tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Apr 12 17:43:18 1997
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Re: 2 consonants in a row
On Sat, 12 Apr 1997, Daniel Noll wrote:
|> The first is "janluq pIqarD" (SkyBox S25)
|
|This could be a misprint, no?
Why is this a problem? "Picard" is *not* a Klingon word--not even from
another "dialect"--so why should you expect it to follow Klingon spelling
rules. (For that matter, "Picard" isn't even an English word either!) It
seems to be the closest tlhIngan Hol transcription using the letters
available. (Not that we know how this would actually be spelled in the
pIqaD.) What it does tell us is that the string {qarD} is thought by
Klingons to be pronounceable (even if it isn't used in any of the tlhIngan
Hol words we are aware of) and that an extra {I} "helping" vowel isn't felt
to be needed here.
It's really no more a problem than using qagh, Qapla' or Qo'noS in an
English story: they're obviously *foreign* words transcribed using the
available English letters. After all, real English words beginning with a Q
*must* be followed by a U. This is such an ingrained rule among native
English speakers that some actors will even unconsciously add a U
(pronounced /wa/ or /wi/) to these words when trying to speak Klingon.
Remember John Colicos et al. saying "Kwaplah"?
{pIqarD} is nothing more than an exotic Federation-esque spelling.
-- Voragh