tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 30 04:03:58 2003
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Re: Klingon Alphabet
On Thu, 29 May 2003 22:25:06 -0700 (PDT)
Klingon Emperor <[email protected]> wrote:
%But wouldn't little Klingon children need to have a name
%for each "symbol/letter/pictogram/whatever"? I don't
%understand how the "drawings" in the pIqaD still can't be
%named individually. Klingons, when spelling/describing
%out things to eachother, would need some form of telling
%what picture to draw, qar'a'? The question of if is an
%alphabet shouldn't matter too much...I just want to say
%something other than, "Qapla' is spelled que, ae, pee,
%el, ae, apostrophe." Know what I mean?
%
Well, even it were invented, I am not sure about how many
people would actually use it, since spelling letters in
English is so bl**d* convenient. To strike a parallel with
another language where the same was done:
In Scottish Gaelic, one [English] writer named Dwelly, who
made its most famous dictionary, gave names to the letters
as used in the language's orthography, based on the names
that used to be given to the old Irish ogham runes. These
names were all based on the names of trees. He also put
them in the dictionary, for everybody to use to actually
name the letters, BUT funnily enough, although a
considerable number probably know ABOUT these names, most
people don't know these names, let alone USE them.
Basically everyone who can speak or write Gaelic, spells
the letters the English way.
I agree with you, from a 'cultural' point of view, names
for the pIqaD glyphs should be created, and it would make
everything a lot more real, but from a more practical
Terran point of view, I'd say: don't bother, no one will
probably use them until (as I'm told) the writing system
is understood, which may be never.
And wouldn't it be logical that if these glyphs indeed
have names, that some property/properties of the sound can
actually be found back in the name of such a glyph, be it
phoneme or phoneme group or syllable that they represent?
This would mean that naming the glyphs would only make
sense if you know what they stand for.
If you are talking about naming letters for Okrandian
orthography, then you are actually talking about giving
names for the sounds, as the letters we use for that are
not Klingon anyway. Perhaps for the 'weird' 'letters' you
could introduce particular index words for 'spelling' that
actually use the sound (as in naming the Old English
ae-ligature "ash") like /tlhetlh/ for "tlh" for example...
Just a thought...
--qeyS--
On Thu, 29 May 2003 22:25:06 -0700 (PDT)
Klingon Emperor <[email protected]> wrote:
%But wouldn't little Klingon children need to have a name
%for each "symbol/letter/pictogram/whatever"? I don't
%understand how the "drawings" in the pIqaD still can't be
%named individually. Klingons, when spelling/describing
%out things to eachother, would need some form of telling
%what picture to draw, qar'a'? The question of if is an
%alphabet shouldn't matter too much...I just want to say
%something other than, "Qapla' is spelled que, ae, pee,
%el, ae, apostrophe." Know what I mean?
%
%
%---------------------------------
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%Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
C. Krottje
Student of English Language and Culture
at the RuG, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Address: Murano Street Student Village
17 Caithness Street (Ochil House)
Flat M Room 2
Glasgow G20 7SB
Scotland
Tel.:+447986935417
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]