Star Trekis well known for inventing an extensive spoken and written Klingon language, butStar Trekhas also constructed a Vulcan language that has been used throughout theStar Trekfranchise, raising questions about when it was first spoken. Just as Klingon matching the rough personality of its people, the Vulcan language reflects the serenity ofStar Trek’s Vulcan characters. Vulcan script takes multiple forms, with the most popular being designer Mike Okuda’s calligraphic swirls, short lines, and dots that wind around a central vertical or horizontal line. Another form dispenses with the central line and features only glyphs.
The Vulcan language actually appeared before thefirst time Klingon was spoken inStar Trek, but it is still the less-developed language of the two. As the franchise’s leading Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is responsible for most of our exposure to Vulcan culture, but Spock is particularly secretive inStar Trek: The Original Series. Other Vulcans, likeStar Trek: Enterprise’s Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) andStar Trek: Voyager’s Lieutenant Tuvok (Tim Russ), are equally private. More of the Vulcan language appears in modernStar TrekshowsStar Trek: DiscoveryandStar Trek: Strange New Worlds, featuring Ethan Peck’s Spock.
The Vulcan Language Is Spoken For The First Time In Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2
Star Trek Returns To The Vulcan Home World In Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery
The first time the Vulcan language is spoken is in theStar Trek: The Original Seriesseason 2 episode “Amok Time”. During a trip back to Vulcan to reunite withSpock’s secret wife, T’Pring(Arlene Martel), several Vulcan words are introduced, from Spock’spon farrto thekal-if-feechallenge that T’Pring initiates.Most of the Vulcan language inTOSand theStar Trekmovies comes from Vulcan rituals.Star Trek: The Motion Picturefeatures Spock’s interruptedkolinahrritual to purge all emotion, performed entirely in the Vulcan language, to match the use of Klingon earlier in the movie.
Star Trek: The Original Series’first trip to Vulcan in “Amok Time” also features the first instance of the Vulcan salute, and the first time we hear “live long and prosper.”
Star Trek’s subsequent instances of spoken Vulcan arebased on the sounds of the Vulcan language that were first heard in “Amok Time”. Lieutenant Tuvok refers toKoon-ut-so’lik,meaning marriage proposal, inStar Trek: Voyagerseason 3, episode 16, “Blood Fever”, which is based on T’Pring’sKoon-ut-kal-if-fee, or marriage challenge. Tuvok also uses Vulcan words for concepts without easy translations, likePlak tow,referring to the episode’s eponymous blood fever. InStar Trek: Enterprise, Vulcans are the closest alien allies to early Starfleet, soEnterprise’s Subcommander T’Polcontributes significant additions to our understanding of Vulcan language and culture.
Vulcan Was Fully Developed As A Language For Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Non-Vulcans Rarely Speak The Notoriously Difficult Vulcan Language
Vulcan was developed into a proper language by linguist Marc Okrand for a scene between Captain Spock and Lieutenant Saavik (Kirstie Alley) inStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Prior toStar Trek II, Vulcan dialogue didn’t have structure or assigned meanings.Okrand was hired to create more believable dialogue between Spock and Saavik, instead of usingStar Trek: The Motion Picture’s technique of dubbing alien-sounding words over actors' original English performances. Okrand also contributed Vulcan dialogue toStar Trek III: The Search for Spock,Star Trek: Enterprise, andStar Trek(2009).
How Star Trek Created The Klingon Language (& Why)
Klingon is the most popular fictional language in the world (perhaps the galaxy), but why did Star Trek decide to create it in the first place?
The reason that we’ve seen such little Vulcan dialogue inStar Trekmay be because Vulcan is said to be very difficult for non-Vulcans to learn. Spock has gone on record saying his family name is unpronounceable by humans, and inStar Trek: Discovery, Sarek (James Frain) doesn’t teach the language to Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), even though she was raised on Vulcan. This hasn’t deterred fans, however;fan artist T’Kayhosts an extensive unofficial Vulcan dictionary, and creates art based on Vulcan script. Vulcan may not be as robust as Klingon, but is still an importantStar Treklanguage.
