Vulcan Writing Analysis
Rob Zook 
Sat, 05 Sep 1998 13:16:56 -0500

I've been analyzing the various Vulcan characters and I think I have 
found a good logical explaination of how they can all fit together. As 
long as the ST writers don't throw some new stuff out there and muck 
things up :)

There are at least three distinct kinds of symbols that have
appeared in the movie and TV shows. The first was on Spock's robe
in ST:I or ST:II. Then we later saw those 3 or 5 symbols on the robes 
of Sarek and others(two symbols a dot and triple dots sometimes appear 
which could be diacritical marks). 

You can see those symbols at:

http://home,unicom,net/~lalaith/startrek/vulcan/vulc_lang/surakchop,gif

In ST:TNG some episode has Spock reading from a book of ancient Vulcan 
wisdom, and on it are these staff like characters with lots of swirly 
additions, like those three I posted on my web page. Not sure if those 
are individual letters or hieraglyphic like characters. I have not
gotten a copy of that episode yet (not even sure what the name of that
episode was), but I found a copy of this style in the ST Omnipedia.

You can see those symbols at:

http://home,unicom,net/~lalaith/startrek/vulcan/vulc_lang/vulc_calig,jpg

Lastly, in ST:DSN, there is a bottle of Vulcan liquor which shows up
occasionlly. The Art of Star Trek, has a fairly decent photo of it
which shows two more forms of the staff-like writing. Two big letters
and 4 smaller ones. Which leads me to believe they are at least syllabic
if not hieraglyphic.

They also have distinct relationships, the two big letters look like
less stylized versions of the type of staff like characters on Spock's
book of Vulcan wisdom, and 2 of the smallest staff like characters look
like even less stylized versions of two of the highly stylized characters
in Spock's book.

You can see the Vulcan bottle letters at:

http://home,unicom,net/~lalaith/startrek/vulcan/vulc_lang/vulcletters,jpg

Furthermore I can see some resembalences in the general form of the
stylized staff characters in the more simple characters that appear
on the robes of Spock and other Vulcans (which still maybe a more
ancient script).

These possible relationships are fairly easy to see in some cases,
and you can see what I mean in this diagram:

http://home,unicom,net/~lalaith/startrek/vulcan/vulc_lang/char_relates,jpg

I think that the characters on Spock's robe spell Surak, and that it's
a house "chop". Spock's family is supposed to be an old house, and a
powerful one. So I think that the S-K naming convensions are for their
house specifically, to do honor to their ancestor. This would also
explain why it appears on Spock's, Sarek's, and Sarek's various 
assistants clothing.

In ST:III the characters from Spock's robes also appear on some boxes
that looked like they were being loaded on the Bird of Pray. Since
Sarek was the one helping them it seems logical that they came from a
family owned company.

I think this theory a little more stable than a house of cards, but
not much more considering the lack of information. However, I also think 
it does explain everything we've seen so far.


Mark Gardner,

Perhaps you can explain what kind of work VLI has done with Vulcan
writing. Have you a completed version of the three writing styles
you describe on the VLI home page?



Rob Z.