tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 09 17:24:46 1997
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KLBC: pIqaD, Schoen vs. Okuda
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: KLBC: pIqaD, Schoen vs. Okuda
- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 20:24:14 -0400 (EDT)
(I posted a few days ago some comments and questions about Klingon writing,
but the message doesn't appear to have reached the KLBC e-mail, so I need to
be redundant ; sorry about that).
My main concern was about Klingon alphabet. You can get Okuda's character set
on KLI's website (mapped onto uppercase letters on a PC keyboard). I do
prefer
Schoen's character set (mapped onto lowercase letters), which fits better the
triskeles logo of KLI. But :
1 - Not considering numerals, Schoen's alphabet uses all 26 letters of the
Roman
alphabet. Including the "Z". The label on the Font Disk reads "tlhIngan" in
Okuda, but "kliqon" in Schoen (considering the keyboard/character mapping).
What is the exact equivalence between both?
If Schoen (as it seems according to the above-mentioned label) maps the "q"
key
onto the "ng" Klingon letter, what confidence may I have into lowercasing
all
letters to change from Okuda to Schoen?
Since the Klingon alphabet has also 26 letters, what is this extra character
from
Schoen, with PC Alt code 044, mapped onto comma?
2 - I DO like to ask nasty questions. If we accept Okuda's or Schoen's
letters as
those which Klingons use, there *must* be some handwriting, i.e. a cursive
way of drawing these characters. (I'm aware that this question is borderline
between language proper and civilization). Which tools are used to get such
(admittedly very beautiful) shapes? Schoen's is so angular that it looks like
Ancient Sumerian, using some hard-metal-made tool to engrave some softer-
metal support. How should I write it with a ballpen?
(comment: I insist on this because (a) the only absolutely right way to write
tlhingan Hol is pIqaD, as is cyrillic to Russian, and (b) some individual
variations
in shape are acceptable although they make the letter look quite different,
while
minor variations may cause confusion -- this is why in Japanese the order in
which you draw the strokes is so important).
Qapla'
-- HdW