Ki’tvai N’ut Ni’ma’weht

(Normal used to mean so much more)
(Lit: (past tense) mean (object marker)'normal so'extra'more)

As I was researching an article on using negatives in Vulcan (coming soon!), I came across another one of those instances in the VLD where a single word is applied to many similar but differing concepts.

tsuri          normal, usual, common
tsuri-         common, of no distinction (VLI)
ritsuri       abnormal, rare, unusual

This just doesn’t make sense! An unusual or rare animal, for example, is NOT necessarily abnormal. If a variant breeds true is it normal, no matter how rare. If you see something unexpected, you say, “That’s unusual,” but you don’t necessarily mean you think it's rare or abnormal, just that it’s not common, here in this place.

So we need new words for at least two of these concepts. And, because the VLI has also suggested that tsuri- means common or of no distinction, let’s keep that one. So:

tsuri          common
ritsuri        rare, uncommon
tsuri-         affix implying common: Tsuri-sehlat, The common sehlat.

That leaves us with normal and usual. 

I suggest that normal should be an affix, Ut’, since normal is a pretty “tsuri” idea and, as an affix, it can applied broadly to target words. In some cases, it can also be applied as a stand-alone word.

ut’            affix implying a state of being normal
ut             normal
ri’ut          abnormal

Most of the time, ut’ will be affixed to the relevant word in question. Only when you are speaking of an entire state of affairs, would you use the word ut by itself.

Examples:
Q: “Olau tu uf.”
(“How are you feeling?”)
(Lit: “Feeling you how?”)

A: “Ut’nam-tor.”
(“Normal.”)
(Lit: “To be normal.”)

Q: “Saviik-an, n’nosh t’etek tchas-tviyan ra.” 
(Mr. Saviik, what is the state of our warp core?” 
(Lit: “Mr. Saviik, (object marker) state our warp core what?”)

A: “Khart-lan, svi’ut’nus.” 
(“Within normal parameters, Captain.”)
(Lit: Captain, within’normal’parameters.”)

Alt: “Khart-lan, gluvaya ek’nus ut.” 
(“All parameters are showing normal, Captain.”)
(Lit: “Captain, showing all’parameters normal.”)

Note: Typical is another synonym for normal and the word ves, meaning type already exists. This should be expanded as follows:

ves            type, of a kind or category having similar characteristics
ut’ves        typical, belonging to a given type (normal type)
ri’ut’ves    atypical, not belonging to a given type (not normal type)

This allows us to apply the new ut' affix with an existing word to further expand the lexicon.

And now for usual: 

ling           usual, to be expected (adjective)
ling’          affix suggesting usual activity or state
riling         unusual, not to be expected (adjective)

Example:
Vesht fitor T’Vaal ling’warop t’ko-veh t’gad 
(T’Vaal carried out her usual daily routine.)
(Lit: (Past tense) carry out T’vaal usual’routine of’this-female-one of’day)

New vocabulary:
You may have noticed that the word “routine” does not appear in the VLD. So I created the word, warop.

warop  routine, a series of activities carried out regularly
ekhet  task, a work to be done 
(because task is what I looked for when I couldn’t find routine and task was missing, too.)

These sorts of thing are the raison d’être of this blog (or the nam-tor utvaya).

Note: Customary is another word that can be synonymous with usual. This word already exists in usable forms.

oyut          custom
oyut-         affix applied to suggest customary or usual
oyutik       customary (adjective)
ri oyut       not customary (note the lack of a hyphen)

So there you have it, eleven useful neologisms for Golic Vulcan, all growing out of a single word in the VLD.

Pa’shi-ta’a.

-- T'Lara