tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 16 14:00:14 1995
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tlh-H phonology question
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: tlh-H phonology question
- Date: Tue, 16 May 95 21:59:23 BST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> (message from Marc Ruehlaender on Tue, 16 May 1995 07:00:06 -0400)
> If I'm not mistaken (tell me if I am!) Klingon morphology
> can be described by the following formalism:
Your greatest error is that you keep saying `morphology' while talking
about *phonology*. Morphology is about roots and affixes, not sounds.
> Let C be any consonant, C1 any consonant except <w>,
> C2 any consonant except <w, y, '> and Cl be {<rgh, y'>}.
> Let V be any vowel (monophtongs AND diphtongs), V0 be
> {<a, e, I>}, V1 be {<a, e, I, o, u>} and V2 = V\V1.
> Then the possible syllables are:
> I) C-V1 II) C-V1-C1 III) C-V0-w IV) C-V1-Cl V) C-V0-w'
> which seems to be how most of you conceive it,
Yes, something like that.
> or
> A) C-V C) C-V-'
> B) C-V-C2 D) C-V1-rgh
Rule B should say C-V1-C2, otherwise it overgenerates (C-V-C2 could be
something like *{bayb}).
> which is what I prefer, because it recognises
> diphtongs as vowels like MO did in TKD. [...]
> Now my question(s): which scheme do you prefer
The first one.
> and for what reasons?
(1) It seems counter-intuitive to treat final {w} and {y} as something
other than consonants, because
a. they are no different from word-initial {w} and {y} and
b. in their distribution in word-final position they differ only
slightly from the other consonants. For me {CVw} and {CVy} are CVC,
and I only need to note {CVw'} and {CVy'} as exceptions to the rule
that final clusters are not allowed. You, on the other hand, need to
handle the fact that if the vowel in a syllable is a diphthong, the
final in that syllable may only be {'} or zero.
(2) Okrand called the combinations {Vw} and {Vy} diphthongs because he
was writing for hoi English-speaking polloi, whom he expected to have
a hard time pronouncing those combinations properly (giving both the
vowel and the consonant the sound they normally have in Klingon).
He was not motivated by the reality of Klingon phonology.
(3) Finally, an argument based on morphology. Under the first scheme
all Klingon prefixes are open syllables, whereas all suffixes are
closed syllables. The fact that there is not a single exception to
this generalisation suggests that it has some significance in the
structure of the language. However, it is destroyed in the second
scheme: suffixes can be open syllables, as long as the vowel is a
diphthong (eg {-mey}), and although all simple vowels are found in
prefixes, diphthongs are not.
--'Iwvan