tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 16 22:08:39 2004
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RE: canon pIqaD
On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 23:32:01 -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>As to the current pIqaD, I see it as a sort of furigana/okurigana or pinyin system.
Because Klingon seems to be composed mainly of monosyllabic
morphemes, a logographic script might actually work pretty well. But
because Klingon's affixes are all perfectly regular and unchanging,
it would probably be more natural for the affixes to have their own
logographic characters, without resorting to the extra effort of
developing okurigana (which was originally a jerry-rigged expedient
developed by the Japanese when they struggled to use the logographic
script of monosyllabic Chinese to write their own language in all its
intricately inflecting polysyllabic glory).
The awkward fact, though, is that so far we don't have any evidence
of a logographic script for Klingon in addition to the pIqaD. This
has a bearing in its use as furigana, because furigana, by
definition, appears always and only with logographic characters, to
show their pronunciation.
And pinyin is a completely alien script adopted and adapted to help
nonnatives with the language...somehow I can't see Klingons doing
either of those things.
-- Stephen Carter
[email protected]
Nagoya, Japan
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