tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 28 16:07:26 1997

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KLBC: How to describe klingon fonemes in I.P.A.?

What are the fonemes used in {tlhIngan Hol}, as described by linguists?
I have seen references to the klingon {D} as a retroflex one, but never
have I seen any description of the {tlh} or {Q} that made any sense to
me when I looked at an I.P.A. chart. (You can find a "Proposal for an
ASCII Version of the I.P.A." at
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~yuenren/ASCII_IPA.html -- it's a great
help! But a bit big to include here.)

I was specifically wondering about {ch}, {j} (Shouldn't those become
*two* characters in the I.P.A.?), {D} and {S} (though I think that would
be [dr)] and [sr)] respectively, in the "Proposal for an ASCII Version
of the IPA"), {Q} (is it [X]?) and worst of all {tlh} (I read somewhere
in the mailing list archives that this is written with the greek letter
lambda by some linguist, *but there is no such letter in the the IPA* --
the closest one gets is [y&] which is written like a lowercase 'y',
rotated 180 degrees -- i.e. a lambda turned the wrong way).

I also wonder which of the klingon letters that are aspirated (marked
with [xh^] in the 7bit ASCII IPA) is it just {p} (according to TKD p.14:
"always articulated with a strong puff or pop, never laxy.") or is {q}
(TKD p.14: "The sound is usually accompanied by a slight puff of air.")
and {t} (TKD p.14: "it is accompanied by a puff of air") also aspirated?

These are my questions for now. Anyone, feel free to answer.

'eQ

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