Analysis of STIII
McReynolds 
Sun, 21 Dec 1997 09:35:32 -0600

Here's my completed analysis of the Vulcan spoken in STIII by Saavik
(assuming the rest was ceremonial).  I'm still working on STII, but this
part is complete.  Unfortunately, none of it really matches perfectly with
anything we already know.  But, I guess that is to be expected!  So, take
all of this with a grain of salt and understand that when I make a
statement, I am speaking purely in the hypothetical sense.

At first, Saavik and David come across a young Vulcan boy.  Saavik says to
the boy (as transcribed by Rob Z.):

Saavik'wiimic... kuups da liiben?  "I am Saavik... can you speak?"

My analysis is as follows:

{'wiimic} : "I am"
{Saavik'wiimic} : "I am Saavik"
{s'kam} : "you (diminutive)" [remember, she was talking to a little boy]
{liiben} : "to speak (utter sounds)"
{kuup} : capability question particle [my hypothesis is simple... there
would be a particle for general purpose interrogative statements (is it
purple?) and a separate particle for capability questions (can you eat?).
There could even be a third particle for action questions (do you eat?).
That's all speculation, but it does explain away the {kuup}]
{kuup s'kamliiben} : "Are you capable of speech?"
{Saavik'wiimic... kuup s'kamliiben?} : "I am Saavik... can you speak?"

And that's it.  What do you think?  Are there any places where I royally
screwed up the grammar?  I'd like to learn from my mistakes so I might take
another crack at it if its wrong.

Later, in a cave:

Pom kii sada.  "So it has come."
Do nii du sarafel?  "Do you trust me?"

In these last two lines, Saavik was dealing with a young man undergoing {pon
faar}.  She had no reason to speak in any language he could understand, so
she reverted to her "natural" language: Romulan!  Saavik is half Romulan,
and was raised on the Romulan planet Hellguard.  She has no reason to speak
Vulcan to the boy, so why not say it was Romulan and not have to deal with
deciphering this mess?

-McReynolds