"Vulcan Language Guide" Vulcan (1977)
An anonymous "April Publications" pamphlet sold via mail and at Star Trek conventions long ago. As the first known published Vulcan reference, it could have established itself as the basis for subsequent Vulcan linguistics but this work was not developed by the unknown author(s). Speakers of Oriental languages say that it very reminiscent of Japanese. We thank that when the author(s) saw how different their language was from the spoken Vulcan in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, they dropped further development, believing the movie Vulcan would become the "official" version of Vulcan. "April Publications" has apparently been out of business for many years and we can find no active copyrights belonging to them. In the past, it was available online at several sites. But they are no longer online. 2015 Update: We have scanned our copy of it and it is available as a .txt format file here:
Dale Murphy's "FthinraKathi" Vulcan (1972-1984)
Unlike author Diane Duane, the late Dale Murphy invented a whole ancient Vulcan language, called "FthinraKathi", for an unpublished Star Trek novel he wrote. The book took place on the planet Vulcan centuries before Surak and followed generations of a Vulcan clan up to the time of Surak. Towards the end of Dale's life, VLI's founder worked with him for a few months. After Dale's untimely death in 1984, Mark was bequeathed all of Dale's Vulcan language materials, as well as his unpublished novel. As a memorial to a bright life cut short, we are proud to make a sample of his language available. It is from the same language branch as Old High Golic. (In answer to questions: "Dale Murphy" was a pen-name and he asked that we not reveal his real name.)
Extinct "FthinraKathi" Vulcan
The Wolterink Vulcan Lexicon (1984-1986?)
In the book The Best of Trek #10, Katherine D. Wolterink presented "A Lexicon of Vulcan". Said to be based on the spoken language of Star Trek movies and series, it is full of words based on misheard sounds and words torn apart in order to fit non-existant grammar rules. Some of our group wrote letters to Ms. Wolterink and to the editors of Trek, Walter Irwin and G.B. Love, over a period of a year and a half, kindly pointing out the problems and offering to assist her, since we'd been at this for a number of years by then and had already analyzed all spoken Vulcan available at that time. We never got a response and have never seen any further work by her. We were disappointed, since we felt she would be good to bring into the Vulcan Language Institute team. This work was apparently rushed into print without the time and care needed. We wondered if Ms. Wolterink is an editorial hoax, since we could find no trace of her, until we found an obituary for her years later. She died on September 24, 2007. We have a low regard for Trek, anyway, since several of us sent for sample issues or subscriptions and received nothing. We tried for years to get our money back without success. The publication is now long gone.
Diane Duane's Ancient Vulcan (1988-?)
Author Diane Duane invented ancient Vulcan words for her novels based on the planet Vulcan, but has not developed it more than that, as far as we know. This language is very reminiscent of the language the Romulans speak, since they left Vulcan during the time one of the novels takes place.
Samples of Diane Duane's Vulcan Language
The Zvelebils' "Modern" Vulcan (?-Present)
This language, also known to others as "Zvelebil Vulcan" or "The Zvelebil Corpus" (ZC), was originally developed by a father-daughter team, Kamil Zvelebil and Marketa Zvelebil, in the early 1990's and is widely referenced on the Internet. It is the only other major Vulcan language which is "alive" and being worked on (by Marketa and others). Our group and theirs have occasional contact, but our language and theirs are completely different. They have self-styled theirs as the language of contemporary Vulcans in everyday speech, commerce, science, diplomacy, etc. Many words from ancient Vulcan roots exist in Zvelebil Vulcan. There are no plans of combining their efforts with ours.
K'thauluvi Vulcan (1994-1997)
Just days before we were going to launch this site, we were made aware of a newer fan-invented Vulcan language called "K'thauluvi", which was created by Star Trek fans "Paul Jenkins" and "Leslie Watson", for an unpublished teleplay and possible novels. We have been given permission to include their material on a separate page eventually. They have ceased any further development and may merge their work with ours. Update in 2014: Inclusion still on hold, pending possible publication of a novel.
The Alien Languages of Star Trek Language Database
An excellent Star Trek site by Chris Pinette that is no longer online, although is archived below. Some links there are out-of-date.
Chris Pinette's Archived Site
The Universal Translator Assistant Project
A science fiction alien languages resource site.
Korsaya.org
A Vulcan language and script site. Uses a lot of material from our site. Includes a Vulcan song video!
korsaya.org
Vulcan Language from "Star Trek: Enterprise"
During pre-production, we wrote to Paramount Pictures offering to be of any assistance in the new series' Vulcan language needs. We had heard that there would be a Vulcan crewmember on that series and encounters with other Vulcans in the pre-Federation universe. We never received any responses. After the series premiered, a totally new dialect of Vulcan was introduced. Perhaps there was a different faction of Vulcan society or culture in charge during the time the series takes place and their language was the "official" one then. I want to thank members of various Star Trek newsgroups and especially Kári Emil Helgason of Iceland for taking the time to compile and analyze the Vulcan spoken on this series. In the last year of the series, some words from our site actually began to make it into the script of the series! Rumor has it that the Admiral Gardner mentioned on the series was named for our director!
We have seen or heard rumors of many unpublished or seldom-seen fan-created Vulcan languages over the years, including a Vulcan language dictionary from around 1979, possibly written by an Israeli, and a Russian fan's "Yazyk Vulkana" (Vulcan Language) that we saw on the web once but which has disappeared without a trace. If anyone can provide any information on these or any other Vulcan languages, let us know.
In loving memory of a wonderful resource, which never ceased to find what we needed.
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