tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 23 12:44:00 2009
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RE: Klingon orthography
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Klingon orthography
- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:42:36 -0500
- Accept-language: en-US
- Acceptlanguage: en-US
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
- References: <[email protected]>
- Thread-index: Acn0NyPiTH5rc92aR5ajvWUTcVbcxAAALrJg
- Thread-topic: Klingon orthography
Michael Everson wrote:
>>> U?
>>> Do you have a page number? I don't recall such a Klingon letter
>>
>> Page 139.
>>
>> ===
>> Younger speakers also have a slight tendency to change the
>> pronunciation of the vowel "a" in nonstressed syllables to
>> something that sounds a bit like the "u" in Federation Standard
>> "but". If this sound is transcribed with the Symbol "U", a word like
>> "qaleghpu'" ("I have seen you") might sound more like "qUleghpu'". This
>> particular phonological inclination seems particularly bothersome to
>> older Klingons and is generally considered an error worthy of
>> correction. Students who speak this way are customarily reprimanded,
>> ===
Michael Roney, Jr.:
>>>> Huh. Relearn something old every day.
>>>> I shall update my personal dictionary file accordingly.
Russ Perry, Jr.:
>I don't think Okrand was adding "U" to the orthography, but just
>using it to illustrate the difference in pronunciation, so take
>it with a grain of salt.
Okrand used the same device on KGT p.20:
Krotmag dialect speakers have a distinctive pronunciation of
{D} as well: it sounds like {n}, except the tip of the tongue
touches a point in the middle of the roof of the mouth rather
than one behind the top teeth as it does for {n}. (For the sake
of clarity in this discussion, the way Krotmag dialect speakers
pronounce {D} will be written {N}, to distinguish it from {n}.)
The {D} sound in {ta' Hol} is also produced with the tongue
pointing upward and not near the teeth (just like {N}), but
otherwise the {D} sound is similar to that of Federation Standard
/d/ as in did. For speakers in the Krotmag region, the sounds
{n} and {N} are distinct [...]
and on p. 22:
Speaking in a manner that is sort of between that of the
Krotmag region and {ta' Hol} are the peoples of Tak'ev ({taq'ev}),
who, though still a minority population, greatly outnumber the
residents of Krotmag. These people maintain the distinction
between {b} and {m} but pronounce the {b} as if it were {mb};
that is, starting off as the {m} sound but ending up at a {b}.
Similarly, {D} is pronounced more like {nD} (or, more accurately,
{ND}). Thus {ba'} ("sit") would be pronounced more like {mba'};
{Hub} ("defend") would sound like {Humb}; {Du'} ("farm") would
be {NDu'}; {HoD} ("captain") would be {HoND}; and {Dub} ("improve")
would be {NDumb}. The nasal vowel quality found in the Krotmag
region is characteristic of Tak'ev speech as well.
The speech of residents of the planet Morska has some identi-
fiable phonological characteristics also. Most striking is the
absence of the sound {tlh}. Syllables ending with {tlh} in most
dialects end with {ts} (pronounced the same as /ts/ in Federation
Standard cats) in the Morskan dialect; at the beginning of syllables,
instead of saying {tlh}, Morskans say something that sounds very
much like a combination of standard Klingon {gh} and {l}--that is,
{ghl}. [...]
Russ is correct. U, mb, N, ND, ts and ghl are not new letters for standard {ta' Hol}, but are merely ad hoc transcriptions used by "Federation linguists" to transcribe sub-standard and regional Klingon speech.
Note too that for three of these, Okrand continued his practice of using capital letters to mark unusual/unexpected pronunciations (cf. D, I, Q and S which are not pronounced in {ta' Hol} as the corresponding letters are in Federation Standard (i.e. [American] English).
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons