tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 13 08:16:49 2003
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Re: New Member/Syllabification
> Would /ngaraqanI/ be something? Are velar plosives allowed
> in initial position in Klingon?
There are several words that start with ng
> Perhaps put a
> glottal stop in somewhere because it always looks nice and
> it sounds nice (i.e. sounds Klingon).
The glottal stop is a letter of the alphabet, just like all the other letters.
(It is a consonant.)
You don't add letters just because it looks nice. When that name is spoken,
are there any glottal stops?
> I was just wondering, you'd probably insert a glottal stop
> in initial or final position, right? At least I assume that
> there are no consonant clusters with glottal stops in
> Klingon.
The only consonant clusters in a single syllable are at the end of some words.
Some words end with rgh, w', y' (did I miss one?)
> Are their any rules known concerning Klingon syllables? (for
> example that they MUST start with a consonant or
> something...)
We don't have any RULES, but we have observed that the syllables in the words
that we do have tend to be CVC, with some CV; with the exception of those
clusters mentioned above, and one special suffix -oy.
So the name in question would be broken down:
nga-ra-qa-nI
CV-CV-CV-CV (ng is a single consonant)
Depending on how the name is pronounced, glottal stops could be added after any
of the vowels; or you could put it before a vowel (except the first one) and
then move the previous C to the previous syllable.
One example: nga'-ra-qan-'I
BUT, since this is a name, we're usually not concerned with following these
rules. Several people here have names that don't fit the syllable pattern.
DloraH (Dlo-raH)