tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 25 13:09:33 2008
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RE: idea for writing system
Fiat Knox wrote:
>> The Klingon language's basic subject/verb/direct object sentence
>> structure is the reverse of English, i.e.:-
>>
>> OBJECT - VERB - SUBJECT
>>
>> So perhaps reversing the direction of writing might help. One could
>> make it complex by retaining the right-to-left order of the words,
>> but writing each word left-to-right.
SuStel:
> I seem to remember Mike Okuda saying something about Klingon being
> written from the center, out.
I thought that Okuda meant that new text was *displayed on computer screens* from the center out. Apparently Klingons (or maybe just Okuda) like their text centered on the screen/page, not flush left (as in English, etc.) or flush right (as in Arabic, Hebrew, etc.).
Sustel:
> If one is sticking to the symbols actually seen on television and the
> movies (what are there, 15 of them?), you don't have anywhere near
> enough symbols to cover everything logographically.
>
> Since there are so few "official" glyphs, you'd probably have to
> consider *sequences* of glyphs instead of individual glyphs.
>
> I've never found a satisfactory way to get what's shown on screen come
> anywhere close to a working writing system for Klingon.
FYI, here's what little I have in my notes regarding {pIqaD}:
"Such carvings are sometimes just ornamental, sometimes informational (if the Klingon writing system, {pIqaD}, is incorporated into the design), sometimes representational." (KGT 80)
"Michael Okuda has always maintained that there is no meaning to the written Klingon he puts on sets beyond purely aesthetic considerations." (ghunchu'wI')
The version of {pIqaD} developed by Okruda and used by the KLI was modeled on the appearance of Tibetan. (_Encyclopedia of fictional and fantastic languages_ by Tim Conley & Stephen Cain, 2006).
At his panel in Huntsville (9/96), Okrand said that while he and Okuda didn't agree on what {pIqaD} should be like, one thing they both agreed was that it probably wasn't a simple alphabet. "In fact, Marc Okrand has said publicly that part of the holdup is that he and Okuda can't quite agree on what {pIqaD} should be like... He hasn't decided if it's a syllabary or logograms or pasigraphy or who-knows-what, but it's not an alphabet like we've been using. (My personal excuse for our method then becomes: well, this is a simplified alphabetical system for offworlders and certain restricted environments that occasionally crop up, like the way Japanese is occasionally written entirely in kana in telegrams, even though that's not the right way to write it [and is hard to read for natives].)" (Seqram)
"I'd love to know more about {pIqaD} as well... the Klingon romanization system is a phonemic system, but what about {pIqaD}? How, exactly, does {pIqaD} work? I'm not sure. Mike Okuda (who puts the characters on various control panels and other displays for the various Star Trek series and movies) and I have discussed it. We're pretty sure it's not an alphabet (and it's therefore not phonemic in the way the romanized version is), but we don't know the details. Prodding of Maltz is definitely in order here. There is no problem with {pIqaD} being used for the various dialects, regardless of how it works, because it does not necessarily work the same way (or, better, the details are not necessarily the same) for all of the dialects. Since the system has been around for a long time (if Kahless was literate, he was literate in {pIqaD}), it could provide some insights into earlier stages of the language. The rules for mapping the old pronunciations represented by the {pIqaD} writing conventions onto the new pronunciations surely differ for the different dialects, but the rules--with varying degrees of complexity, to be sure--certainly work. I agree with SuStel. Once we know the details of {pIqaD}, I'm sure we'll find it a more interesting system than the romanization system we're all used to." (Okrand on startrek.klingon 10/97)
Cf. the KLI Wiki at /wiki/index.php?pIqaD for examples of KLI fonts.
See "pIqaD, and How to Read It" for a general introduction as well as a pronunciation guide (http://klingonska.org/piqad/).
Teresh's vocabulary program KliFlash also displays in {pIqaD} (http://teresh.tdonnelly.org/kliflash.html).
Glen Proechel's Interstellar Language School sells the "pIqaD Exercise Book", a booklet containing exercises for Glen's handwritten version of pIqaD ($10; see http://www.geocities.com/athens/8853/ )
Many versions of {pIqaD}, including cursive, can be found on the Klingonska Akademien site (http://www.klingonska.org/piqadpic.html).
OpenOffice.org has a nice chart of the three major fonts available (http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html).
Notes on "Using pIqaD in Windows" are at /wiki/index.php?Using%20pIqaD%20in%20Windows .
The version of {pIqaD} used on the SkyBox cards is discussed at http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/ref/klingon_language (cf. "Writing System").
Gennie Summers (K'Zhen Zu-Merz, [email protected]) has created a tile set for the Kyodai version of Mah-jongg using the {pIqaD} letters which helps her to recognize them by observing their shapes while searching for their "mates", and mentally matching them to the Romanized letters; just ask her for a copy; the Kyodai Mah-Jong game is found at http://kyodai.com (it's shareware, but fully functional and customizable).
P.S. Let me know if any of these links have died.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons