tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 03 23:01:47 2003
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Re: {oy}, diphthong or V+C
- From: "Sangqar (Sean Healy)" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: {oy}, diphthong or V+C
- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 05:10:27 +0000
>Are English "l" and "r" considered vowels or consonants in similar
>contexts? They can do things very much like a diphthong-creating vowel,
>but the typical definition -- and the general consensus -- is that they're
>consonants.
From a phonetic point of view, "car" as pronounced in some dialects (Boston
comes to mind) only has one consonant, right at the beginning of the word.
The presence of a second 'consonant' at the end of the word is an artifact
of the writing system (or more properly, an artifact of the relative
uniformity of the writing system across dialect variations).
Sure, the Klingon LETTER {y} may be considered a consonant (and we should
remember that we're using a Romanization to write Klingon, and that MO
thinks its writing system is probably not an alphabet) - but the sound made
by {oy} (when they're in the same syllable) is almost certainly a diphthong.
It seems we're speaking in different contexts here. I'm talking about
phonetics and you seem to be talking about orthography. My point is that if
the letter combination {oy} makes the sound /oI/, it's phonetically a
diphthong, whereas if it makes the sound /oj/, it's not. The sound /oI/, no
matter what letter or letters you use to spell it, is phonetically a
diphthong.
>Klingon {y} is a consonant. It appears only in places that other Klingon
>consonants appear, and it never appears in places that only vowels appear.
This bit makes me quite sure you're talking about orthography. I can easily
turn this on its head and say that the combination {oy} is a vowel. It only
appears in places where other vowels appear, and never appears in places
where only consonants appear.
>-- ghunchu'wI'
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