Vulcan in Vulcan
Saul Epstein 
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 14:53:20 -0500

Here's a paraphrase of part of what the "More on Vulcan" addendum to
the ZC Grammar has to say about the name of the planet Vulcan.

=====
The name of the planet is, historically, "wellequanno", a
compound of <welle> + <quanno> which became <whl'q'n>. The
modern Vulcan /whl/ developed from <welle>, i,e. a lip-flow <w>
followed by <e> (a sound like the final vowel in British English
"teacher," etc.) followed by a long tip-flow <ll> followed again
by <e>.
=====

In other words, there was historically a term <wellequanno>, a
compound of <welle> and <quanno>. The first word is "sounded" out for
us, and might be transcribed by us as /wala/. The second word might be
something like /kuahno/.

The addendum notes in addition (also paraphrased):

=====
also the word dVel'nahr (Vucaln by choice) with the transcription
<vel> of the actual /whl/. The correct transcription of this term
would be <d'whlnahr>; the prefix d- indicates that the following
word designates not an actual ethnicity, nationality, etc. but
a non-genuine, "fake" category -- however, without any perjorative
connotation!
=====

So, here's a word related to <whl'q'n>:

         d     -  whl   -  nahr
    artificial - Vulcan - choice (or chosen, or choosing...)

The implication is that, in compounds at least, the consonant <whl>
means "(of) Vulcan."

I've been thinking about what the old words <welle> and <quanno> might
have meant. We know, from _Spock's_World_, I think, that the word
<tviokh>, though used to refer to strangers and aliens in an
unfriendly way, actually means "neigbor," which tells us all kinds of
interesting things about some of Vulcan history.

But it seems to me that as Vulcan moved toward Surak's time, and
different groups tried to co-exist and even cooperate on better terms,
they must have needed ways to refer to each other that weren't
unfriendly. So my suggestion is that <welle> was a word for a
non-intimate friend (as opposed to /t'hyla/), a trading partner, a
colleague, even an ally. Someone with whom one gets along voluntarily,
regardless of blood-kinship or other tradition.

I'd like to further suggest that <quanno> referred to a union, in the
mathematical or set-theory sense; and that its modern descendent is
/qon/ -- just because that's likely to be a useful word in its own
right.

So <wellequanno> might have begun as a word for a club, a business
partnership, a political alliance, a guild, a trade union -- or a
neighborhood in the "Terran" sense. Two or more people who work toward
their mutual benefit because of something other than blood or
coersion.

Furthermore, I suggest that part of what Surak promoted was a
determination to be everyone's <welle>, to make of their entire planet
a <wellequano>. So that the name would have originally been a
socio-political layer on top of any older names for "the world" that
the different Vulcan cultures had.

(This would also mean that /whl'q'n/ probably applies to Vulcan AND
all of its confederated colonies -- and that there are probably
broad-thinking Vulcans who consider the Federation itself to be
/whl'q'n/.)

To sum up:

/whalri'/    "a Vulcan"
/whale/      "Vulcans"
/whl'q'n/    "Vulcan planet(s)"
/whl'prahla/ "Vulcan language" ( that is, ZC in ZC ;-) )

Sound good?

--
from Saul Epstein
locus*planetkc,com - www,planetkc,com/locus
"Surakri' ow'phahcur the's'hi the's'cha'; the's'phahrka
    the's'hi surakecha'."
                                       -- K'dvahrin Urswhl'at