tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 14 09:12:14 1996
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Re: <K'>vaD ghItlhlu''a'?
- From: [email protected] (Denny Shortliffe)
- Subject: Re: <K'>vaD ghItlhlu''a'?
- Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 17:12:00 GMT
>
>Denny Shortliffe writes:
>>Linguists have a term for vowels which go together (dipthong maybe?).
>
>I suspect that Klingon linguists would *not* have a term for vowels
>which go together. We've never seen any tlhIngan Hol words with
>adjacent vowels, and the one tool that could create one (the suffix
>{-oy}) is canonically suspected of having a {'} added before it to
>keep vowels separated. Do you know what two fricatives in a row is
>called? I've never needed a name for it, because I've never noticed
>it happening in English. (Russian does it, I think: "tovarishch"?)
>
>It's clear from inspection that each tlhIngan Hol syllable contains
>one and only one vowel. Dipthongs do not appear.
>
>>In
>>any case, the point is that the name {mayq} doesn't end in {yq} though
>>it may look like it does. In fact, it ends in {q} since the {ay} group
>>is indivisible.
>
>There is no "{ay} group" in tlhIngan Hol. The letter {a} is defined
>as a vowel, and the letter {y} is defined as a consonant. In making
>a distinction between the tlhIngan Hol consonant {y} and the English
>semivowel "y", I sometimes think of {y} as a voiced "h" sound (similar
>to a "zh" but made with the back of the tongue instead of the front).
>It's not like an English "ee"; we don't find it forming dipthongs.
>
>Nobody claimed that "K'Pach" is a tlhIngan Hol name anyway. It could
>easily be the Federation [mis]spelling of {qep'aj}, or {qa'pach}, or
>it could even be a formal Klingonaase corruption of {*qotlhpach}. :-)
Partial List of Words containing {-ay-} (taken from TKD)
chay'
Hay'
lay'
may'
nay
nay'
pay
pay'
qay'
ray'
Say'
tay
vay'
yay
yay'
'ay'
ghaytan
tay
Also from TKD, p.16, 2nd last line:
KLINGON RHYMES WITH ENGLISH AS IN
ay y cry
Qapla'
qrlIH veStaySortlhIH Sogh la' Lt. Commander K'rlikh Vestai-Shor-Klikh
tlhIngan wo' Duj qIj leng ra'wI' Commanding Officer, IKV Black Odyssey
Qanpu' pogh DuQ cha'DIch ra'wI' Deputy C.O., Mailed Glove Squadron
a.k.a.
--
Denny Shortliffe