tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 25 09:34:03 1997

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Re: tlh.H. impingement on t.H.



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>Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 20:06:46 -0800 (PST)
>From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
>
>>Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 08:54:41 -0800 (PST)
>>From: Marian Schwartz <[email protected]>
>>
>>
>>
>>	By the way, is there anyone who can pronounce Klingon S the way it's
>>described in the dictionary, instead of (as I do) just pronouncing it as English
>>sh?
>
>I do.  Before the first take came out, I pronounced it as a Sanskrit
>palatal s, which is sort of between "s" and "sh" (as it's described), while
>Krankor pronounced it as on the tape, as a Sanskrit retroflex "s".  After
>the tape came out, of course, I learned to use the retroflex
>pronunciation.

I should explain this, lest people think the book and tape conflict on the
pronunciation.

The book says that S is pronounced "halfway between s and sh" and *also*
that it is pronounced with the tongue reaching up where you make D.  As I
read that initially, these descriptions seemed at odds.  To my ear, an S
pronounced near where D is pronounced (i.e. a retroflex S) does not sound
halfway between s and sh; if anything it's *more* sh than sh.  The sound
that's between s and sh, to me, was what's called a palatal S, pronounced
sort of where you make a ch sound.  So as *I* read the description, there
were two that didn't fit with each other.  One of them had to be wrong
(that is, my *reading* of one of them had to be wrong; Okrand presumably
knew what he was talking about).  I took it to be the first; that Okrand
really meant a sound between s and sh, which is palatal, and I
misunderstood the bit about being near D.  Turns out I'd had it wrong: he
really meant a retroflex S and I'd misunderstood the part about being
halfway between, as we hear in the tape.

~mark

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