tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 02 16:29:18 1998
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Re: What's in a Name (was: Beginner's questions)
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: What's in a Name (was: Beginner's questions)
- Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 16:25:39 -0700
At 10:59 98-06-02 -0700, qronaH wrote:
}In a message dated 98-06-01 14:35:37 EDT, Voragh writes:
}I didn't realize the list of names using Q or Qo to make the "kr" sound was
}so extensive. I was aware of some of your examples when I was choosing the
}name, but I also thought I saw a word that had "qr" in it (somewhere in the
}middle of the word). Of course, now when I try to use it as an example, I
}can't find it.
You probably saw a word like /Suqrup/ "ready to acquire" or /puqra'/ "your
child." The /q/ and /r/ belong to different syllables. It's like */lnap/
is not an acceptable English word, even though /walnut/ is fine.
}I really was trying to avoid a name that was pronounced so differently from
}tlhIngan Hol to DIvI' Hol. The Qo sound for "kr" strikes as me as a bit of a
}stretch. If you went up to someone unfamiliar with tlhIngan Hol and, in your
}best tlhIngan, pronounced Qo'nos and then asked them to spell what you just
}said, I don't think Kronos is what they would come up with.
You would be surprised. My husband puts up with me speaking Klingon pretty
much daily and sometimes he mimics back at me what he has heard. He's a
typical monolingual Terran. He will almost always hear /gh/ as /r/. He will
mimic /Q/ sometimes as a choking fit, sometimes as /k/ and sometimes,
especially inside a word, as /kr/. He knows the spelling of /Qov/ and
/bIQ/, so he doesn't hear the r in those words, and English doesn't use
syllable final "kr", but he'll hear /yImevQo'/ as "yimevkro."
If you distinguish the uvular sounds /q/ and /Q/ in slow motion, the
difference is the addition of a fricative sound quite a bit like the French
r, which is more familiar than /Q/ to most English speakers, even if just
from Inspecteur Clouseau asking for a "rrroom".
Qov [email protected]
Now on ICQ: 12235599