Vulcan language The Vulcan language was the language spoken by the Vulcan s of the planet . Vulcan names used among non - Vulcans were , at best , only approximations of actual Vulcan names ; correct pronunciations using non - Vulcan phonemes , and accurate type - setting using , for perhaps the best example , the Roman alphabetical nucleus of the English language , of Vulcan family names had a tendency to defy non - Vulcan efforts to do either . ( , et al . ) Written language . The Vulcan written language had several different forms , some of which combined with each other . The primary version resembled terrestrial music al notes and was written in vertical columns running top - to - bottom , left - to - right . The primary Vulcan script consisted of a central staff , along which spirals , long and short dashes , and dots were written . ( ) Some Vulcan offshoots used musical notes as words . ( ) In 2375 , the Logicians , a baseball team founded by Captain of the , wore uniforms with their names on the back in Vulcan script . ( ) A more intricate version of the musical - notation - like text was used in ancient times by the Vulcans . This type was written in the Kir ' Shara , as well as engraved on the walls of P ' Jem . ( ) A more stylized version of this script appeared on the Promenade of Deep Space 9 . ( DS9 set decoration ) A second writing system consisted of simple squiggles , spirals , and dots , and could be used separately or in tandem with the primary script . A sequence of several symbols from this script appeared on many forms of Vulcan clothing . This script was also written vertically . ( ; ; , " et al . " ) A third cuneiform - like script appeared on Vulcan starship hull s and in some Vulcan homes and temples . This script appeared to run left - to - right , like many Terran languages . ( ; ) A dreidel - like children ' s toy ( seen on Romulus ) bore the " syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language . " ( ) In 2370 , Jean - Luc Picard identified an artifact recovered from Calder II as being from Vulcan , because the alphabet and symbology of the glyphs and pictograms on the artifact was much more consistent with early Vulcan than the Romulan language . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The Vulcan language was originally to have been used in ( then titled " Court Martial at Star Base 811 " ) . In the first draft story outline of that episode , Spock , while testing a suspicious computer system that had been acting as prosecutor at James T . Kirk ' s court martial , asked the computer a string of questions in what the document called " his native tongue . " However , the language was incomprehensible to everyone else in the courtroom except the computer . The roots of the Vulcan language can also be traced back to a memo that Gene Roddenberry sent to ' s director , Robert Wise , on . Roddenberry pointed out there were " many arguments " for the creation of such a language and suggested that , as the film also included Klingon language , " it may feel something like a ' cheat ' to do the Vulcan scene in King James - type English . " He additionally admitted that inventing a Vulcan language would take considerable work , before discussing how the language could be dubbed into the film , as required . ( " " , p . 198 ) For the development of the Vulcan language , Roddenberry actually turned to a University of California , Los Angeles , linguistics professor , Hartmut Scharfe . Then Associate Producer Jon Povill elaborated , " " The Vulcan masters were actually shot and recorded speaking English . Eventually , we decided we didn ' t like the way it sounded and we didn ' t like the way it played in English . It was Gene ' s idea to try and find other words that would synch up to the English mouthing which would not sound anything at all like English , and that ' s how the Vulcan Language came about . We got this professor from the linguistics department at UCLA , Hartmut Scharfe , and he constructed a Vulcan language for us very well . In fact , I think Hartmut is , in voiceover , one of the Vulcans . " " Scharfe incidentally , also constructed on that occasion the Klingon language , but unlike his Vulcan , that was edited by Povill and James Doohan because " his Klingonese didn ' t sound alien enough . " ( " " , pp . 260 - 261 ) Rata ( " concept " ) , Tafar ( " discipline " ) , and Tapan ( " process " ) are the background names for a trinity of symbols or letters that appeared together on several Vulcan robes , most notably by Spock in . A more poetic rendering of this trinity of concept , discipline , and process is " " Branches entwined form the tree . " " The costume used for Dr . Strom in " Stigma " that displayed rata , tafar , and tapan symbols was sold off on the " It ' s A Wrap ! " sale and auction on eBay . The writers ' second draft script of included a conversation about the Vulcan language , in preparation for hailing the Vulcan ship " Ti ' Mur " . First , Hoshi Sato asked if the communication should be sent in Vulcan . Though T ' Pol encouraged her to send it in English instead , Captain Jonathan Archer decided that the transmission should indeed be run through " Enterprise " s universal translator , to avoid the risk of insulting anyone by making assumptions . " B ' elak paar " , heard in the episode " Gravity " , was defined as the Vulcan term for self - pity by the . Apocrypha . The Vulcan language has also appeared in numerous non - canon works over the years , such as the following dialogue from " Spock ' s World " : TOS fan folklore included the word " pastak " , supposedly the Vulcan word for peace . Fans wished one another " pastaklan vesla " , " peaceful thoughts " . There was also a fanzine by this name . The most extensive and influential Vulcan language developed by fans in the 1960s was that of linguist Dorothy Jones Heydt . It included roots , grammatical rules and syntax , and was used in her own stories and articles , then picked up by a number of other fan authors . The expression " ni var " , meaning " two forms " and originally referring to an art form in which two elements or aspects of a single subject are contrasted , was used as the title of a fan novella by Claire Gabriel which subsequently appeared ( in substantially edited form ) in the anthology " " . The story enjoyed immense popularity among fans as well as with Leonard Nimoy himself . The Vulcan ship " Ni ' Var " , which appeared in an episode of " Enterprise " , was named after the story ; the original association with Heydt ' s seminal conlang had been forgotten .