tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 14 07:53:52 1998
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RE: Those subtitles.
: They don't even get the pronunciation close, even if they do lookup
: some of the vocabulary. If they read at least the first couple pages
: of TKD they would know that there is no way that {batlh} should be
: pronounced "BAT-LEH", so that it sounds too much like "batleth". And,
It's the "tlh" that stumps them. Some actors pronounce {batlh} as if it were
the English word "battle".
: how can they get "SHOO-VWEE" from {SuvwI'}? I used to try to listen
: carefully to any Klingon dialogue, but now I am less enthused.
Because that's the way English speakers tend to divide consonant clusters,
particularly unusual ones. English allows syllables to begin with two
consonants (Kro-nos, En-glish, roo-ster, clus-ter, ex-plain, mi-cro-scope),
Klingon doesn't. This explains the universal pronunciation of {Qapla'} as
/ka-plah/ instead of /kkhap-la'/. The cluster "pl" is usually never split in
English (split, com-plain, play-er, ex-plode, pla-stic).
I'm sure most actors want to do a good job, if only someone would take the
time
to coach them as Okrand did in the movies. After all, it's their face and
voice on the screen. As it is, they have to deal with the scripts as best
they
can. The writers have learned that Okrand's transcription can be confusing to
actors who haven't read TKD and worked with the tapes, so they try to be
helpful in providing a phonetic transcription in the scripts. Problem is, the
writers don't know how to pronounce Klingon correctly themselves.
: ~ Thornton
_____________________________________________________________________
Voragh
"Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons lis est."
Horace (Ars Poetica)