tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 03 17:15:13 1999

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Re: Written Language: tlhingon Hol and pIqaD

>... Additionally, there is
>often a numerical meaning assigned to some of the "letters". This could be
>reflected, not only in the counting system, but in the tlhingon musical
>note scale. (Klingons sing so I assume such an instructional scale
>exists.) 

Are you refering to:
yu, bIm, 'egh, loS, vagh, jav, Soch, chorgh, yu
(KGT p72)
The original klingon number system was ternary (1,2,3 / wa', cha', wej).
Later when they adapted the base ten system (to understand enemy technology)
they used words from their musical scale.  Already having 1, 2, and 3 they
didn't use yu, bIm, 'egh for numbers; but continued with loS,...  It is
uncertain where 9 (Hut) came from.


>My third point concerns the style of Klingon writing. Here I have no
>problems. Based on the appearance of pIqaD I am forced to conclude that
>originally, tlhingon was written in a method much akin to cunnuiform, i.e.
>with sharp, wedge-shaped sticks pressed into a clay riverbed or tablet.
>With the advent of metal, carving words into wood, bone, stone, and then
>metal itself would quite naturally occur, perhaps altering a few glyphs to
>reflect the change in medium.
>
>Scratching, however, does not lend itself to writting on paper. I
>think-and again, this is Sino-Japanese influence-that writting brushes
>were deloped by the various priests for just such a purpose. Nowadays I'm
>sure that when Kilngons write on paper-or some similar substance, say an
>animal skin, :)-some form of pen or brush is used. {*I can find no word
>for "ink" in tlhingon, but I'm sure it's related somehow to the tlhingon
>word for "blood". :)*]

 Myself and others are capable of hand writing the pIqaD characters using a
normal pen or pencil.  The characters don't HAVE to be thick lines.  Our
current english alphabet can be written with thick and/or fancy lines; take
a look at all the fonts available on your computer.
 pIqaD can be hand written.  Some people's hand-writting might not be very
clear, but that would occur with any language.

For "ink" perhaps you could use [rItlh - dye, pigment, paint (n)] KGT p240

(pIqaD has made me think of cuneiform as well.) 


DloraH

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