tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 27 23:06:53 2002
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Re: Klingon phonotaxis
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Klingon phonotaxis
- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 04:06:52 GMT
> Has much work been done on finding interesting patterns in Klingon
> phonotaxis?
You should get a reprint of HolQeD vol 1, no. 1. It has a great article
basically laying out all the rules for Klingon syllable formation. The only
exceptions to the rules stated way back then are the two proper names brought
over from Fed Standard:
qIrq
pIqarD
> I threw together a program to see what constraints exist (scanning over
> a lexicon file I got off the Net). The results are very preliminary, but
> I found these patterns:
>
> * There are no Iy', Iw', or ew' syllables.
This is the only pattern you've found that is not part of the rules as spelled
out by the article in HolQeD v1n1. The rest have already been discovered.
> * There are no syllables ending in C', where C is any consonant but w
> and y.
> * MOST syllables are CVC. However, there are some clearly CV syllables
> in many words listed below. Many are clearly proper names or words with
> otherwise marginal status in the language, but some, like <je>, <'a>,
> <ro>, <gho>, <da>, <DI> and <qIvon> are clearly core vocabulary.
cha, HaSta...
Some of the earliest words (the ones James Doohan created before Okrand worked
with the language) have open syllables. And don't forget the exceptional suffix
{-oy}, which always follows a consonant or adds an intervening glottal stop.
> I think the simplest explanation of the latter is that at a rather
> earlier stage of the language, all syllables were CVC; but some
> syllables ended in a phoneme that was (later) deleted. Past experience
> with the Earth languages suggests that the phoneme that was most likely
> lost was an interdental fricative: /th/ or /dh/ (as in bath or bathe). I
> speculate therefore that <je>, <'a>, <ro>, <gho>, <da>, <DI>, and
> <qIvon> were regular CVC syllables: *<jeth>, *<'ath>, *<roth>, *<ghoth>,
> *<dath>, *<DIth>, and *<qIthvon>. (Or possibly with *-dh instead of
> the *-th).
Okrand intentionally broke rules of human languages in choosing the phonemes
for Klingon. The greatest single example is the difference in tongue position
for {D} and {t}, essentially picking the mismatched pair from four sounds used
in human languages. English uses [d] and [t], while some other languages use
[D] and [T] or even [d, D, t] and [T], but no human language uses {D} and {t}
without the other two phonemes. Also, {v} without "f" is rare.
Anyway, your research is interesting. I respect your method.
Will
> Current words not meeting the CVC pattern:
>
> baQa'=excl$(curse)
> bIreqtal=n$Brek'tal ritual
> bIreQtagh=n$bregit lung
> cha=n$torpedoes
> chuQun=n$nobility
> Da=v$behave as
> DenIb=n$Denebia
> DenIbngan=n$Denebian
> DenIb Qatlh=n$Denebian slime devil
> DI=n$litter, rubble, debris
> DIvI'may'Duj=n$Federation battle cruiser
> DIvI'=n$federation, organization, association, league, union
> Do=n$velocity
> Duran lung DIr=n$Durani lizard skins (food, never uses plural suffix)
> DuSaQ=n$school
> ghIlab ghew=n$glob fly
> ghIlaSnoS=n$Glasnost - ancient political movement
> ghobe'=excl$no (answer to a question)
> gho=n$circle
> gho'Do=n$sublight speed
> ghu=n$baby
> ghuy'cha=excl$*@&% (curse)
> HaSta=n$visual display
> Ha'DIbaH=n$meat, animal
> HeDon=n$parallel course
> He=n$course, route
> HIDjolev=n$menu
> HIja'=excl$yes, true (answer to yes/no question)
> Human=n$human
> Hu=n$zoo
> jabbI'ID=n$data transmission
> je=adv$also
> je=conj$also, and (joining nouns)
> jo=n$resources
> lIghon DuQwI' pogh=n$Ligonian Spike Glove
> lolSeHcha=n$attitude-control thruster
> lulIgh=n$refuge
> moHaq=n$prefix
> mojaq=n$suffix
> moQbara'=n$a type of martial art
> mughato'=n$mugato
> naDev=n$here, hereabouts
> nalqad=n$mate challenge
> nIteb=adv$alone, acting alone
> nughI'=v$give (someone) a noogie
> nural=n$Neural
> nuralngan=n$Neuralese
> oy=ns1$endearment
> peghmey vItlhegh=n$secrecy proverb
> petaQ=excl$(epithetical curse)
> pIqaD=n$Klingon writing system
> po=n$morning
> qama'=n$prisoner
> qelI'qam=n$kellicam
> qevaS=n$kevas
> qIvon=n$an unspecified body part
> QI'tomer=n$Khitomer
> QonoS=n$journal, log
> reghuluS=n$Regulus
> reghuluSngan=n$Regulan
> romuluS=n$Romulus
> romuluSngan=n$Romulan
> ro=n$trunk (of body)
> SanID=nums$thousand
> SIbI'=adv$immediately
> ta=n$record
> tera'=n$Earth
> tera'ngan=n$Terran, Earther
> tI=n$vegetation
> toDuj=n$courage, bravery
> tu'HomI'raH=n$T'oohomIrah, something useless
> tlhIngan=n$Klingon
> va=excl$#'@! (curse)
> verengan Ha'DIbaH=n$Ferengi dog - a classic insult
> verengan=n$Ferengi
> vIno'va' qurgh=n$finova bean(s)
> vulqangan=n$Vulcan (person)
> wanI'=n$phenomenon, event, occurrence
> ya=n$tactical officer
> yIrIDngan=n$Yridian
> yuQjIjDIvI'=n$United Federation of Planets
> yu'egh=n$wave
> 'a=conj$but, nevertheless, even so, however
> 'elaS=n$Elas
> 'orghengan=n$Organian
>
>
> And the Perl program I used to generate that list:
>
> use strict;
> open(IN, "<mutay.txt") or die $!;
> # data file from http://chrisp.de/files/mutay.txt
> $/ = "\cj";
> my($count, $coverage, @oddities);
> while(<IN>) {
> chomp;
> next unless m/^([^\#=][^=]*)=([^\$]+)/s;
> my($k, $type) = ($1, $2);
> next if $type eq 'vp' or $type eq 'name';
>
> ++$count; ++$coverage;
> --$coverage, push @oddities, "$_\n"
> unless $k =~ m/
> ^
> ( # syllable:
> ( # onset C
> y | w | S | q | Q | tlh |
> t | D | ng | gh | ch | n | m | H |
> b | p | ' | j | l | v | r
> )
>
> ( # vowel
> a | e | I | o | u
> )
>
> ( # coda
> b | p | ' | j | l | v | gh | q | Q | D |
> H | m | t | S | n | ch | ng | rgh | tlh | r |
> y' | y | w | w'
> )
> \s*
> )+
> $
> /xs
> }
> print "\nCount $count; coverage $coverage\n";
> use Sort::ArbBiLex ksort =>
> q{ a b ch D e f gh H I j l m n ng o p q Q r S t tlh u v w y ' };
> print "Exceptions:\n", ksort @oddities;
> __END__
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke [email protected] http://www.spinn.net/~sburke/
>