tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 04 01:14:57 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: ' between vowels
- From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: ' between vowels
- Date: Sat, 04 Jan 1997 11:13:21 -0800
- Organization: Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science
- References: <[email protected]>
Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
[re {ta-DI-'oS} vs *{ta-DI'-oS}]
> I suppose you could work at making the syllable break
> noticeable, but most of the time I doubt it would be.
In phonology there is something known as the Maximal Onset Principle,
which says that in any spoken language words are divided into syllables
in such a way that as many consonants as possible form a syllable with
the following rather than the preceding vowel. A corollary is that a
single intervocalic consonant always goes with the following vowel,
because a syllable can always begin with a single consonant.
> I'd imagine properly the syllabification would have to be "ta-DI-'oS",
Unquestionably so. I'd imagine an attempt to group the {'} with the {I}
before it would result in the insertion of a second {'} ({ta-DI'-'oS})
or a pause ({ta-DI' oS}), which would destroy the integrity of the word
and make for an impermissible (because vowel-initial) syllable.
> because (except for the suffix -oy) Klingon syllables don't begin with
> vowels.
Klingon syllables don't begin with vowels, full stop. The suffix {-oy}
does begin with a vowel, but the syllable does not; it captures the
preceding syllable's coda (final consonant) and makes it into an onset
(initial consonant) for itself. Thus {vavoy} is divided into morphemes
as {vav-oy}, but into syllables as {va-voy}.
--'Iwvan
--
"mIw'e' lo'lu'ta'bogh batlh tlhIHvaD vIlIH [...]
poH vIghajchugh neH jIH, yab boghajchugh neH tlhIH"
(Lewis Carroll, "_Snark_ wamlu'")
Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home: cplx Iztok bl 91, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria