Vegimals

Screenshot 20200802-112144 — All of the Vegimals including Sharchini, Halibeet, Pikato, Grouber, Codish, Barrot, Tominnow and Tunip as they appear in 'Octonauts and the Saltwater Crocodile'

The Vegimals are adorable little creatures that are half vegetable and half animal. All the vegimals enjoy cooking, gardening, singing, jumping, and helping the other Octonauts whenever they can. They speak Vegimalese, which is their own special language. Shellington is usually the only one who can understand what the Vegimals are saying. All Vegimals have the lower halves of fish and flippers. Of all the Vegimals, however, Tunip is the only major character. They all tend to faint at bad or shocking news, fear, or embarrassment. Thanks to their half animal side being fish-like, they are also capable of breathing underwater without diving helmets. Tweak occasionally may understand their language. In The Bullfrogs, the frogs seem to understand their language as well. In The Twelve-Year Bloom, it revealed that Selva can speak and understand vegimalese, despite the fact that Shellington can only understand it.

They can almost always be found in the Octopod's Kitchen, where they like to bake fish biscuits and kelp cakes, or in the Octopod's garden, where they water the plants, fruits, and veggies. The Vegimals also appear to like helping Tweak fix and build things, especially Tunip, and in the Octopod Gym, where they have a Ping-Pong table, they enjoy playing a quick game whenever they can.

Appearance[]

Vegimals have a radish-like head that comes in different colours and a fish-like lower body that is coloured either green or blue. They also have different pieces of leaves on their heads based on the vegetable they are designed after.

How they got discovered[]

In A Very Vegimal Christmas and the book, Octonauts Explore The Great Big Ocean. Shellington reveals how he found the Vegimals. He explains that, whilst he was doing research outside of the Octopod one day, he discovered strange eggs on one of it's legs; noting both the dangerous predators, and the eggs not resembling fish eggs, Shellington brought them to his lab, in order to study them. Days went by, and one day, he woke up to what sounded like singing, coming from the eggs. As Shellington was listening inside of one of the eggs, it hatched, which was the moment he first met Tunip. The other Vegimals residing in the eggs, followed shortly after. Shellington reveals in A Very Vegimal Christmas, that the reason they're called Vegimals, is due to them being 50% vegetable, and 50% animal.

Vegimal Name List[]

Meomi Books only (No appearances in TV series)[]

Perchkin	Perch	Pumpkin	Orange
Yamchovy	Anchovy	Yam	Orange
Wallabaga	Walleye	Rutabaga	Beige/yellow and pink/purple
Charchard	Char	Chard	Purple
Maccoli	Mackerel	Broccoli	Green
Carprika	Carp	Paprika	Orange
Albachoy	Albacore	Bok Choy	Green
Salepeño	Salmon	Jalapeño	Red
Tardelery	Tardigrade	Celery	green

TV show appearances[]

Tunip	Tuna	Turnip	Yellow
Codish	Cod	Radish	Pink
Barrot	Bass	Carrot	Orange
Grouber	Grouper	Tuber	Purple
Tominnow	Minnow	Tomato	Red
Pikato	Pike	Tomato	Green
Halibeet	Halibut	Beetroot	Blue
Sharchinni	Shark	Zuchinni	Purple

Other[]

Vegimal Robot Name	Creature	Fruit/vegetable	Color
Vegi-bot	Tuna - Robot	Turnip - Robot	Yellow

The Vegimal Language[]

As previously stated, the Vegimals speak Vegimalese. Information relating to their method of communications have yet to be officially released, however, we have collated some examples of spoken Vegimal and used context to decipher certain sounds and noises that they make. It is also likely that they do not speak an actual language (as in with syntax and grammar), and they use regular expressions in certain situations such as barks or alarm calls (like dogs), or guttural sounds and bird-ish-like trills. However, this can be disputed as they seem to have "conversations" with one another. It can also be interpreted as a zooglot or an "animal language" with extremely simple grammar and syntax, similar to how Koko the gorilla speaks. Vegimals, however, as seen in creature reports and other episodes, do have the ability to imitate and speak some spoken English, with their distinct accents, however they prefer to stick with their native tongue.

Linguistics:

Phonology:

Vegimal phonology is fairly simple. A very common sound they produce is a "voiced alveolar trill" or /r/, colloquially known as a "Rolled 'R'" like the Spanish R in "repollo" This commonly follows a Voiceless bilibial stop or /p/ as in the English "Pole"

The following IPA symbols can be heard from the Vegimals:

Consonants:

/r/ : Rolled "r"

/p/ : same as in English "p"

/ʈ/ : Not in English, pronounced by pronouncing a 't' but curling the tongue back to touch the hard palate.

Vowels:

Some phrases:

Here are some Vegimalese phrases.

*Characters such as ü is pronounced as ue (u + e sound).

Pronunciation parts in bold indicate that it must be stressed when spoken.

Characters with diacritics that aren’t the diaresis indicate what tone the vowel is said in.

NOTICE: A vegimalese phrase was added, but the phrase's spelling was not pulled from the Netflix captions. And the definition was guessed.

Vegimalese interpretation	Pronunciation	Definition	Usage
Uüskah mika?	u-yu-skah mi-ka	What's that?	Used to ask what something is.
Cheepa wala.	chì-pa wa-la(h)	Disappointed	Used to express disappointment.
Didta, walla, fida	dǐ-dta, wa-la, fi-dta(h)	Ready, aim, fire	Used by Tunip to tell Barrot to fire the plunger at the Gup-E to pull it out of the snot blob.
Bree!	Bree!	Check!	Used In The Creature Reports
A vehicle and a rescue line-a beats a blob-a every time-a!	Ah-vehicle and a rescue line-a beats a blob-a every time-a!	Vehicle and a rescue line, beats a blob every time	Used in the Very Vegimal Christmas


Vegimalese interpretation	Pronunciation	Definition	Usage
Cheepa cheepa	Chi-pa chi-pa	Super super!	When they are happy
Mahngo	Mah-ng-o	Mango	Mangoes- especially when Gruper ‘finds’ a mango in the Caves of Sac Actun
Tika, tika-tika taun	Tika [pause few seconds] tika-tika ton	This is used as an expression, though at this time, the definition is unknown	Used frequently in the first few episodes, but it hasn't been used in a while

Gallery[]

Octonauts and the Mimic Octopus (Series 02 - Episode 16)

Trivia[]

In The Octonauts Movie: The Ring of Fire, it is revealed that the Vegimals own a seaweed farm, which is where they get the kelp and seaweed they need to make Kelp Cakes.
It is revealed in The Quest for Cocoa that they have grown cocoa trees in the Amazon so they can make hot chocolate for the crew.
The Vegimals are the first (and only) fictional creatures that exist in the show.
Whilst Michael Murphy still occasionally returns to play the Vegimals. Their voices in Above & Beyond have been fully taken over by Sarah Faust and Helen Walsh respectively.
In The Only Lonely Monster, all the vegimals were yellow and had hair like Tunip.