tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Aug 08 18:35:14 1999
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Re: Vowels
> In Elvish/Klingon are the vowels? What exactly constitutes a vowel?
> If you were to create a new language could you make the vowels
> different?
>
>
> C.J. Miller
>
A vowel is a continuous sound that is not cut off by the
lips/teeth/throat/etc; IOW, the tongue is flacid and doesn't touch any other
part of the mouth. There are other continuous sounds in addition to true
vowels, and these include nasals (n,ñ,m), liquids (l,r), voicless
(h,hw,hs,hr,hl), and sibilants (s,sh,z,zh,). Most languages count these as
consonants. There are also the semi-vowels (w,y,) found in many a dipthong.
quljIb