tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 10 09:00:31 2001

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Re: Klingon Mode of Tengwar



From: "Jiri Baum" <[email protected]>

> Similarly, tilde above - normally used for mb, mp, nt and so on - might be
> used for the consonant clusters /w'/, /y'/ and /rgh/. On second thoughts,
> perhaps arda (26) could be used for /rgh/, for the other two see below.

I'd want to keep it for the preceding nasals: remember that some Klingon
speakers include a nasal in some sounds.

> There may be a deeper issue here, though: Klingon has a rigid syllable
> structure, and most (all?) morphemes are mono-syllabic. It might be more
> sensible to devise a writing system that is syllable-oriented, so that the
> consonants belonging to a syllable are optically together. But that would
> not be Tengwar any more.

Well, yeah.

> > > For /Q/, I'm not sure. I probably would end up putting it on unque
> > > (16), even if it isn't strictly phonologically correct... it's close,
> > > and it'd stop /'/ being all alone in the calmatema.
>
> > Keep in mind that we're already avoiding strict phonological correctness
> > with the initial postulated consonant grouping: the "dorsal" series
> > really includes the dorso-velar (H, gh, ng) and dorso-uvular (q, Q)
> > sounds. Putting /Q/ in series IV would be stretching the point even
> > further.
>
> Unless you put /q/ there, too - then calmatema would be dorso-velar and
> quessetema dorso-uvular. Then you'd have to put /'/ somewhere else -
> possibly use the short carrier for it, which is nowhere else used. After
> all, /'/ is optically the smallest letter in both pIqaD and English
> transcription. One might write it as halla (raised stem without a bow) if
> there is no tehta above it.

/'/ is certainly the smallest letter in English -- but we don't REALLY know
how /pIqaD/ works.  Don't forget that the pIqaD we use is as unofficial as
this application of Tengwar.

Anyway, I wanted this mode to represent that hypothetical grouping of
Klingon sounds.  It seemed the only non-arbitrary starting point.  You could
make a dozen Klingon modes for Tengwar, but why do it?  We're not
postulating that Klingons use this system.

SuStel
Stardate 1942.7


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