Re: Vulcan Writing Analysis
Steven Boozer 
Sun, 6 Sep 1998 20:45:20 -0500 (CDT)

On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, Rob Zook wrote:

>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). 
>	[snip]
>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 the TNG episode "Sarek", you can see those Vulcan characters on the
ambassador's robes, as well as the Vulcan-style (?) suits of his aides
Sakkath and the human Ki Mendrossen.  Like you, I've always assumed they were
a House "chop" or the words "Sarek, son of Skon" -- though they could easily
be the Vulcan abbreviation for the "Vulcan (or Federation) Diplomatic Corps".

>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.

That episode was "Unification, Part II".  You can also see a drawing of these
elongated, cursive-looking characters in the Okudas' _Star Trek Encyclopedia_
(1st ed., 1994) on page 379 as example 6 for the entry "written languages". 

There were also some Vulcan letters on the Vulcan shuttle transporting Spock
to the Enterprise in ST:TMP.  A small drawing of this shuttle with the tiny
lettering barely legible appears in the Encyclopedia, page 299 ("shuttle,
Vulcan"). 

_________________________________________________________________________
 Steven Boozer    University of Chicago Library    s-boozer*uchicago,edu