tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 18 03:27:19 1994
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Re: Doch Sar
- From: mark <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Doch Sar
- Date: Mon, 18 Apr 94 15:24:31 EST
charghwI'vo':
* * *
Another possibility is my own belief that the {j} phoneme is the one
least well fitted to the language. It sticks out because it does not sound
Klingon. People percieve by discontinuities and {j} is discontinuous with the
other sounds of Klingon. It is a softened {ch} and the softening of it makes
it sound quite different from the other phonemes.
* * *
/j/ doesn't sound soft to me. What you're calling "soft" is
voicing: its relation to /ch/ is that the vocal cords [not
cHords, as you sometimes see] are vibrating in /j/ and not in
/ch/. But concomitant to that, in English sounds, we have more
of a puff of air (aspiration) after the /ch/ than after the /j/.
I pronounce a Klingon /j/ more harshly than an English /j/, thus:
A /j/ sound is approximately a /d/ (NOT Klingon /D/) followed
immediately by, and blending into, a /zh/ sound. (By /zh/ I mean
the English, non-Klingon, sound that is spelled "s" in "measure"
or "g" in "barrage".) I harshen my Klingon /j/ by emphasizing
the /d/ part of it, holding it a little longer and more firmly
before releasing it into the softer /zh/. You could think of it
as a /dj/ sound. Though I seldom have a fellow tlhIngan Hol
jatlhwI' to discuss it with, my sense is that this pronunciation
gives my Klingon /j/ an appropriately strong and unforgiving
feeling. I think Okrand uses something like it on CK.
[Note to fellow phonologists and phoneticians; others please
ignore this paragraph. I know that some of the segments in
slashes above are phones and should be in brackets, but
explaining the difference to the nonspecialists would just have
muddied the waters.]
- marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]