tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 16 07:04:14 1995
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Re: tlh-H morphology question
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: tlh-H morphology question
- Date: Tue, 16 May 95 10:04:07 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Marc Ruehlaender" at May 16, 95 7:05 am
I highly recommend that you read the article in HolQeD vol. 1,
no. 1 on Klingon morphology. It uses this terminology better
than I probably can.
According to Marc Ruehlaender:
>
> jabbI'IDwI' yIlaD
>
> If I'm not mistaken (tell me if I am!) Klingon morphology
> can be described by the following formalism:
>
> Let C be any consonant, C1 any consonant except <w>,
> C2 any consonant except <w, y, '> and Cl be {<rgh, y'>}.
>
> Let V be any vowel (monophtongs AND diphtongs), V0 be
> {<a, e, I>}, V1 be {<a, e, I, o, u>} and V2 = V\V1.
>
> Then the possible syllables are:
> I) C-V1 IV) C-V1-Cl
> II) C-V1-C1 V) C-V0-w'
> III) C-V0-w
Notice that II and IV are identical. I also find it curious
that you encoded combinations like {rgh}, but then explicitly
stated {w'} and {w}. Why not just have C3 = <w, w'> and replace
III and V with one rule? We then get:
I) C-V1
II) C-V1-C1
III) C-V0-C3
I think that does it, all in 3 rules, which explains the appeal
of treating {w} and {y} as consonants rather than as vowels in
dipthongs (despite MO's description).
> which seems to be how most of you conceive it, or
>
> A) C-V C) C-V-'
> B) C-V-C2 D) C-V1-rgh
What is accomplished by excluding ' from the term C2 and then
repeating example B with '? Why not just include ' in term C2
and eliminate example C?
Meanwhile, your terminology would allow words like *pawt* and
would not allow words like {wam}, unless you count {w} as both
consonant and vowel. The appeal of the first system is that it
does not require this double classification of {w}. The same
may also be true of {y}.
Note that I am not a linguist and understand these terms
primarily through discussion with others on this list.
> which is what I prefer, because it recognises
> diphtongs as vowels like MO did in TKD. Under
> this second scheme there are however no C-clusters
> except <rgh> because V1<w'> and V1<y'> are analysed
> as V2<'>.
Again, this opens up lots of illegal combinations of C-V1-w-C2
and C-V1-y-C2.
> Now my question(s): which scheme do you prefer
> and for what reasons?
Does this answer sufficiently?
> Marc Dochlangan
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Marc Ruehlaender [email protected]
> Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
--
\___
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<\__,\
"> | Get a grip.
` |