tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 03 14:10:46 1996
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Re: 'oy''a'
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: 'oy''a'
- Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 17:10:21 -0400 ()
- Priority: NORMAL
On Fri, 31 May 1996 16:50:35 -0700 [email protected] wrote:
>
At 10:18 PM 28/5/96 -0700, voqHa'wI' wrote:
> >Scott writes:
> >
> >> ...also how is a ' in the begining of a word pronounced? That is not
> >> covered in TKD.
> >
> >The glottal stop is pronounced the same as in the English glottal stop
> >that appears at the start of words that are spelt with an initial vowel,
> >eg Klingon {'a} should be pronounced rather like English {ah}, right?
>
> I think not, in the case of {'a} you would pronounce the glotal stop before
> the {a}, thus making it similar to the {ah} pronounced as if you breath in,
> other wise you'd say {a').
Nope. bIQagh. In English we really do begin all syllables spelled with beginning vowels as
if they began with glottal stops. We just don't SPELL glottal stops in English. {{:)
Apparently, we mispronounce the Hawiian "Aloha", because in Hawaiian they DON'T always
begin vowel sounds with glottal stops, which is why we sometimes spell their words, (like
"Hawaii") with an "H" even though they don't have an "H" in them in the original language.
The sound is apparently somewhere between "aloa" and "haloha", but since we don't have
that sound in English, we tend not to be sensitive to it enough to even recognize it.
The English "ah" is pretty much identical to the Klingon {'a}. Meanwhile, when you wag your
finger at someone telling them not to do what they were apparently about to do, a Klingon
might write down the sound you make as {'a'a'a}.
Meanwhile, an English speaker simply can't pronounce {a'}. English speakers lack mastery of
soft onset of vowels. Good thing Klingon doesn't have any.
> Qapla'
>
> beHwI"av
charghwI'