tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 16 22:17:42 2001
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Re: K'Zhen Zu-Merz
ja' HomDoq:
>I wasn't aware English even had long consonants.
It might not be called that, but "genie" and "Gennie" are quite distinct in
sound. There's definitely a difference in English between "super" and
"supper", though it's reflected in the vowel preceding the doubled
consonant more than in the sound of the consonant itself.
>{jennIy} sounds to me more like "jen knee" (without a pause
>between the two "n")
That's exactly how I pronounce "Gennie".
>I was under the impression that the section on double consonants
>in KGT, p 138f, was written precisely because native speakers of
>English (actors/actresses) tend to pronounce double consonants
>quite similar to single ones...
>> ... The apostrophe
>> you've tossed in represents a sound that isn't present at all in "Gennie",
>> and I have no idea why you put it there where {n} should obviously be.
>>
>I put it there, to move the stress from {nI} (or {nIy}) to {je'}
>because in {jenI}/{jenIy}/jennI}/{jennIy} the {je}/{jen} is not
>the stressed syllable, whereas in {je'nI}/{je'nIy} the {je'} *is*
>the stressed syllable.
I think the doubled consonant tends to shift the stress away from the final
syllable. I can't point to any rules that say so, but that's what happens
pretty much automatically when I speak Klingon out loud.
[I could point to the verbs {Dabej} "you watch it" and {Dabbej} "he
certainly resides (in)" as support for my observation, but they're not
nouns.]
>> I tend to stress all three syllables of {SammarSe'} about equally.
>>
>then you're not following the rules as set out in TKD
>1.3. "In a noun, the stressed syllable is usually the
>syllable right before the first noun suffix, or the
>final syllable if there is no suffix. If, however, a
>syllable ending in {'} is present, it is usually
>stressed instead. [..] The rules given above do not
>account for [..] variability, but if they are followed,
>stress will wind up on acceptable syllables."
After several years of occasionally speaking Klingon in extended
conversations, I can state with conviction that the explanation in TKD is
*very* simplistic (no surprise there). There are very few examples in TKD
of nouns having multiple closed syllables with none ending in {'}, and
there are definitely a few two-syllable nouns with the stress on the first
syllable: {tlhIngan} and {DIlyum} among them.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh