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I agree with Dinah that I like the idea of Trip slowly learning Vulcan and struggling with the language. I just could imagine him going to a Vulcan market and trying to buy some fruit and coming home with plomeek, because they didn't understand him. It's so funny all those first mistakes you make when you learn a language. So the idea of Cool Vulcan Mojo suddenly making Trip fluently in Vulcan doesn't really appeal to me. Too easy and not realistic, because the best way of using a language is slowly to make it your own, but Warpgirl may have a nice way of explaining and blowing away my theory.

I think that if one wants to invoke Cool Vulcan Mojo (TM), the most (ahem) logical effect it would have would be in Trip's comprehension of the language when he reads it or hears others speak, but I really don't think it would affect things like how high or low in the mouth Trip places his vowels, dipthongs (they can be specific to an individual as well as a language or accent), dental/alveolar contact from the tongue, etc., any more than it would, say, affect his walk, or whether he was right or left handed, or anything else that requires physical control.

I believe Trip would definitely speak Vulcan with an accent. As to whether he would 'sound' like Trip? My belief is no, not really. I attribute this to the structure of the Vulcan language as I see it at the Vulcan Language Institute online (which is my source for anything related to Vulcan linguistics.) It appears to be a very concise language with a logical and straight-forward syntax. It does not appear to lend itself to colorful expressions or playful usage. Not that Trip wouldn't try, I just think the results would leave much to be desired. (How well is "You're one smoking-hot Vulcan babe" going to translate into Vulcan?)

As for Cool Vulcan Mojo (TM) letting him learn Vulcan quickly, I did that in my story and received no pushback from anyone, so I guess it wasn't too over the top. It all depends on how the bond is portrayed, though. The bond in my universe tends to be a little more capable than other writers make it, which is fine with me. I've read and enjoyed lots of other versions.

I, too, am multi-lingual. I speak BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, Forth, perl, and python. So there.

Nee!

Transwarp wrote:I, too, am multi-lingual. I speak BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, Forth, perl, and python. So there.

I am in awe. Also because I have no clue what you talking about. Pascal is a famous philosopher, isn't he?

panyasan wrote:

Transwarp wrote:I, too, am multi-lingual. I speak BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, Forth, perl, and python. So there.

I am in awe. Also because I have no clue what you talking about. Pascal is a famous philosopher, isn't he?

I think so.

Those are computer languages.

Even python?

Okay maybe not that one...though you have the Spam factor!

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician and scientist. The programming language was named after him. And a unit of pressure is named after him. And Pascal's triangle. And that exhausts what I know about him. (If you want more, may I suggest Google?)

Pascal, as a programming language is more or less dead. (Like the guy!) It was big in the early eighties, but no one I know uses it any more.

Python is an up-and-coming scripting language that is big on unix and linux systems. Many people consider that it will eventually replace perl, but perl is EVERYWHERE, so I doubt that will happen. If I need a quick script to automate a task or sort some files or search through some data or crunch some numbers, python is my first choice.

Regarding HUMAN languages... I took three years of German in high school. The first year I got A's, the second year I got B's, and the third year I got C's. I could see which way my grades were trending, so I gave it up. When I was picking a major in college, I saw that engineers weren't required to take a foreign language.

And that, in a nutshell, i's how I became an electrical engineer.

I can still remember about four German words. Maybe.

Gee, and I thought I spoke Python. (As in Monty.)

Alelou wrote:Gee, and I thought I spoke Python. (As in Monty.)

Oh! Nee! NOW I get it.

(The first time through that flew right over my head.)

I haven't heard the ex use "python" in conversation in relation to his business, and we didn't talk about it in computer class last fall, so I thought he meant Monty, too!

Am I right to assume that the computer language is named after the comedy troupe and not the snake?

Transwarp wrote:I, too, am multi-lingual. I speak BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, Forth, perl, and python. So there.

Wow me too. I have a 30ahem year old computer science degree too... Love languages, regardless of what they are meant for. I was taking classes on basic before Microsoft owned it.

Yeah, yeah... I'm old... but I make up for it by being thoroughly dirty minded.

peg