tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 09 20:36:58 1998
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Re: introduction
ja' Albert Arendsen:
>the Klingon {gh} is a voiced Dutch {ch}, and does come quite close to the
>Dutch gargled {r}. the Klingon {H} is an unvoiced (normal) Dutch {ch}, but
>the Hebrew equivalent is actually a bit closer. at least, that's how I
>figure it...
If you're figuring it in isolation, *STOP NOW*. You'll develop your own
distinct accent if you try to pronounce things without a good example.
Get the Conversational Klingon and Power Klingon audiotapes, if you don't
already have them. The pronunciations on the KLI web site are also good,
at least according to one acknowledged expert on Klingon pronunciation.
>the thing is that people who speak a different language percieve sounds
>differently. no English speaking person will be able to notice the
>difference between the Dutch words {keuken} and {kuiken}, but percieve both
>as {koiken} (in Dutch phonetic).
Perhaps the *average* English speaking person won't hear a difference,
but to say that "no English speaking person will" goes a bit too far.
Many of the people on this list have had significant experience with
sounds that aren't common in English, and will likely be able to notice
the "keuken/kuiken/koiken" distinction.
> another example: Thai people have three
>different words that all sound as {kai} to westerners, but sound very
>differently to the Thai.
Klingon has three -- {qay'}, {Qay}, and {Qay'} -- that sound similar to
people who only know English. And none of them is exactly "kai".
>we can just keep this conversation up for ever, but until there is some
>universal phonetic alphabet we'll never reach a conclusion.
Guess what? There *is* such a universal phonetic alphabet. I don't know
the ASCII representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet, but I'm
pretty sure someone here can give the symbols for the Klingon {r} and {gh},
and might also be able to identify the Dutch trilled and gargled "r"s.
-- ghunchu'wI'