tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 29 19:49:35 1995

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Re: Reopening CVC

peHruS wrote:
>By definition, (S.I.Hayakawa "Language and Language Learning") dipthongs are
>vowels run together.

Thus, since {w} and {y} are not vowels, {ew} and {Iy} are not dipthongs.

>Webster's 1989 Edition states:  diphthong.... "a speech sound consisting of
>two vowels pronounced glidingly in one syllable"

Again, {w} and {y} are consonants, not vowels.

>I contrasted Klingon "glides" or "diphthongs" to Hawaiian deliberately
>because, in Hawaiian, every vowel is distinct.  No such gliding exists.

You even quoted TKD 1.2 yourself, and you still call {Vw} and {Vy} "glides"?
Note the use of the words "resembles" and "approximated by".  Okrand very
definitely did NOT say that Klingon {aw} is pronounced like "ow as in cow".
He said it "rhymes with english ow as in cow".  Try not to read more into
the admittedly loose description of the sounds than there is.  Try to take
the words at face value.  Treat {w} and {y} as consonants, much like {l}
and {r}.  Don't get distracted by the irrelevant fact that "w" and "y" in
English are considered "semivowels" and create "dipthongs" when they follow
a vowel.

 -- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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