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Vanduul language

From the Star Citizen Wiki, the fidelity™ encyclopedia

The Vanduul language is the language used by the Vanduul. Vanduul are capable of communicating verbally as well as visually through hand gestures and changing the colour of their bodies,[1] and the Vanduul script has no correspondence to the spoken Vanduul language.[2] The language will be fully integrated into the game - though the implications on the gameplay side are uncertain for the moment. It is developed by conlang artist Britton Watkins and the CIG writing team for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Writing

The Vanduul script started out with the equivalent of three fingers or claws. They sometimes used their claws to mark whoever their victim was. Each symbol was unique and over time they accumulated into a set of symbols that could be understood by many, just as the human language evolved. With the advancement of technology, it evolved to the point where it could be used on computers and other devices.[1]

Orthography

The Vanduul Orthography
Alphabet Mid UTF-8 Low UTF-8 High UTF-8 Rising UTF-8 Creaky low UTF-8
Vowels
a a a a1 a1 a2 a2 a3 a3 a4 a4
aa aa aa aa1 aa1 aa2 aa2 aa3 aa3 aa4 aa4
u u u u1 u1 u2 u2 u3 u3 u4 uu4
uu uu uu uu1 uu1 uu2 uu2 uu3 uu3 uu4 uu4
e e e e1 e1 e2 e2 e3 e3 e4 e4
ey ey ey ey1 ey1 ey2 ey2 ey3 ey3 ey4 ey4
o o o o1 o1 o2 o2 o3 o3 o4 o4
ow ow ow ow1 ow1 ow2 ow2 ow3 ow3 ow4 ow4
i i i i1 i1 i2 i2 i3 i3 i4 i4
ii ii ii ii1 ii1 ii2 ii2 ii3 ii3 ii4 ii4
Consonants
vw vw vw p p p sh sh sh
vr vr vr b b b shq shq shq
w w w y y y s s s
h h h l l l ss ss ss
x (-xh) x x r r r z z z
q q q th f f zz zz zz
qq qq qq thy thy thy m m m
qy qy qy t t t n n n
d d d ' (-?) ' ' ng ng ng
dy dy dy

Trivia

  • Britton Watkins put tinfoil over a pan, making shapes of what he could scratch. He even built claws to scratch that foil to create the letters.[3]
  • A choir learned how to speak Vanduul in order to record music for some scenes.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Around the Verse - Alien Languages(Relay icon.svg transcript by Relay)
  2. Vanduul Warship Analysis. Transmission - Comm-Link
  3. Why Star Citizen Made Alien Languages From Scratch (Ft. Chris Harrow & Jale), Space Tomato Too, YouTube, 27 June 2022
  4. "We had to teach the choir how to speak Vanduul to record this.", @GeoffZanelli, Twitter, Oct 23, 2024