tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 13 07:52:52 2015
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Phonemes
I've been trying to thing of instances where we might see {n} follower by {gh}; it doesn't strike me as a strange combination, but I've never seen it.
This would be interesting because - disregardring the three-consonant cluster {tlH} - it's the only case I can think of where capitalizing {H} makes any difference.
{-ngH-} occurs when one applies -Ha' to a verb or adverb ending in {ng}. An attested example is {tungHa'}.
It also occurs when one applied -Hom or -Hey to a noun ending in {ng}. Attested examples include {vengHom} and {mangHom}.
I can find no instances of {-ngh-}. They could however be formed by adding -ghach to suffix-free verb ending in {n}; it would probably raise some eyebrows (because -ghach does not normally appear unless preceded by a verb suffix), but not ungrammatical.
The concept/action of smiling could for example be referred to as {monghach}, and "evasion" might be translated as {junghach}.
A more likely case would be a (spaceless) noun compound involving -ghom. A hunting party might be called a *chonghom*, and a group of khruns could be called a *Hunghom*.
If one were to disregard letter case, the latter would be identical to {HungHom}, whatever that might refer to.
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From: [email protected] [[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 16:14
To: tlhIngan-Hol
Subject: [Tlhingan-hol] Phonemes
So, considering that “ng” happens a lot in English, but never at the beginning of a syllable, I started wondering if there are combinations of Klingon sounds that never happen in Klingon (besides two vowels next to each other).
It occurs to me that while syllable boundaries may mash {tlh} and {t} next to each other, as in {tlhutlhtaH}, I can’t think of a way that any Klingon word could put the {t} first and follow it with {tlh}. I don’t find any polysyllabic words with this combination and none of the suffixes start with {tlh}.
It would be awkward to pronounce distinctly, and the initial {t} would probably get dropped in common speech, if it happened in common speech, but I suspect it simply never happens.
lojmIt tI’wI’ nuv ‘utlh
Retired Door Repair Guy
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