tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 19 00:10:36 2001
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: K'Zhen Zu-Merz
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gennie Summers [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 1:51 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: K'Zhen Zu-Merz
>
>
> I don't understand why you choose to change the "u" to "a" in
> "Summers". Seems to me that "e" would be closer to the short "u" sound.
> All this fuss over how to pronounce my name in Klingon...
To me, there is no short "u" sound in Klingon. I have to move my mouth
around less to go from an English short "u" to the "a" in "father" than to
the "e" in "pet". The latter is a sound I shape farther forward and higher
than the other two. But you can use what you like.
You might try to get a back issue of HolQeD volume 1 number 1. It has a
great article in it on Klingon phonology. It gives you the basic rules about
how to make Klingon syllables:
1. Syllables can consist of a consonant followed by a vowel (C-V) or a vowel
between two consonants (C-V-C).
2. A syllable never begins with two or more consonants.
3. A syllable can only end in two consonants if those consonants are:
r-gh
w-'
y-'
4. The vowels "o" and "u" are never followed by the consonant "w".
The article explains all this in greater detail.
> What I was interested in was only creating a name that was in
> some fashion a mnemonic for my real name, Gennie Summers, and came up with
> K'Zhen Zu-Merz, before I ever encountered Okrand's work. Now,
> the question isn't about my real name, but in writing my Klingon name in
> tlhIngan Hol. There are several ways to write K'Zhen, and I
> chose QI'Sen. As for Zu-Merz, I pronounce it with a long "u"
> (oo) and Merz as
> "mairz". It's only a memory aid. So to spell it a la tlhIngan
> Hol, the "u" can be retained; I'm not particular about the second
> syllable,
> Merz , so "merS would do - except that I wanted it to LOOK
> different than Summers, hence the Z's. I think I may just use
> "QI'Sen Su'merS" and
> be forced to switch back to S's, but put in an apostrophe for
> "style". I'm not concerned about the double consonants "rS", if
> that is wrong.
Then, why be concerned about anything?
> BTW, my friend Jon Brown Okrandized his name as "qe'San be'rawn".
> What do you think of that?
It works, except for the {wn} which never happens in Klingon. I read the
message explaining that {aw} was considered a vowel dipthong, but I'm not
impressed. The simple truth is that the consonant following the {w} is
important. Only the glottal stop follows a "w" at the end of a sentence. No
other consonant can do so while fitting the phonology that Klingon
apparently has. The only two exceptions to this phonology are the
transliterations of two significant Federation captains: qIrq and pIqarD.
> Gennie Summers
> K'Zhen Zu-Merz
> QI'Sen Su'merS
SarrIS