tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 29 06:20:35 1994
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Re: Pronunciation (Was: Re: KLBC: jItagh)
>
> If "H" is the "ch" in "Bach", then it is a velar fricative. Your tongue is
> raised towards the soft part of the roof of your mouth (the velum).
> You make a raspy sound as the air flows between the back of your
> tongue and the velum. If you raised the back of the tongue all the way up
> and shut off the airflow, then you would have a "k" (a velar stop).
>
> "q" is further back in the throat than a "k". It is called a uvular stop
> because the back of your tongue touches the uvula (the little
> punching-bag dangling from the back of your mouth).
>
> I think "Q" is an aspirated uvular affricative. An affricative is a stop
> accompanied by a fricative. You start by making a "q", with the back of
> the tongue closing off the air by touching the back of the roof of the
> mouth. Then you force the air through and make a rasping sound.
>
> Its really not as complicated as I'm making it sound. A different example
> of an affricative is the English sound /ch/ as in "church". /ch/ consists
> of a stop /t/, followed by a fricative /sh/. I think Paul has the right
> idea about pronouncing "Q", but I think you probably need to make the
> sound a little further towards the back of your mouth.
>
> yoDtargh
Okay, I'd been trying to avoid the jargon, but we can use it if you
like. Absolutely, we're talking uvular phonemes here, for both "q" and
"Q" but where you and I differ on "Q" is that you see the need to view it
as an affricate (which I will admit is a viable alternative) and I'd
rather just call it a uvular fricative. My immediate argument would be
that it's silly to have an affricate which involves a fricative not
otherwise in the language, but given the other bizarre gaps in Klingon
phonology it's a hard line to take. I suppose I could fall back on the
purely subjective line of "I hear a fricative, not an affricate" but
that's not very satisfactory. So I guess I'm going to cheat, and ask
Marc directly when I talk with him next. It's a small enough issue that
he probably won't try and give me a cagey answer. I'll let you all know
what I learn.
Lawrence
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