Phonomological Analysis of Vulcan Utterances
Rob Zook 
Tue, 28 Oct 1997 21:03:40 -0600

Hi all,

It's in the works. Seriously, just like Saul I've been a busy 
little beaver. I have been finishing up a program to subject 
the words to a count of the phonomes so we can get a feel for 
the sounds distribution of the language. However, the spellings 
in the dictionary do not always correspond to the phonetic 
inventory in the lexicon so I need some help on how to respell 
them in a consistant manner for the analysis program.

I'm pretty sure that all the ones with the letters "oy"  
probably should be spelled "oi", given that's the way that 
"kroykah" sounded in _Amok Time_. We should probably do the 
same with any "<V>y" combination. Except for a few specific 
instances the rest of the "y" occurances below probably act as 
a consonent.

The one that really bugs me is what the heck should "kh" sound
like? An aspirated "k" or a fricative "k"? My personal 
preference is the fricative. 

One more thing which suggests itself - the excessive use of "h"
with a vowel probably indicates a short vowel rather than an 
extra breathy syllable. This seems to appear in words from
the ST Novels more than anywhere else.

I have extracted a few words from the dictionary which will
prove troublesome to the analysis program, and a suggested 
alterate spelling:

Dictionary Version            Some guesses
------------------            -------------
ahkh                          akh?
an'kharh                      an'kharh (the reflexive "r"?)
ahn'woon                      an'wuun?
breish                        breic?
d'Vel'nahr                    d'velnar?
droy                          droi?
eschak                        estcak?
farr                          far or farh?
imroy                         imroi?
Ka'athyra                     Ka'athaira (Zvelebil y usage)
kae'k'akkayam                 kae'k'akkayam (consonent y?)
kahru                         karu?
kahr-y-tan                    kar-ai-tan?
kahs'khiori                   kas'khiori?
kahs'wan                      kas'wan?
kash                          kac?
Kh'askpetheya'th              Kh'askpetheya'th (consonent y?)
Kh'askeyralatha               Kh'askei(?)ralatha
Kh'sparkeyralatha             Kh'sparkeyralatha?
kh'liorah                     kh'liora?
kreyla                        kreila?
kroykah                       kroika?
kunat kali-fee                kunat kali-fii?
kya                           kaia?
kyani                         kaiani?
Kya'shin                      kaia'cin?
k'wawzhe                      k'wawje?
lahso                         laso?
lasha                         laca?
leshriq                       lecriq?
le'matya                      le'matya (consonent y?)
loshiraq                      lociraq?
losherok                      locerok?
manah                         mana?
matoy                         matoi?
mnah                          mna?
niazh                         niaj?
nidroy                        nidroi?
niorah                        niora?
nirsh                         nirc?
ni'rch                        nirtc?
pon farr                      pon far?
p'pil'lay                     p'pil'la'ai?
saya                          saya?
sbah                          sba?
Shafor                        cafor?
shan                          can?
Shar                          car?
shi'kar                       ci'kar?
shi-ka'ree                    ci'ka'rii?
shroy                         shroi?
tal'shaya                     tal'caya?
tich                          titc?
t'hy'la                       t'hai'la?
totsu'k'hy                    tottsu'k'hai?
tr'aiyar                      tr'aiyar?
viproy                        viproi?
vrekasht                      vrekact?
Wh'ltri                       whltri?

All the rest of the words in the library match both the
Zvelebil Lexicon and Saul's alternate orthography.

Comments?/Questions?

Rob Z.