is.

ì ’m
- l a
en

@z
gol-g

un Ý h
F@

i
k
-t â
orektr

Introducing

ZUN
a typographic
system
for the
Golic
Vulcan
Language

© 2012 Korsaya.org
Notes for Beta-Testers
First and foremost, thank you for your interest in the Golic Vulcan language. Without your engagement with the
language it will simply perish and vanish into the history books on Sci-Fi conlangs.

Second, cha’i t’klem for your willingness to help me test and prepare this font and its associated instructions for public
release. While I am a long-term font and typography enthusiast, I only began creating fonts (using the Fontographer
application from FontLab) at the end of 2011. So far my e!orts have been focused exclusively on non-Terran languages.

What I’m asking you to do, is to use this font for whatever your interests are. Examples seem to commonly include:

• Writing texts (e.g. The Analects of Surak)

• Creating labels for Vulcan artifacts
• T-Shirt artwork
• Tattoo artwork
• etc.

In order to do this e!ectively, you will need to use text that is relevant to Golic Vulcan. This writing system can represent
the sounds of many human languages relatively well, but it is not designed intentionally for that purpose. You can "nd
samples of text in articles on Korsaya.org or create your own. Ideally, you will attempt to lay out longer bodies of text
with multiple paragraphs, proper names, punctuation, numerals, etc. Please note that in the VLD (Vulcan Language
Dictionary) and in other places around the web there are non-Golic Vulcan languages in use that may utilize sounds/
letters in combinations that do not occur in Golic Vulcan. I have not designed Zun to accommodate these languages, but
would still like to be informed of any problems or anomalies related to them that you might encounter while exploring.

In order to test Zun, at a minimum you’ll need a modern version of Windows, Mac OS, or Linux and an application that
recognizes kerning tables in TrueType fonts. Kerning is the letter-spacing that keeps individual letters the appropriate
distance from each other. For example in the English, AVA, the a’s and the v “tuck into” each other like puzzle pieces. In
Zun, kerning is used to force the majority of the letters together so that they make physical contact with each other
according to the overall design principals of the system. Unlike Arabic, however, each letter only has one form, so it does
not dynamically change depending on what comes before or after it. The contact is all accomplished via proper (for this
design) kerning. If your software does not recognize kerning tables, this will happen:

The word cha’i In this example, which This is the

(“sentiment”) properly lacks good kerning, di!erence
kerned. The CH is problem areas are between the
appropriately touching indicated in red. The properly and
the following A which is application is ignoring improperly
in turn touched roughly the kerning rules built displayed
the same amount by the into the font. spacing
SHAYA-RALASH ( ’ ). The distribution.
"nal I (terminated by a This is still legible, but
leshek) is far enough to a Vulcan it would
away from the SHAYA- look messy, like this
RALASH for the white looks to us:
space to show at small
point sizes.
m essy

Please send screen-grab snippets (images) of areas where you feel the font is not kerning properly. In some cases you
may simply “feel di!erently about how it SHOULD be done.” I appreciate the feedback and may make changes if there is
broad consensus in the testing base. What I am more interested in are inconsistencies and scenarios in which things are

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 1r thalv svi’14
simply “impossibly o!” and look really bad. Again, make sure that your word processor or page layout software is
DEFINITELY DISPLAYING KERNING (with cha’i as an example if you like) before you report any issues/bugs related to the
way the font is appearing on screen (especially in relation to letter spacing). This is the "rst thing to verify after
installation and before you do anything else.

Types of Issues (Bugs) to Report

I would like to say “anything and everything” but please use the following list as a general guideline.

• Installation/fundamental OS incompatibility issues.

• EG: “Can’t install at all on Windows XP (service pack 2). Screen error says: “Xyz.”

• Application level issues.

• EG: “Doesn’t show up in font menu in OpenO#ce X.x on XYZ LInux even after full system restart.”

• Universal design/behavioral issues.

• EG: “The letter pair wû consistently overlaps weirdly producing an odd thickness at the bottom of the w. See
enclosed screen capture (wu_issue. jpg). This happens in Publisher on Windows and in all of my Adobe products on
both Mac and Windows.”

• Documentation issues.
• EG: “The character map on page x of the documentation shows that zh is supposed to be on Z (shift-Z), but it is not
there.
• EG: “There is a typo in paragraph 3 of page 5 “the special chraracter MAZHIV (“sand”) is an example of a word”...

• Requests for Modi!cations/Additions.

• EG: “If there are special characters for certain “common” words, I would like to see these for KAIIDTH and SMUSMA
as well.
• EG: I would like to see XYZ symbols included for mathematics and ABC for scienti"c notation.

PLEASE NOTE: If there are a lot of these types of requests or they require domain expertise that I don’t have, I may not be
able to accommodate your ideas. That does not mean that your ideas are not good ones. Many thanks in
advance for understanding my shortcomings and limitations.

Please send all issues and requests for clarifications to skladan (at) korsaya (dot) org and please begin the mail title with:

ZUN - bug report

As much as possible, please aggregate your feedback and bugs into fewer reports that are more comprehensive as
opposed to sending them all separately. I am afraid that if I get many many di!erent bugs from single sources and they
don’t come as groups/collections, that I may lose track of them and not get them addressed e!ectively. I don’t want to
lose track of them, and I’m going to be dealing with these issues and "xes in my spare time. If enough issues emerge to
warrant a more formal system, I’ll set on up in the forum area and send out an addendum to this testing introduction.
ì’aSiv’R naS-vÊ

I hope that the rest of the information you’ll need is

câ’î t’klem va’aSiv
& rok-R T
kup-sanÒ naS-
torek Fkanok-vÊ
Ý gol-R.

already included in the following pages of docu-

^c~ + ^d~
dan-neruk

mentation. If you "nd insu#ciencies in my explanations

there, please also make suggestions on how to make
s’@brIt’Un

the documentation as clear and “self service” focused as

possible.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 2r thalv svi’14
Overview
This is the user’s manual for Zun (nb: technically the font name is zun in lower case), the "rst complete font designed to
support the typesetting of modern standard (gotavlu-zukitaun) Golic Vulcan. The word “typesetting” is important,
because in many respects using this font is more parallel to the work that Terran typesetters had to master in the early
1900’s using Linotype equipment, etc. than merely typing an e-mail in the early 2000’s. The reasons follow.

Design Theory Behind this System as a Font

The modern standard (gotavlu-zukitaun) system presents 2 core challenges for 21st century computer systems. The
biggest is verticality paired with both right-to-left and left-to-right paragraph %ow. The vast majority of people
interested in this language are from non-Asian speaking geographies and therefore are unlikely to own software that
would easily enable them to do text layouts with inherently vertical orientations. And, though I (the designer) personally
have access to these kinds tools and know how to use them, they have an inherent bias towards a right-to-left only
paragraph %ow. My solution for this is similar to older strategies for Mongolian text. That is simply, type your page one
way and then rotate it 90° in order to read it “normally” from a di!erent perspective. The system is imperfect, but this
approach—and the technology and format used for constructing the font itself—have both been selected to make the
font available to the broadest possible user base.

This brings us to the 2nd challenge. Like English, there are more sounds in Golic Vulcan than can be represented directly
in a one to one correspondence paradigm by the Roman alphabet. For the /ʃ/ of shoe, eschew, sure, cache, etc. English
has various spelling strategies. For the same sound in Golic Vulcan, gotavlu-zukitaun has only ( ). So, lacking Vulcan

S
keyboards, we the users of FSE for much of our daily lives, are forced to "nd a way to sensibly type this single letter. It is
possible with contextual ligatures in modern OpenType-applications to simply type “sh” and have it appear as always as
( ), but for Golic Vulcan speci"cally the “modifying ‘h’” is used very extensively and that can lead to problems in many
S

scenarios involving both consonants and vowels. Our Terran tum-vel of 2012 are not yet intelligent enough to parse
humanoid languages and make higher level decisions about spelling and usage. So the onus in this system falls on the
humanoid users of the system. “A keyboard. How quaint.” Zun uses S (capital s) for “sh” (/ʃ/ )while the letter for “s”

S
(/s/ ) uses a simple unshifted s.
s

In order to use the system “properly” you will need to memorize several rules regarding typing and in some cases make
your own aesthetic decisions about certain letter shapes. There are many optional (“insider”) letter-forms available in
this system and the font itself—and while you need not memorize all of these for your own composition purposes—it is
probably in your best interests as a reader to familiarize yourself with all the many things that might pop up in a
paragraph of Golic Vulcan text set in Zun.

The Basics
The "rst convention you will have to master is typing or editing text horizontally. The font as it “comes out of the
keyboard by default” is rotated 90° counterclockwise.

qstarpa’Sal @jÈ•jÈ•èbramz fna’pen-na’akaSan k’hitrasû…

If you cannot cope with this or don’t have advanced page layout tools that you can use to compensate for it, you
probably will not "nd Zun useful. Again, the broader bene"t of this is that it allows folks without specialized software
tools to “do something” with the font. If the end goal is to produce printed materials, it is irrelevant to the end-user
reader how the pages were generated.

The second primary issue related in this mindset that you will have to consider and make arrangements for is the
paragraph !ow. There are essentially two options. ALL text in gotavlu-zukitaun has a "nal primary orientation that is
vertical. However, Vulcans are equally comfortable reading their lines of text (paragraphs) from a right to left or left to
right. Certain layout cues or overt marks are used to orient them and then they’re o! an reading. The most fundamental
hint in the traditional convention is “ex-denting” the "rst letter of the "rst paragraph of text. Whether the "rst letter of
subsequent paragraphs follows this convention or not is a stylistic variation left up to the composer or typesetter of the
material. As an extra courtesy, optionally a directional tick (kharat-glat) may be included.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 3r thalv svi’14
Paragraph Flow
“ex-dent” “ex-dent”

qstarpa’Sal

qstarpa’Sal
>

<
@jÈ•jÈ•èbramz
fna’pen-na’akaSan
k’hitrasû t’@halliwud
naS-trof T toyEtñ
qkugal Flof xartÄ
þurà-dvuperuv
t’w èzEl t’@star•trek.
W’ma vÊ tatayan-set’kô
Ý svi’tUskayâ t’iS-
vÊ nam-R kla-min Ý
rik’ond’ohan afsakal T
ì’þakÄ @bAd•robatr.

ì’þakÄ @bAd•robatr.
rik’ond’ohan afsakal T
vÊ nam-R kla-min Ý
Ý svi’tUskayâ t’iS-
W’ma vÊ tatayan-set’kô
t’w èzEl t’@star•trek.
þurà-dvuperuv
qkugal Flof xartÄ
naS-trof T toyEtñ
k’hitrasû t’@halliwud
fna’pen-na’akaSan
@jÈ•jÈ•èbramz
kharat- kharat-
glat glat
(optional) (optional)

"rst line last line last line "rst line

of this ¶ L-to-R of this ¶ of this ¶ R-to-L of this ¶
(s’los-rak) (s’gas-rak)
The primary thing that anyone who plans to use Zun needs to reaiize is that to Vulcan eyes, both of these paragraphs are
completely equivalent. Neither is “preferred” or “superior” in any way. The second thing of importance is that it is very
straightforward to use Zun to create pages "lled with right-to-left (R-to-L) paragraphs. One simply sets the font to Zun
and starts typing. When "nished, rotate the page 90° counterclockwise and voilà!: a perfectly valid page of gotavlu-
zukitaun. No fuss. No muss. So, the question promptly becomes, “How does one create pages of L-to-R vertical Vulcan
text?” The answer is “With a bit of patience and using software that supports linked text boxes.”

#9

#8
#7
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1

This document was created in the page layout mode of Apple’s Pages software. The screen shot above shows how Pages
indicates that text boxes are linked. If you are not a Pages user, your software will probably link and display linked boxes
of text di!erently, but the fundamental functionality is probably very similar. There are 9 linked boxes in this series. The
"rst is at the bottom. The last is at the top. #1 is linked to #2 which is in turned linked to #3, etc. Note that #9 is farther
away from #8 than all of the rest are from each other. In this way, “box spacing” can be used to create L-to-R line spacing
as freely as the typesetter likes. Most layout applications of this sort have commands to auto-distribute objects and text
boxes across the physical page space equally. This is generally an easy way to get precise results with lines of text.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 4r thalv svi’14
The Details
You now have the big picture of how the system is designed to work. And depending on what graphics software you
might own, you can do lots of things with Zun. See the cover of this document, for example. That circular text is
straightforward “text on a path” create in Adobe’s Illustrator. Zun is just a font at a fundamental level, but in order to use
it correctly there is a devil (several actually) for you to meet in the details.

“How do I "nd the letter I want to show up and how do I know which letter I actually want to show up?”

Meet All the Glyphs

What is a glyph? In a font a glyph is a discrete symbol. An A is a glyph that also happens to be a letter. An a is also a glyph
that happens to be a variant of that same letter. An * is also a glyph, but it is not a letter; rather a certain type of symbol
that is similar to punctuation, but still a bit di!erent. A $ is also a glyph as are £, ¥, & €. These are currency symbols. The &
(“ampersand”) is also a glyph (like +, =, ≠), which is fundamentally an abbreviated way to write a full word (“and”). ® is a
glyph representing two rather long words “registered trademark”. So basically EVERYTHING is a glyph. To simplify the
language of this document, all of the pieces and parts of Golic Vulcan that are encoded in Zun will be referred to
primarily as glyphs; though this set of glyphs includes zun, nuhm, tsetsebihk, su’us-nuhm, pehkamitaya, etc.

Please note that this order is not the traditional Vulcan order, but is being presented this way to make it easier for those
familiar with Golic Vulcan romanization to use it as a reference and learning tool. The glyph names (zhiyeh-ahm) given
are the traditional ones. Modern phonetic nick-names appear in parentheses where relevant.

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

All three of these keys have the shaya-ralash (apostrophe) assigned to
' them. It does not matter which one you use, but it is recommended
shaya-ralash ‘ that you pick just one, and be consistent.
‘

’
The key-assignment paradigm is consistent for all vowels.
a, ah, aa a, A, á Capitalization produces _h. The addition of accent aigu ( ´ ) produces a
A ä
a à
á

long vowel. Accent gràve ( ` ) produces an _i diphthong. For the a only,

ai, au à, ä a diaeresis ( ¨ ) creates an au diphthong. The a series is derived from
historic asal, meaning “morning”.

These letter forms usually END a word before a space. Without this
mark (called leshek (Rom.: ‹ ), meaning “carrier”), "nal vowels are often
ÂÄ

â, Â
â À

a‹, ah‹ considered “unterminated” and can seem visually incomplete to

Vulcans. The leshek does not a!ect pronunciation. It is a stylistic
ai‹, au‹ À, Ä variation. Vowels in this form are pronounced a k’kleshek, ah k’leshek,
etc. A leshek is generally NOT added to the word ma (“to have”).

buhf’es
b

b “perfection”
(bo)

sochya
c

c “peace”
(cho)
Capitalized c. “bay (‘a body of water’)”
tchol
C

C Note: This is listed here and not near tan because it is much more
(tcho) closely related to sochya phonologically.

dif
d

d “long life”
(do)

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 5r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

dzharel
j
j “jarel (‘a type of Vulcan horse’)”
(dzho)
E è ÊÈ

e, eh, ee e, E, é
é
e

The e series is derived from historic ’es, meaning “quality; condition.”

ei è

Pronounced: e k’leshek, eh k’leshek, ei k’leshek

ê

e‹, eh‹ ê, Ê
This is the model for all vowels.
ei‹ È Long vowels ((all very rare) aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) do not take the leshek.

tafar
f

f “discipline (‘contemplative practice’)”

(fo)

gen
g
g

“language”
(go)

ha
h

h “life”
(ho)

The i series is derived from historic itar, meaning “recognition;

I Î

i, ih, ii i, I, í
i
í

thankfulness.”

i‹, ih‹ î, Î Pronounced: i k’leshek, ih k’leshek

î

ko
k

k “female”
(ko)

khaf
x

x “blood”
(kho)

la
l

l “here”
(lo)

malat
m

m “nature”
(mo)

nala
n

n “cell” (of an organism)

(no)

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 6r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh
“ideal” (to be strived for)
tangu Note that the ng (/ŋ/)sound does not occur at the beginning of
G
G syllables natively in Golic Vulcan, hence the phonetic letter name is
(ong) “ong” not *“ngo”.
O ò Ô

o, oh, oo o, O, ó
ó
o

The o series is derived from the iconic ozhika, meaning “logic.”

oi ò

Pronounced: o k’leshek, oh k’leshek, oi k’leshek

ôÒ p

o‹, oh‹ ô, Ô
Note: the leshek indicator, ‹, is not normally used in the Roman
oi‹ Ò orthography, but when needed, this is the standard symbol.

tapan
p “process (‘psychological iterative consideration’)”
(po)

rata
r

r “concept”
(ro)

sa
s

s “male”
(so)

shai
S

S “the self (‘personal identity’)”

(sho)

tan
t
t

“donation, gift”
(to)

“engraving”
thes
þ

If this key letter looks unfamiliar to you, it is the “thorn”, which is used
þ in archaic English and Icelandic. Research how to type “thorn” on your
(tho) system to be able to produce it. This is the lower-case þ.

tsek
ç

ç “column”
(tso)

The u series is derived from historic um meaning “claw.”

U

u, uh, uu u, U, ú There is no special _i diphthong for u. The name “Huey” would be

ú
u

typed @hyui. (Notes on “@” below.)

Pronounced: u k’leshek, uh k’leshek

Û
û

u‹, uh‹ û, Û Note that the leshek is irregular compared to all of the other vowels.

vanu
v

v “tradition”
(vo)

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 7r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

wak
w y
w “time (‘point in the "ow of time’)”
(wo)

yen
y “(a) forgetting (of something)”
(yo)

zun “letter (of an alphabet)”

z

z Note: The font, Zun, is named after this letter. Please don’t be
(zo) confused by this. A font named “Zed” might exist in FSE as well.

zherka
Z

Z “emotion”
(zho)

You’ve now seen all of the actual letters in the font called Zun that represent the sounds of the language, but there are
still many other parts in the overall system. We’ll continue with the quasi-letters and then move on to the numerals (0~9)
and then provide some more explanation after that prior to delving into the areas most unlike FSE typography. Keep in
mind that zhiyeh means “glyph”. So that’s anything that you hit a key (el’taluv) to produce on the screen.

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

[ ] sharu space
In gotavlu-zukitan, as in FSE, there is a space between zhit (“words”)
(lit: “opening”) bar

The pakh can be quite confusing to non-Vulcans who are accustomed

pakh - to seeing it represented as a simple dash (-) in compound words.
-

Vulcans often respond to complaints about this with “Kaiidth.”

The ahm-glat is used to mark proper names, in lieu of capitalization,

which is alien to Vulcan writing. It is not pronounced, but adheres to
the "rst letter of a name as a part of the “spelling”. When honori"c o~
is enclitic in a name and permanently bound to it the ahm-glat
ahm-glat @ precedes it. When an o~ is being used for “an instance of respect” or a
@

“pleasantry” it precedes the ahm-glat. EG: @oekon but o@t’pring. In

non-Vulcan names where two or three names are combined, a dot
(sfek (see below)) is used and the ahm-glat only appears on the "rst
name in the series. EG: @mau•tsih•duhng — not: @mau•@tsih•@duhng

The sfek is used as just noted above in compound names. Do not use a
pakh for this even if a hyphen is commonly used in Roman
orthography. It also comes into play whenever an ad-hoc separator is
needed. Again, the pahk should only be used for compounding and
sfek • `
•

thereby modifying the semantics of words. You can type a sfek with
either a bullet ( • ) or the gràve (` ) which is common in French, Italian,
and on the Na’vi ì. As with the shaya-ralash, it is best that you remain
consistent once you’ve chosen which you prefer to use.

You have already seen the leshek on most of the vowels and
diphthongs above as an “embedded form”. This is a freely applicable
leshek one leshek elik (“free leshek”) that can be put on non-native vowel
©
©

combinations or occasionally on a proper name spelled with a long

(elik) vowel or consonant in "nal position where the individual uses it as a
personal di!erentiator. Its use is very uncommon, however.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 8r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh
Note that these are numerals for (base-10) notation. Ris (zero) is used
0
ris 0 as it is in FSE to increment the scale from kuh to leh to teh to hoh
through moh. It is common to append rata to note an ordinal.
1

wuh 1

nam-R 6 r ek’trâ
nahal gas-rak
@3r•ràjel.
“The sixth (6th) planet to the right
is Rigel III.”
2

dah 2
Nam-tor shehr (6r) ek’tra nahar
gas-rak 3r•Raidzhel (Rehr•Raidzhel).
3

reh 3
4

keh 4
5

kau 5

A Vulcan scientist would be much more likely to spell the name of

6

sheh 6 Rigel III with a numeral than someone in the literary arts, but it is not
incorrect. Notice that an ahm-glat marks it as a proper noun (a name),
even though it contains a numeral. Also note that the planet’s name is
semantically “The Third Rigel” and not “Rigel 3” as it is in FSE.
7

steh 7
8

oh 8
9

nau 9

You’re probably curious about punctuation at this point, but there are few other exceptional glyphs to cover "rst.
Gotavlu-zukitaun evolved out of a logographic system known as tik-nahp in which “each thought” was captured in a
single character (nuhm). Due to this fact the words nuhm (“character”) and zun (“letter”) are often used interchangeably
in the modern language (by non-calligraphers), though it is more common for a letter in vanu-tanaf-kitaun (traditional
calligraphy) to be referred to as nuhm while the equivalent sound in gotavlu-zukitaun is a zun. Part of the reason for
this di!erence are the consonantal ligatures of vanu-tanaf-kitaun, which do not exist in gotavlu-zukitaun. We need not
go into more detail on that subject at this time. However, there are some remnants of tik-nahp that are still quite
relevant today in the Zun font.

Let’s look at the sentence “There is no doubt that she is the alien who killed T’Ling.” And, let’s focus on the elements
THAT and WHO.

Nam-tor bi$k TA ko-veh akansu IK stal n’T’Ling.

Of course, these little words can be written out as T A and I K respectively and be completely correct, but it is also
Ý

common for their ancient tik-nahp forms to be used instead (ta) & (ik).
T

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 9r thalv svi’14
One of the best ways to understand the “why” (if not the “logic”) of this is to look back at that last sentence and very
speci"cally the & (ampersand) between ta and ik. You probably just read it as the word “and” written in a di!erent way.
Historically it is a special combination of the letters E and t from Latin—speci"cally the Latin word for “and.” In some
fonts it is still clearly visible as such.

& & && & & &

And that brings us to the precise equivalents in Zun. You are likely aware that the most common word for & (“and”) in
Golic Vulcan is heh and that it is phonologically conditioned to eh after a vowel. The glyphs used to write these are not

&
directly from tik-nahp, but the usage model is very much in%uenced by ta and ik. Zun has for heh and for eh. There

+
are technically two classes os-shid-nuhm and vuhn-shid-nuhm.

OS-SHID-NUHM — Classical Characters

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

It is never required that you write using these traditional forms, but if
T Ý

you don’t learn to read them, you do so at your peril. They are very
os-ta T common and Vulcans prefer them for stylistic reasons. The complete
name for this glyph is ta spo’os-nuhm, but colloquially it is just os-ta.

You may have to do a bit of searching to "nd out how to type this
os-ik Ý letter on your keyboard, and if you simply can’t "nd a way to
reproduce it, then you are in no way required to use it. I K will su#ce.

Os-asal (“morning”) and its sibling glyphs os-aru and os-khru are
generally used in the way that AM and PM are used for times of the
M

os-asal M day in Terran time keeping. The symbolism of this glyph (technically a
nuhm) is the sun rising in the sky on the horizon above the world.

Symbolically the composition of os-aru (afternoon) is the sun high in

P

os-aru P the sky above the horizon.

Symbolically the composition of os-khru (evening) is the planet

V L

os-khru V %oating in darkness. There is no archaic nuhm in common use in this

way speci"cally for mu’yor (“night”). Os-khru is simply used for both.

The Vulcans talk about logic often. It is logical for them to have a
os-ozhika L convenient way to express it succinctly.

Kolinar is an important phenomenon in Vulcan psychology and has

os-kolinar practical rami"cations for their society. Though the attainment of
#
K

Kolinar was very uncommon on Vulcan at the time this nuhm was
& K # originally conceived it is documented from the time of Surak. The
os-katra variant spelling “Kohlinahr” is common in FSE. It and katra are
presented here side by side because they are commonly confused.

Sand (mazhiv) covered the vast majority of Vulcan. It is used

constantly in references to the Vulcan ecology and dominates their
metaphorical conceptualizations of daily life and even existence. it is
J

os-mazhiv J also one of the most common classical characters studied and
reproduced by Vulcan calligraphers. Ozhika u’mazhiv (“logic like sand”)
is one of the highest compliments that can be paid. It is dry, sharp, and
cutting in a storm; yet a ubiquitous blanket of peace in calm.

The classical nuhm for Ha (“yes”) is still in common use for this
meaning in gotavlu-zukitaun. You should be careful to not to confuse
Y

os-ha Y it with with simple ha (the consonant /h/). It has a special function in
questions that will be explained further later in this document.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 10r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh
The closest common Terran equivalent of “thanks” (meaning
”gratitude”) is actually not from the same root as itar in Golic

®en
Vulcan. It is klem. But as “gratitude” is intimately intertwined
with emotion for most humanoids, the Vulcans reserve
expressing it only for circumstances of very sincere
appreciation. Itar shows up most commonly as the verb,
®

os-itar ® itaren, in the language. There is no precise cognate in FSE,

but it roughly means “recognize/acknowledge the value of
something.” This classical nuhm is often used as an
abbreviation for that verb in its entirety, but it can also have the
sound ~en appended to it to more faithfully represent the spoken
language. Both are common & completely correct for /itaren/.

The syllayble o~ is frequently added to the Oekon oSarek

beginnings of words to show respect to the

@œekon

œ@sarek
listener. This is often done with the classical
character for “honor.” It would normally be
pronounced dor in Golic Vulcan, but in the
context of being appended at the
beginning of a word, it is pronounced /o/.
os-dor
œ

œ The rules for its interaction with the ahm-

(os-o) glat appear three pages ago. To the right
you see various examples of how its dor-tor dorli
pronunciation changes in context. Note

œ-R

œlî
that many Vulcans "nd the overt use of this
nuhm rather socially classist and avoid it
intentionally in favor of the simple vowel
( ) if they use it at all.
o

This brings us to the conclusion of the primary characters in common everyday use that that are derived from classical
(archaic) forms. (One exception appears on the next page.) However, there is another class of glyphs mentioned on the
previous page that behave in similar ways, though they are ultimately phonologically derived. You have already seen heh
and eh. Let’s explore the rest of the “variant characters.” They are most conceptually similar to the st, nd, and rd of 1st,
º representing
2nd, and 3rd or perhaps the abbreviations St. (street), Mr. (Mister), or the medieval scribal conventions like g
the Latin ergo. However, unlike these, at least fragments of the phonetic elements of the original letterforms are
maintained (in most cases). Like the classical forms, the variants are never required for proper meaning and typesetting
without them is never technically incorrect (though it may seem ‘rushed’). You should be able to recognize all of them.

VUHN-SHID-NUHM — Variant Characters

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

i
& + F q

s
vuhn-heh & o These are both freestanding (independent) glyphs. They do not
l
a come into direct contact with other words or parts of words. An
t open space both precedes and follows these in all cases.
vuhn-eh + e
s

p This glyph represents the pre"x commonly translated as “to/for”

vuhn-na’ F r and it is sometimes seen as a ‘quasi-dative’ case. Note that the
e shaya-ralash (apostrophe) is built in to the glyph itself.
f
i
x The verbal perfective (ki‘___). Like vuhn-na’, the shaya-ralash is an
vuhn-ki’ q e embedded element in the glyph. With both vuhn-na’ and vuhn-ki’
s it is important to remember to not add a redundant shaya-ralash.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 11r thalv svi’14
 VUHN-SHID-NUHM — Variant Characters

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

The four variant characters in this set are

ì H W

Xs Ns
Xm Nm
XG NG
vuhn-i ì able to pre"x and stand alone indepen-
dently. When pre"xed they require that the
f shaya-ralash be intentionally added.
l
vuhn-la H e Of special note is ri (“no/not”) which can
x combine with individual letters to form the
i
f words, ris, rim, ring. etc. The classical
o character for rai (“no”) is also used on
vuhn-wa W r occasion in this function in literature and

abi’ì
ne’H
m formal circumstances (but pronounced ri ).
s
Nominal sense i and la also commonly take
N

vuhn-ri
X

( ) X (N) pre"xes to form new adverbs. EG: ne’la

(os-rai) (“below here”) and abi’i (“until now”).

Again, all of these variants are optional

ß ý ñ

®ß
Lý
pñ
’es-harr ß and you should never feel obligated to
use them, but you will see them often. In
fact, these and tor-harr below are just as
common as ik and ta. You will notice that
ik-harr and ik bear similarities in form. This
ik-harr ý s su#x for adjectives (ik-harr) is derived
u from the classical ik. Ing-har is its Be careful not to
f adverbial counterpart, but it is purely misread ozhikaik
f
phonetic in inspiration. The harr element (“logical”) as *ochik
ing-harr ñ i
in all of the names means “tail.” (a nonsense word).
x
e
s Although tor-harr is presented here with the other

faR
common su#xes, it could have been equally logically
presented in the section on classical/archaic glyphs. This
R

tor-harr R is the ancient word meaning “make/do” that became

the weak-verb forming element in the modern
language. Nothing about it phonetically reads tor. It can
also be used in the word for “continue”, which is fator.

Congratulations. If you are still reading you will now begin to see light at the end of the tunnel, just over this next ridge.
We’re about to move on to punctuation, but before that there are a couple of pieces of quasi-punctuation to cover. You
may be familiar with the Vulcan ritual of Fal-tor-pan, “The Re-fusion”. This is the process by which the katra (the Vulcan
soul) is reunited with its original humanoid’s body. There is a philosophical parallel to this practice in gotavlu-zukitaun.

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

Vulcans pride themselves on the origins of their writing
^G~ t’^c~

systems and pay homage to their history by “re-fusing” the

œ^ s ~-kÀ

original meaning of the letters (which are used primarily

for their phonetic values) back into them in contemporary
fna-L

^ contexts. Two simple strokes accomplish this, and the 2nd

glat is optional. in the glyph example to the left, you see the
letter sa (so) re-fused into the meaning of “male” and used
t’Fal-tor-pan
~ in the word osa-kai (“honorable brother”). The short
preceding horizontal stroke and optionally the following
vertical (harr (“tail”)) perform this function. To the right,
tangu t’sochya fna’ozhika (“the ideal of peace through
logic”). Note that ozhika does not require Fal-tor-pan.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 12r thalv svi’14
Punctuation— Pehkamitaya
Punctuation is very important to Vulcans, but not in the same sense that it is to 21st century Terrans. With the exception
of the pakh, which had its use irrevocably de"ned by the master grammarian Saga’sek in the distant past, conventions
have changed rather radically over the ages and they are not even consistent across systems.

Vulcans are aware that language is primarily verbal and while they can and do obey arti"cial rules like limitations to
tripartite compounds, they are not obsessed with formal restrictions in punctuation. They see it as a rough guideline to
the phrasing of language, and even decorative, but one author may terminate her phrases and sentences in one fashion
while another chooses a variation. The look and feel of of punctuation is equally important to them as any memorized
rules (to-pakha).

So, not all of the glyphs you are about to see will correspond directly to conventions you use in FSE, and if your
punctuation is “eccentric” in some fashion, Vulcans may "nd your work “fascinating”, but are unlikely to feel any need to
admonish you.

zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh

ek’pehkaya . closely parallel to the FSE period (full stop)

. , : — …

pen-tvi-wak , a short pause

tvi-wak : ; – a pause

wu-tvi-wak — a long pause

zhipen-glat … information that is understood or implied has been left unwritten

kharat-glat optional to declare the paragraph direction %ow from left to right
>

s’gas-rak >

kharat-glat
<

< optional to declare the paragraph direction %ow from right to left
s’los-rak

° º indicates a quotation of speech or encourages the reader to

“

starun-glat pronounce the contents (silently if not a aloud)

" “ ”
* [on] ¡#!

teretra-glat * used to mark items grouped in a list

thakaya-glat
na’palikaya [
emphasizes the enclosed text as important
thakaya-glat
na’shahtaya ]

nen-wa-glat
na’palikaya ¡
enclosed text is critical and must not be ignored
nen-wa-glat
na’shahtaya !

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 13r thalv svi’14
 zhiyeh zhiyeh-ahm el’taluv pitoh
nen-lanet
{^b~} (^x~)
na’palikaya {
typographic decoration indicating that the author (personally) "nds
the content of particular signi"cance
nen-lanet
na’shahtaya }

fokarikaya
na’palikaya (
enclosed text is parenthetic and supplementary to the main
information provided
fokarikaya
na’shahtaya )

…Y. |m|n|G|¥
This is the classical nuhm for ha meaning “yes”. There is no
question mark per se in Golic Vulcan, but os-ha followed by a
Y

os-ha Y ? full stop at the end of a sentence is a clear visual indication

that the sentence is a question.

This glyph is used to indicate a series. For example, as in

|

weizehl-glat | “The correct answers are B, D, and F.” There are two key
di!erences. A weizehl-glat is placed before the the "rst
item in the series and after the last to thoroughly “package”
them all. It is often followed by the vath-glat indicating the
¥

vath-glat ¥ sense of FSE, “etc.” or “et alia,” but the vath-glat is not
required if there is not sense that is needed.

†2`3r krus
…t’@surak.%
These two symbols work together as
a pair always. The dzhinaya-glat
%

dzhinaya-glat % follows the information that needs to

be sourced. The shu-pal-glat precedes
the quoted source material.
Additional marks or colors can be
shu-pal-glat † used to clarify the relationships when
†

multiple references are involved.

Currency indicator. This does not refer to a speci"c currency, but

$

rather can typically serve for any that is being discussed. If multiple
donku-glat $ currencies are being compared, the donku-glat can be paired with a
single letter or abbreviation to clarify which is which.

License
The font, Zun, and this documentation are provided as a free service to the Golic Vulcan enthusiast community without
warranty or any guarantee. If you do not assume full responsibility for using it on your own equipment and for your own
purposes, do not install it on your computer or other device.

In the spirit of collaboration and volunteerism, please share any examples of documents or other artifacts that you
create using Zun either via sending copies of your work or photographs of them to Korsaya.org via the e-mail address:

skladan (at) korsaya (dot) org

When sharing via this address, please provide any name or names that you would like attached as a “creator’s reference”
or “attribution” and please indicate if you would like your work shared publicly via the site or not. Please also report any
bugs you "nd associated with the font to this same address.

You may not modify the font in any way without the express written permission of Britton Watkins (aka: Briht’uhn)
of Korsaya.org. Zun may not be sold for monetary income by anyone for any reason.

Zun User’s Manual © 2112 Korsaya.org (Beta-Testers’ Edition v1.0) 14r thalv svi’14
 Typing experience axis
svi’tuhskaya t’ish-veh nam-tor kla-

yaretau veh ish-ong vah tapan-tor

provulau fereik-tor n’dan-rom-var
Trek. Wa’ma veh tatayan-set’ko ik
toyehting ki’kugal na’lof khartau
Text as typed to produce correct glyphs thurai-dvuperuv t’weizehl t’Star-
k’hitrasu t’Halliwud nash-trof ta

na’vaikausutra. I’rok-tor etek ik

glantau ovsot-var bai’Eingelsu.

wa’ma set’ko na’Vuhlkantra eh
gen-lis heh iyula t’au ta dungi-

same story as reading the Vulcan text verbally.

min ik rik’ond’ohan afsakal ta

Estuhl’voh glakuv ne’la na’lof

Reading this text aloud verbally produces the

(with formatting variations)
Eibramz bai’pen-na’akashan
in Roman orthography
Ki’starpa’shal Dzhei Dzhei

i’thakau Bahd Robat na’ta

qstarpa’Sal @jÈ•jÈ•èbramz fna’pen-na’akaSan k’hitrasû

ik wa’kup-ma vaya’akas
t’@halliwud naS-trof T toyEtñ qkugal Flof xartÄ þurà-

n’Va’Pak svi’2009 wa.

Common spelling

dvuperuv t’wèzEl t’@star•trek. W’ma vÊ tatayan-set’kô Ý

svi’tUskayâ t’iS-vÊ nam-R kla-min Ý Xk’ond’ohan afsakal T
ì’þakÄ @bAd•robat FT provulÄ ferèk-R n’dan-rom-var Ý
W’kup-ma vaya’akas Fvàkäsutrâ. ì’rok-R etek Ý W’ma
set’kô F@vUlkantrâ + ^g~-lis & iyula t’Ä T dugi-yaretÄ vÊ
iS-oG v ^p~-R n’@va’pak svi’2009 W.
estUl’vÔ glakuv ne’H Flof glantÄ ovsot-var bà’@èGelsu.
estUl’vÔ glakuv ne’H Flof glantÄ ovsot-var bà’@èGelsu.
^p~-R n’@va’pak svi’2009 W.
F@vUlkantrâ + ^g~-lis & iyula t’Ä T dugi-yaretÄ vÊ iS-oG vÂ
W’kup-ma vaya’akas Fvàkäsutrâ. ì’rok-R etek Ý W’ma set’kô
Reading experience axis

ì’þakÄ @bAd•robat FT provulÄ ferèk-R n’dan-rom-var Ý

svi’tUskayâ t’iS-vÊ nam-R kla-min Ý Xk’ond’ohan afsakal T
dvuperuv t’w èzEl t’@star•trek. W’ma vÊ tatayan-set’kô Ý
t’@halliwud naS-trof T toyEtñ qkugal Flof xartÄ þurà-
qstarpa’Sal @jÈ•jÈ•èbramz fna’pen-na’akaSan k’hitrasû
>