tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 16 15:52:45 1993

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Re: Okrand on glottal stops

On Dec 15,  6:27pm, [email protected] wrote:
> I offer this from PK:
> Okrand, The Master: "Remember to pause ever so slightly _TWICE_ in the
> middle of the word for "Rokeg bloodpie".
>         It's {ro'qegh 'Iwchab}, not *{roqeghIwchab}."
...
> Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos

     Now wait a minute. "...middle of THE WORD ... {ro'qegh 'Iwchab}." What's
wrong with this picture?

     Is he saying the word is {ro'qegh'Iwchab}? If that's true, then this is
not an example of a word beginning with a glottal stop. If it is {ro'qegh
'Iwchab} in TWO words, then this is not THE WORD for Rokeg blood pie. They
are THE WORDS for rokeg blood pie, and I would have naturally paused BETWEEN
the words because to do otherwise is to run words together, which is sloppy
in almost ANY language. Except German.

     (Just joking...)

     Anyway, I've already accepted ~mark's arguement that in English, all
opening vowels are preceeded by glottal stops. I never knew that. It doesn't
say that in TKD. I don't feel bad for being ignorant of this. I listened to
his description and realized that his arguement was sound and clearly stated.
I still think Okrand would have better served his cause to mention something
about this more explicitly in at least one of the three published sources
(TKD, CK or PK).

     THIS example from PK is not all that impressive. At best, it is
confusedly stated, if it is supposed to illustrate opening glottal stops at
all, which is not clear, since it is not clear if he is talking about one
word or two, or if he is talking about the explicit separation of words in
general, or just about the pronunciation of a glottal stop as it begins a
word. I, for one, would differently pronounce {bang chu'} [new love] and
{bangchu'} [he loved her perfectly], yet the pause between the two words of
the first example has nothing to do with a glottal stop.

     How's that for an entry in the HolQeD contest?

     {bang chu' taH ghaH} [He endures new love]
     {bangchu'taH ghaH} [He always loves perfectly]

--   charghwI'

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