tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 24 06:12:51 1995
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Re: The `Ring Rhyme' in Klingon
- From: "Mark J. Reed" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: The `Ring Rhyme' in Klingon
- Date: Wed, 24 May 95 09:17:23 EDT
- In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 23 May 1995 18:03:52 -0400. <[email protected]>
Karl Dyson <[email protected]> writes:
\ Well since I was only guessing at the phonology.. I didn't notice TKD said
\ "you must not put a j next to an e like Khalic does!".
\ Perhaps if I had a better understanding of Klingon phonology then I would't
\ make such mistakes.. therefore someone should point out how the damn thing
\ works in the first place.
\ > *{jelv} is not a possible Klingon word.
\ Why not? Or is it too much trouble for you to explain this so that I won't
\ make the same mistake again?
Well, first of all, these rules are not explicitly listed in TKD or
anywhere else official; they are derived by analysis of the available
lexicon. It's possible that exceptions will be "found" at some point
in the future in the form of new words from Marc Okrand. But in the
meanwhile, since there are no exceptions anywhere in the known lexicon,
they're regarded as hard and fast.
Someone just recently posted the phonology rules, but here's a summary,
as I understand them. A Klingon syllable consists of a consonant,
followed by a vowel, followed by a consonant. The final consonant is
optional. The first consonant is optional in non-initial syllables,
such as the suffix {-oy}, although syllables without the first
consonant are rare.
Consonant clusters are not allowed to serve in the place of a consonant.
The only place you end up with two consonants together with no intervening
vowel is between syllables, where the final consonant of one syllable is
immediately followed by the initial consonant of the next syllable.
There are three exceptions to this rule: syllable-final {-rgh}, {-w'}, and
{-y'} are allowed. That's it. Note that *{-lv} isn't in the list, which is
why *{jelv} wasn't allowed. Also note that no consonant cluster is ever allowed
at the beginning of a syllable, so neither the *{Dw-} nor the *{-rv} in
*{Dworv} is legal. (With *{-rv} not allowed, there has been much debate over
the Klingon form of Worf's name).
DaH bIyaj'a'?
-marqoS
--
Mark J. Reed
Email: [email protected] - Voice: +1 404 315 6296 x158 - Fax: +1 404 315 0293
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