Language, Names and Address

1. Overview

Every conversation with a Romulan is also a test of manners. Romulans notice how they are addressed, what is asked of them, and what is left unsaid, and they draw conclusions. A Starfleet officer who uses the wrong rank, presumes on a personal name, or asks a careless question about a Romulan’s family has told the Romulan a great deal, none of it useful to the officer.

This article covers the Romulan language in general terms, Romulan names and how to read them, the ranks of the Imperial Fleet and their rough Starfleet equivalents, the titles of government, the greetings and phrases a Federation officer is likely to meet, and how to address a Romulan officer correctly. The customs that lie behind these forms are covered in Society, Houses and Customs, and the habits of mind in Romulan Biology and Mind.

A note on sources. The Federation’s knowledge of the Romulan language is incomplete. Universal translators handle everyday Romulan well, and Starfleet linguists have studied intercepted transmissions for a century and more. But much of the language’s depth, its formal registers, its house idioms and its poetry, is little known outside the Empire. Romulan words given in this article are those that have come through reliable contact, most of it from the Dominion War and the recovery years that followed.

2. The Romulan Language

2.1 Origins

The Romulan language grew from the Vulcan spoken by the settlers who left Vulcan in Surak’s time, about two thousand years ago. Over the centuries since, the two languages have drifted far apart. A modern Vulcan cannot understand spoken Romulan without study, though Vulcan scholars find many old roots in common. The Romulan script is entirely different from any Vulcan one in use today, and Romulan inscriptions are among the most recognisable things the Empire shows the outside world, on its ships, its buoys and its monuments.

Romulans call themselves, in their own language, Rihannsu. The word is rarely used in front of outsiders, and Federation officers are wise not to use it themselves unless a Romulan does first. In ordinary speech with outsiders, Romulans call themselves Romulans, and this reference does the same.

2.2 Character

Romulan is described by Federation linguists as a precise and layered language, rich in forms that show the relationship between speaker and listener. A Romulan speaking to a superior, an equal, a subordinate, a member of their own house, or an outsider uses different forms, and the choice is itself a message. A Romulan officer who addresses a Federation officer in the form used for equals is paying a compliment. One who uses the form for outsiders is keeping their distance, and may be doing so deliberately.

Romulan also favours indirection. A great deal is said by implication, by what is left out, or by phrasing that can be read two ways. Universal translators render the words but not always the meaning. Starfleet officers who have worked with Romulans advise listening to what a Romulan does not say as closely as to what they do.

2.3 Romulans and Federation Standard

Romulan officers who deal with the Federation often speak Federation Standard, sometimes very well. Some learned it in the Dominion War, some in the recovery years, and some as part of training the Empire does not discuss. A Romulan who speaks Standard to a Federation officer is choosing to. A Romulan who insists on speaking through a translator may be choosing that too, to gain time, to hide their fluency, or to keep distance.

3. Names

3.1 The pattern

A full Romulan name has two parts. The first is the personal name. The second is the house or family name, preceded by a short marker that shows the person’s sex: tr’ for men and t’ for women. The marker is usually read as “of”, so that a man named Ardhal of the house of Vesuin is Ardhal tr’Vesuin, and a woman named Sorrel of the house of Keleth is Sorrel t’Keleth.

The house name is the part that matters most to Romulans. It tells them where a person stands: which house, which allies, which history. A Romulan hearing a name for the first time will usually place the house before they think about the person. Ordinary families that belong to no great house use their family name in the same way.

3.2 Names given to outsiders

Many Romulans give outsiders only their personal name, or only a rank and a personal name. Federation records from the 2360s and 2370s are full of Romulan commanders known by a single name, and in most cases the Federation never learned the house. This is partly caution: a house name tells the listener a great deal. It is partly custom: the full name is for people who have a right to it.

Starfleet officers should not press for a house name, and should not use one they have learned from records unless the Romulan has given it to them. Using a house name a Romulan has not offered tells them that you have been reading about them, which is rarely the impression you want to give.

3.3 Names that change

A Romulan may change houses by marriage, by adoption into a greater house, or, rarely, by being cast out. A Romulan cast out of their house loses the right to its name. Romulans who leave the Empire sometimes keep their house names and sometimes give them up, and the choice is a statement about how they left. Federation officers should use whatever name the person uses.

4. Ranks of the Imperial Fleet

The Imperial Fleet uses eight ranks, from the lowest to the highest as follows. Starfleet equivalents are rough. The two services are organised differently, Romulan ships carry larger crews in some roles and smaller ones in others, and a Romulan rank can carry more or less authority than its nearest Starfleet match depending on the post. The table is a guide to seniority, not an exact conversion. See The Imperial Fleet for how the Fleet itself is organised.

Several points are worth noting. A Romulan Commander is a ship’s captain, not a first officer, and Starfleet officers who think of the rank as the Starfleet one routinely underestimate who they are speaking to. A Sub-Commander is usually a first officer, and Federation records since 2268 have met many. A Centurion is a senior and experienced officer, often in charge of the troops aboard a ship, and is not a junior rank despite the name. A Sub-Lieutenant’s duties can be clerical; the Federation learned the rank in 2366 from a Romulan who claimed to be a logistics clerk.

The Tal Shiar does not use Fleet ranks. Its officers have held ranks such as Major and Colonel, and a Tal Shiar officer aboard a Fleet ship stands outside the ship’s chain of command in ways that Fleet officers are known to resent. A Starfleet officer should never address a Tal Shiar officer by a Fleet rank, or a Fleet officer by a Tal Shiar one. See The Tal Shiar.

5. Titles of Government

The Empire’s government is described in Government of the Empire. The titles a Federation officer may need to recognise are these.

Government titles are used in full on formal occasions and usually without the holder’s name: “Praetor”, “Proconsul”, “Senator”. A Federation diplomat who addresses a senator by name rather than by title has made an error, though a forgivable one.

6. Greetings and Phrases

The one Romulan greeting most Federation officers know is “Jolan tru”. It is used both on meeting and on parting, and Romulans have been recorded using it among themselves as well as to outsiders. Its exact meaning in Romulan has never been given to the Federation in a form linguists accept, and translators simply render it as a greeting or a farewell. It is safe for a Federation officer to use, and a Romulan will usually return it.

The other phrases below have come to the Federation through contact in the Dominion War and the recovery years. They are less well established than “Jolan tru”, and Federation officers should use them with care, or not at all: a phrase used wrongly by an outsider can sound like mockery.

Romulan oaths and insults are many and mostly untranslatable. Federation officers should not use them. A Romulan who uses one in front of an outsider has either lost the held face, which they will not thank you for noticing, or wants you to know exactly what they think.

7. Addressing a Romulan Officer

7.1 The safe forms

The safest way to address a Romulan officer is by rank alone: “Commander”, “Sub-Commander”, “Centurion”. Rank with personal name, such as “Centurion Lhaira” for the example above, is acceptable once the officer has given their name. Personal name alone is for people the officer has invited to use it, and that invitation is rare. A Starfleet officer who uses a Romulan’s personal name uninvited is claiming a closeness that does not exist, and the Romulan will notice.

Use the correct rank. Starfleet officers sometimes shorten ranks in their own service; Romulans do not, and a Sub-Commander called “Commander” may take it as flattery, mockery or ignorance, none of which helps. If you are not sure of a Romulan officer’s rank, “officer” or a polite request for their rank is better than a guess.

7.2 What to avoid

• Do not ask about a Romulan’s house or family unless they raise it.
• Do not use the house name of an officer who has not given it to you.
• Do not compare Romulans to Vulcans, favourably or not. Few things annoy a Romulan more quickly.
• Do not address a Tal Shiar officer by a Fleet rank, or ask a Fleet officer about the Tal Shiar.
• Do not mention the Remans or T’Met in casual conversation. See The Remans and T'Met.
• Do not press for an answer a Romulan has avoided. The avoidance is the answer.
• Do not touch a Romulan officer without need, even in greeting.

7.3 Over a channel

Most contact between Starfleet and the Imperial Fleet in 2393 takes place over a hailing channel across the Neutral Zone. Romulan commanders open such exchanges with their own rank and the name of their ship, and sometimes only with their rank. They expect the same in return. They rarely give a house name. They are formal, brief and precise, and they expect a Starfleet officer to be the same. A Starfleet officer who talks too much over a channel is giving away information, and Romulans are listening for it. Where the conversation concerns the Zone itself, the Romulan will almost always insist that their ship is on its own side of the line, whatever the sensors say. See The Neutral Zone (2393) and The Romulan Side of the Zone.

7.4 In person

Face to face, Romulan officers greet one another with a short formal gesture rather than a handshake, and do not expect outsiders to copy it. A slight inclination of the head is enough from a Federation officer. Rank is observed in seating, in the order of speaking and in who leaves first. A Romulan officer of higher rank than their Starfleet counterpart will expect to speak first; one of lower rank will wait, and will notice if they are not given the chance to speak at all. The Fleet values courtesy toward an enemy as much as Starfleet does. It values seeing that courtesy returned even more.

8. See Also

The Romulan Star Empire · Society, Houses and Customs · Romulan Biology and Mind · Government of the Empire · The Imperial Fleet · The Tal Shiar · Romulans and the Federation · The Romulan Side of the Zone