When in doubt, go to Memory Alpha.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vulcan_language
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vulcan_language
planetary classes
- Thread starter Ronald Held
- Start date
AFAIK there was no canonical language guide similar to that Marc Okrund made . I asked him decades ago, but he seemed uninterested in doing one.
I disagree. As I mentioned earlier, "Earth-Mars" conditions, abbreviated E-M, pronounced "em", fits quite reasonably. And he very well may have meant not Mars literally, but Mars-sized, barely habitable planets, just to allow wiggle room for worlds that weren't so Terran, such as Korby's planet, Exo III. Or he may have meant Mars, after all, as mentioned above about Spock.
You also seem to be pretty perturbed over this subject. Why's it such a big deal?
I'd like to thank you, Darkwing, for pointing out the possible connection with the pronunciation of "em". I'd never noticed that before, and certainly it never occurred to me as a preteen way back in the 1970's.
Whether that's the path that Roddenberry actually took or not, and—again—we may never know how he actually came up with it, nevertheless it's certainly one plausible idea of how one concept might have morphed into another during early development.
My appreciation may not have been evident when I pointed out upthread that already by the pitch he had settled on just the letter "M", so I thought I'd mention it.
Whether that's the path that Roddenberry actually took or not, and—again—we may never know how he actually came up with it, nevertheless it's certainly one plausible idea of how one concept might have morphed into another during early development.
My appreciation may not have been evident when I pointed out upthread that already by the pitch he had settled on just the letter "M", so I thought I'd mention it.
For our homeworld, Great Oxygenation Event - Wikipedia notes estimates of how much oxygen it had in the past, with a graph that showed a range of estimates.
For much of the Proterozoic, about 1 - 2 billion years ago, the Earth had about 10% - 20% the present concentration of oxygen. For the Archean and earlier, over 2.5 billion years ago, less than 1% and likely essentially 0%. For back then, estimates of carbon-dioxide and methane concentration are very hand-wavy, though the early Earth very likely had much more of those gases in its atmosphere than it does today. That is because the Earth had liquid water on its surface, despite the Sun being only about 90% as bright as it is today.
So before the early Paleozoic, the Earth was class L.
The early Earth may qualify as being class Y, with lots of CO2 and likely lots of CH4. One can add oxygen so one can breathe, but the CO2 may have high enough concentration to be dangerous (hypercapnia, at about 5% present atmospheric pressure). In toxicity, CH4 is not much different from nitrogen or argon -- one has to breathe in more than our atmosphere's pressure of it before it becomes dangerous (nitrogen narcosis). But for at least 5% of present atmospheric pressure of CH4, it and oxygen are a fire hazard.
Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere - Wikipedia cites some estimates for our planet's CO2 concentration since the base of the Cambrian, where it was 7000 parts per million in volume or 0.7% of present atmospheric pressure. Not enough to cause hypercapnia.
For much of the Proterozoic, about 1 - 2 billion years ago, the Earth had about 10% - 20% the present concentration of oxygen. For the Archean and earlier, over 2.5 billion years ago, less than 1% and likely essentially 0%. For back then, estimates of carbon-dioxide and methane concentration are very hand-wavy, though the early Earth very likely had much more of those gases in its atmosphere than it does today. That is because the Earth had liquid water on its surface, despite the Sun being only about 90% as bright as it is today.
So before the early Paleozoic, the Earth was class L.
The early Earth may qualify as being class Y, with lots of CO2 and likely lots of CH4. One can add oxygen so one can breathe, but the CO2 may have high enough concentration to be dangerous (hypercapnia, at about 5% present atmospheric pressure). In toxicity, CH4 is not much different from nitrogen or argon -- one has to breathe in more than our atmosphere's pressure of it before it becomes dangerous (nitrogen narcosis). But for at least 5% of present atmospheric pressure of CH4, it and oxygen are a fire hazard.
Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere - Wikipedia cites some estimates for our planet's CO2 concentration since the base of the Cambrian, where it was 7000 parts per million in volume or 0.7% of present atmospheric pressure. Not enough to cause hypercapnia.
I have found some patterns in the planetary classes. The first one is size, including both mass and radius:
The next category is temperature. Here, it will be relative to liquid-water temperatures.
- Large: gas giants, lots of H2 and He -- J
- Medium: Earth-sized -- most of the classes
- Small: airless planetoids and moons -- D
The next category is temperature. Here, it will be relative to liquid-water temperatures.
- Hot -- N
- Medium -- H, L, M, O, Y
- Cold -- K, P
- Little or no -- H
- Partial -- L, M
- All -- O
- None to partial -- K
- All -- P
- Good for humanity -- M
- Somewhat bad to somewhat good -- L
- Very bad -- Y
I thought of working out where known exoplanets fall in these categories, but we have very little on them, mostly orbit data and their radii and/or masses. Sometimes one can get both masses and radii, and the most Earth-sized such planets with good numbers for both are those of TRAPPIST-1.
b: O (N) ... c: O or N ... d: O (L) ... e: K or P ... f: P (K) ... g: P (K) ... h: P (K)
b: O (N) ... c: O or N ... d: O (L) ... e: K or P ... f: P (K) ... g: P (K) ... h: P (K)
Class M for Mayhem ? Manhiem? Mankind like world?
Re-reading this thread was a trip down memory lane. Great discussion, though from over five years ago!
Good question if the other planet classes came from Vulcan.
A lot of stuff apparently came, given the ENT setup: Klingons having ships with bird-themed designations, or indeed Klingon being called Klingons, for starters.
And Vulcan maps seemed to be a big thing back then. Earthlings could of course tell all by themselves where all the stars sit in space - but the maps would have the all-important labels.
Classifying the complexity of nature is the human and no doubt also Vulcan thing to do. But Vulcans would have their own ideas there, just like different ilks of humans do, and eventually everybody would have to agree on one model. Today, we agree on the structure of all nature with a Swedish homebody who knew nothing about genetics. Tomorrow, we might agree with the ideas of some ancient Vulcan priest.
Timo Saloniemi
And Vulcan maps seemed to be a big thing back then. Earthlings could of course tell all by themselves where all the stars sit in space - but the maps would have the all-important labels.
Classifying the complexity of nature is the human and no doubt also Vulcan thing to do. But Vulcans would have their own ideas there, just like different ilks of humans do, and eventually everybody would have to agree on one model. Today, we agree on the structure of all nature with a Swedish homebody who knew nothing about genetics. Tomorrow, we might agree with the ideas of some ancient Vulcan priest.
Timo Saloniemi
But some of the Vulcan names would be unpronounceable. Many of the stars kept Terran names. Deneb, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Vega, Tau Ceti, Aradoni
And some names cropped up in multiple languages created on worlds lightyears apart from each other, but the name would mean something different in each language it appeared in. Example: Rigel. Hence the Rigel visited in "Broken Bow" being labelled "Beta Rigel" from ST: Star Charts onward. (And there was precedent with "Beta Antares" from "A Piece of the Action"...)
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