tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 30 04:00:33 1996
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pIqaD taj, [i.e. Klingon writing tool]
- From: [email protected] (Frank M Truelove)
- Subject: pIqaD taj, [i.e. Klingon writing tool]
- Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 07:02:22 -0400
SuStel: "Er . . . don't you think that this has gotten a bit off topic?"
It has been suggested that a pipius claw was one of the original styli used by
Klingon scribes.
It has been suggested that the Modern Klingon Typeface Characters may bear
little resemblance to the original pictographs.
Let's assume the "p" represents (all or part of) a pipius claw.
Does anyone care to theorize about the other pictographs? What were they and
were there at one time more than 26? Could the others (if there were more) have
been similar to the "kanji" of Japanese or the determinatives of Egyptian?
Yes, the Klingons are efficient. That doesn't mean that Klingon-devised systems
are invented in their most efficient state. Perhaps it was Kahless who first
abandoned the extraneous glyphs and modified the remaining ones to make "true
letters." This would, perhaps, have started the tradition of Speak As The
Emperor Speaks.
But what were those original pictographs? This is surely a question Federation
scientists would have asked during the near-century of peace between Humans and
Klingons. Might we use some of the "other" glyphs produced for Klingon fonts
before the pIqaD? (I'm speaking of the "klinzhai" font available on other
Klingon webpages.)
TANGENT:
Why are some letters VERY similar? gh and v, for example, look like one was
rotated 90 degrees from the other. ng and o look more than just a little bit
alike.