tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 09 14:41:05 2004

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Re: Kolos

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

captain k'alaa:
> >>> So, in tlhIngan phonetics, how would you spell k'alaa?

marqoS:
> >> I would interpret it as Qala - with the ' after the k indicating
> >> the extra forcefulness of Q as opposed to q, and the doubled a
> >> indicating length, in this case meaning that the syllable does not
> >> end with a glottal stop.

Voragh:
> > If, however, you pronounce it with a final stress /ka-LAH/, then I would
> > write it {Qala'}.

marqoS:
> >> But then you're back to a shortened final syllable.  Perhaps {Qala'a},
> >> although three syllables, would work?

Okrand's transcription has no way of distinguishing between long and short 
vowels, so I don't see how distorting the name by adding an extra syllable 
to it is the solution.  But since long syllables in many languages tend to 
be stressed - or at least, sound stressed to native speakers of English - 
we can use the "glottal stop trick" to shift the stress to the proper 
syllable.  See these examples of transcribed Terran names that Okrand has done:

     mayqel Do'rIn         Michael Dorn
     raqSan bIQ-DawSon     Roxann Biggs-Dawson
     rabe'rIt 'o'raylIy    Robert O'Reilly
     mayqel 'anSa'ra       Michael Ansara
     jan qalI'qoS          John Colicos
     barbara' ma'rIch      Barbara March
     ghuwI'nItlh wa'lIS    Gwynyth Walsh
     bIl jo'rIj            Bill George

OTOH, "captain k'alaa" may be thinking of Captain Klaa from ST5, which name 
Okrand transcribes as {tlha'a} twice in KGT as {tlha'a HoD} (p. 52 and 198).

So the answer to his original question is, again, "It depends on how you 
pronounce it."



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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