#vulcan language

I'M SO FUCKING PROUD OF THIS ONE

Okay so — this is a quote from @purple-iris's beautiful, heart-wrenching story "Itsil’sar - Death chant: ritual chant for the dead". It reads "dungi tev-tor nash-veh t’du ko-fu, sa-mekh", or, in English, "I will die your daughter, father". I really, really recommend you give it a read if you like angst. I was on the verge of tears the whole time.

The Vulcan language is, to use a technical linguistic term, clunky as hell. 

If you've used it at all, you've probably noticed. The pronouns are a nightmare; verbs are simplistic and not all forms are given; everything’s a compound even if it has no business being; and a lot of words we need simply don’t exist. The creation of the language began as gibberish made up to fit how the actors’ mouths were already moving and it shows.

So I've been going through extant Vulcan phrases, looking for alternatives. You see, Vulcan was created grammatically after many Vulcan phrases were canonical, meaning not all phrases fit with the grammar we're given. You’ll see this in formalized phrases from ceremonies or as part of etiquette—stuff that simply doesn’t translate according to the rules we have.

I explain this by saying those phrases use an archaic or regional dialect. The stuff Vulcans are willing to share with us makes up the VLD and the grammar lessons. That doesn’t mean that’s how they actually talk. They very well might often use archaic or regional terms they don’t consider part of the standardized form of the language. 

This is especially true when, for instance, Spock breaks into Vulcan at a time of intense feeling. He isn’t going to speak in proper Vulcan he learned in school: he may well pull from the language of poets or from secret Vulcan profanity they won’t put in the dictionary.

I could go further and say: the Surakian linguistic reform that attempted to standardize the language and regularize forms in use (which can explain the over-simplicity of the grammar and general lack of irregular verbs) never took hold as well as they pretend it did. How Vulcans actually speak is much messier. Uhura probably goes on regular rants about this.

As a person who is trying to use Vulcan rather than simply analyze it, I’ve given myself permission to make some of my own changes. However, I don’t currently feel comfortable just making things up. This language is in use by a lot of people and any creations I invent will be incomprehensible to any other Vulcan language user. Thus I mine the corpus of existing Vulcan for forms I might use in novel ways to make the language easier and more graceful.

So, here we go: I’m going to slice and dice the Vulcan language looking for useful grammar, thus angering everyone who already uses the language and being completely irrelevant to anybody who doesn’t. But maybe there are five people out there who will find this stuff interesting or even useful.

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Background lore/teaser post (See where it all started) | Characters Read Time & Time Again on Patreon | on Ao3 | Download CH1 PDF ($20) Reader Questions (Ao3) | Text Transcript / Glossary of Trek Terms (Ao3) CHAPTER 1 - I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Page 18 | Page 19 | Page 20 | Page 21 | Page 22 | Page 23 | Page 24 | Page 25 | Page 26 | Page 27 | Page 28 | Page 29 | Page 30 | Page 31 | Page 32 | Page 33 | Page 34 | Page 35 | Page 36 | Page 37 | Page 38 | Page 39 | Page 40 CHAPTER 2 - So It Was When My Life Began (Cover Page) Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Page 18 | Page 19 (Psst. Want to see the pages a day early? Chapter 2 updates on Patreon Mondays at 12PM EST, and you'll be able to read it here every Monday with a free subscription! It'll even get emailed straight to your inbox if you want! Learn more about my Patreon here!)

SUMMARY: On earth, the year is 2335. Arthur Hastings is captain of a Miranda-class science vessel, the USS Wordsworth. Felicity Lemon, his first officer, is 1/4 Vulcan (3/4 human) and is mainly responsible for drawing up duty rosters and assigning ship's systems to the various science teams aboard vessel. She runs the ship with such efficiency that it completely boggles Captain Hastings' mind sometimes.

Near the end of the second year of their five-year mission, Admiral Japp pays them an unexpected visit...And he brings this short, stout little ambassador with him. This ambassador looks very familiar to Captain Hastings, but he can't seem to place him, especially given how nervous he is about Admiral Japp's insistence that they give the ambassador their 'full and total cooperation during his visit'.

And it turns out that Ambassador Poirot--who used to be the head of Starfleet Security--is definitely investigating something...but he's being very secretive about it: He won't seem to tell Captain Hastings anything useful about the investigation.

And Captain Hastings' greatest fears are realised when Ambassador Poirot looks Captain Hastings in the eye and tells him, in a low voice:

"Hastings. Trust no one."

Shoutout to @darthlenaplant, @soldhissoulforrocknroll , @rain-shoshana , @pinetreelady, and @shifty-as-a-swinging-trapeze for encouraging these shenanigans, and thanks so much to everyone who's been reblogging the pages!! If you'd like to be notified when I update, you can let me know & I can add you to the Tumblr shoutout, or you can bookmark the story on Ao3, or subscribe on Patreon!