. (The ANSI
one is only *one* of *many*.) However, we use flowchart
systems of writing to write flowcharts, not speech.

Furthermore, there is the issue of how could there have been
a such thing as "Old Vulcan" language in the first place? I
made IMHO a very strong and logical argument to believe that
there is more than one Vulcan language ... however, there would
be one language (very possibly Surak's native language, though
*not necessarily* so) which would be accepted as the language
for all planet-wide business on Vulcan. Post-reformation Vulcans
would find it logical for all of them to accept one language as
the global language (even if many of them have to learn it as a
foreign language).

However pre-reformation Vulcans would probably have been highly
nationalistic, and not only there would have been no univeral
Vulcan language ... but back then, Vulcans would not be able
to agree on one language as the global language *at all*. True,
during the late pre-reformation era, when Vulcans developed
internet-like technology, they maybe would have agreed upon
one global language for use on the net ... but when offline,
they would no doubt stick vehemently to their own native
languages.

However, this discussion is *not* moot. By "Old Vulcan", we
could be referring to the predecessors of what today is the
globablly accepted language on Vulcan.