tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 28 08:25:32 2002
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Re: Klingon phonotaxis
- From: "Rohan Fenwick" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Klingon phonotaxis
- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 13:14:25
jatlh Will:
>Some of the earliest words (the ones James Doohan created before Okrand
>worked
>with the language) have open syllables. And don't forget the exceptional
>suffix
>{-oy}, which always follows a consonant or adds an intervening glottal
>stop.
qatlho'. After reading KGT, I always wondered what would happen if someone
wanted to say *<<bangwI' SoH, rooy>> "I love you, my little torso". :P
jatlh Sean:
> I think the simplest explanation of the latter is that at a rather
> earlier stage of the language, all syllables were CVC; but some
> syllables ended in a phoneme that was (later) deleted. Past experience
> with the Earth languages suggests that the phoneme that was most likely
> lost was an interdental fricative: /th/ or /dh/ (as in bath or bathe). I
> speculate therefore that <je>, <'a>, <ro>, <gho>, <da>, <DI>, and
> <qIvon> were regular CVC syllables: *<jeth>, *<'ath>, *<roth>, *<ghoth>,
> *<dath>, *<DIth>, and *<qIthvon>. (Or possibly with *-dh instead of
> the *-th).
I'd go further, and speculate that ONLY one of the two interdentals would
have been possible, going by Klingon's natural dislike of minimal pairs. :)
Your theory has raised an interesting point: <<'a>> could have diverged from
<<'ach>> before the loss of the interdental. Try saying *<<'ath>> and
<<'ach>>, and see how little difference there is.
Of course, this is just speculation; I've tried doing work with <<no' Hol>>
lexicon and phonetics before, and haven't gotten too far. However, I have
managed to collect a decent list of canon <<no' Hol>>, which a couple of
people expressed interest in, and which I will send at my next opportunity.
Most of it is from KGT, and all I have done is collect it in one place; but
I think there are one or two things in there not from KGT.
Qapla' 'ej Satlho'
ro'Han
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