Re: Vulcan Writing Analysis
Steven Boozer 
Mon, 7 Sep 1998 21:50:05 -0500 (CDT)

On Sun, 6 Sep 1998, Rob Zook wrote:

>At 08:45 PM 9/6/98 -0500, Steven Boozer wrote:
>>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"). 
>
>I had seen the letters in ST:TMP but could not make them out. The 
>Encyclopedia version has at least the largest set legible. That gives us
>at least 4 styles, three of which seem fairly unrelated.

Hopefully you can find a larger picture online.  The shuttle was "of Vulcan
registry" and "bore the name *Surak*" according to the Encyclopedia.  The
larger of the two lines of characters on the warp drive section (repeated in
smaller letters on the upper, detachable crew cabin) is probably the Vulcan
version of "S,S. Surak".  The second, smaller string may give the Vulcan for
"United Federation of Planets", which appears immediately below it in English
and is legible with a magnifying glass. 

Of course, we know that none of the alien scripts used in Trek actually means
anything.  That is, there is no attempt to represent a consistent writing
system.  The artists merely arrange the letters and symbols artistically, in
arrangements they feel are esthetic.  Furthermore, one graphic designer's
arrangement may be different from another's.  This practice has been
confirmed by Michael Okuda for the TV episodes WRT to the various bits of
"Klingon" text we've seen over the years.  He resists all attempts at
establishing an official alphabet (or syllabary, or character set, or
whatever) for the various writing systems.  He feels that his job is set
decoration, not language creation.  And he has a point; if I were in his
place, I'd probably do the same. 

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