tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 07 06:49:19 1995
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Re: chuS'ugh
>Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 13:21:46 -0800
>From: Tim Browne <[email protected]>
>On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Marc Ruehlaender wrote:
>> is that the spelling from the book? with the second "'"?
>> and if so, was this spelling sanctioned by Okrand?
>> if yes, I think we have evidence that
>>
>> 1) at least sometimes "Iw" is regarded as a vowel
>> 2) at least sometimes "-oy" DOES insert "'" after a vowel
>>
>> how safe is it then to conclude that ALL Vw and Vy
>> are vowels in this sense and that -oy ALWAYS inserts
>> ' after a vowel?
>No, I think in this case it's more of an insertion before a vowel.
>Examples: 'etlh --> sword, "nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'?" --> "Where's the
>bathroom?". Not the double '' in this latter case, once after a vowel,
>and once before. In spite of this, yes, w is sometimes considered a vowel
>in Klingon, eg. in law'/puS comparative constructs. L8r.
I don't think we have any evidence of epenthetic "'" before vowels anywhere
in Klingon aside from the "maybe" given my Okrand with respect to "-oy".
The double "'" in "puchpa''e'" has nothing to do with insertion of
additional ones because there are vowels nearby, it's simply because those
are the letters involved: the word "puchpa'" happens to end with the
consonant "'", and the suffix "-'e'" happens to begin with the same
consonant. So if you tack the suffix onto the word, you get two of them.
It's precisely the same as what happens to the verb "Del" when you add the
verb-suffix "-laH": you get "DellaH" with a double-l. Or yIt+taH -->
yIttaH. Are these added before and after vowels? No, they're just what
you get when you add the words together.
I don't see where you see w considered a vowel in law'/puS constructions.
Do you mean because the word "law'" (like paw', Haw', Qaw', 'aw', chaw')
ends with -w'? I don't think that necessarily proves that "w" is a vowel.
It just means that -aw' is an acceptable final in Klingon; that you can
have a final consonant-cluster in specific cases. We have -w', and -y' as
well (Duy', Doy', tay', tey'), and even -rgh (chorgh, ghorgh, chargh,
burgh, bergh). Does that mean that r is a vowel? No, it means that r can
be considered a glide and occur in syllable-final position in a cluster
with gh.
~mark