Re: Blocky Writing Steven Boozer Sun, 20 Sep 1998 00:41:33 -0500 (CDT) On Sat, 19 Sep 1998, Rob Zook wrote: >So what would be OHV for "Shuttle", "small space vessel", and "Vulcan >Diplomatic Courier Vessel"? I just yesterday downloaded a copy of Mark Gardner's impressive set of OHV materials, and I'm spending an enjoyable weekend reading through them. (If anyone hasn't looked at his site lately, I encourage them to do so.) I found <-hali> "vessel, vehicle, ship" which he lists as a suffixal form -- like Japanese *maru* I imagine. So, in OHV. I could find no OHV entries for "shuttle(craft)", "diplomacy/diplomat(ic)" or "courier/messenger". Mark does list "transport(ation), with derivations "to transport", "travel tube (subway)" and "transporter" (presumably of the matter-energy variety). "(Outer) space" is in OHV. <-hali> is related to "to go, proceed" and the noun "wheel". Nice touch, Mark. Vulcan - having no oceans - has no indigenous naval tradition and thus no ancient word for water-born craft, but rather a general word for "vehicle", which may also be used for wind-propelled desert craft (I imagine Vulcans developed these as much of the planet is covered by deserts) as well as motorized surface and air craft developed much later. There is no word in the ZC for "ship", but I do have a listing in my eclectic notes for a "The Ship of Children" (a lost pre-Reformation cryogenic colonization ship) I found online in some fan-fiction a few years ago. This would correspond to in OHV, if I understand it correctly. I must say, I rather like the sound of and would like to propose this for inclusion as one of the Modern Vulcan words for "ship". (BTW, if anyone could send me this story in full - I only read the first chapter - or knows which of the many Trek archives has it, I'd be grateful. As I recall, the story was very well written and had some interesting things to say about Vulcans, ancient and modern.) I also downloaded Rob's graphic "possible syllabic interpretation of the Vulcan block lettering". There are six large symbols, of which numbers 2, 3 and 5 have smaller marks above and below. Diacritic marks or vowel pointing (a la Arabic and Hebrew *nekudot*) perhaps? Were you able to scan or hand copy the smaller character string which I assume is the Vulcan for "United Federation of Planets", which appears on the shuttle in English? Why are we assuming the script is read left to right, anyway? Aside from the shuttle, what little Vulcan we've seen has always been written vertically. At least it is on robes and ceremonial clothing. The old Vulcan book the Romulan boy showed Amb. Spock on Romulus in "Reunification II" was also printed vertically, IIRC. How do we know which direction to read it when printed horizontally? Does anyone have a copy of STIV: The Voyage Home? At the beginning of the movie, the re-fused Spock is being quizzed by a Vulcan computer to test his memory. We see him standing at a terminal listening to questions and looking at images. Was there any writing on the screen? And have we seen any Vulcan writing in Tuvok's quarters? I remember a large tapestry or plaque on the wall that had some symbols on it. _________________________________________________________________________ Steven Boozer University of Chicago Library s-boozer*uchicago,edu