tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 14 12:21:38 1998
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RE: FAQ question and proper names
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: FAQ question and proper names
- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:18:25 -0700
lab Erik Johnson:
Welcome to the list, Erik. My name is pagh, and I am the current Beginners'
Grammarian. It's my job to help beginners learn Klingon. Whenever you have a
post you want help with, mark it for my attention by putting KLBC in the
subject line.
> My recent investigation into Klingon was precipitated by
> a project to translate our company business cards into
> Klingon for a few employees who chose that as their
> "alternate" language on the back of their cards. I will
> be having this done in pIqaD, which should be interesting!
> As a result, I have subscribed to this list, as well as
> browsing several pages such as KLI's page and others. I
> have obtained Okrand's dictionary and am reading it
> through a few times. I know that I will receive excellent
> information from this list, and hope that my posts are
> appropriate and interesting.
> The list server autoreponse mentioned a FAQ can be located
> at http://www.thomtech.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm however
> this page has been moved, and the new site listed does not
> seem to exist. My question is: does this FAQ exist in another
> location? I would like to read it through before posting any
> more questions.
Holtej maintains the FAQ, and he has moved it from his work page (the
thomtech site) to his personal page at
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm, with a redirect on the old
page. Unfortunately, this page has been unreachable for at least a day or
two. I've alerted Holtej, so we'll see what happens.
> Also, I posted a question about proper nouns (names) to a
> Klingon newsgroup, and was kindly answered by Kronos (thanks)
> that common names, such as Erik, be translated literally into
> Klingon (eriQ').
Well, not quite. Except for a few Native American cultures, names don't have
any literal meaning, so they cannot be "translated". They can be
transliterated into the writing system we use for Klingon. If you do,
though, it won't be the same sound with a different spelling. The sounds of
the Klingon language do not include the English "k", for example.
You'll find a description of all the symbols - mostly single letters, and a
few combinations like <gh> and <tlh> - in the Dictionary. Note that the case
of the letters is very important - <Q> and <q> are different symbols, and
the is no <i>. Note also that the <'> symbol is also a full fledged letter,
and not a punctuation symbol or a bit of decoration.
One thing the dictionary does not tell you is that Klingon has a fixed
syllable structure. Every syllable has one of three forms:
consonant-vowel
consonant-vowel-consonant
consonant-vowel-consonant cluster, where the only allowed consonant clusters
are <rgh>, <y'>, and <w'>.
This means that you cannot, for example, start a word with a vowel. Since my
English name is Eric, I've given a fair bit of thought to this, and I think
the closest transliteration of Eric is <'erIq>, although <'arIq> is fairly
close to some of the foreign pronunciations I've heard.
> I am also noticing other's Klingon names, and that they seem
> to actually "mean" something. Is there a process that is
> followed to develop a Klingon name, or are most of them
> really just phonic (if that's the right word) translations of
> the spelling.
The FAQ has a lot of information on names, so you should definitely take a
look as soon as it's back online. In general, though, the process for
choosing a name is a personal one. Find one that suits you.
> Regards,
> eriQ' (maybe)
> P.S. If you are interested in my project of business card
> translation, let me know and I'll post the background behind
> this project and what I'm doing to accomplish it.
If you need any help, just send a KLBC message to the list. I've got one of
Lawrence's business cards sitting on my desk, and <qo'mey poSmoH Hol> looks
wonderful written in pIqaD.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian