tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 03 13:00:05 2005

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Re: Pronounciation of " Qapla' "

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



lay'tel Sivten:
>other hand, since Klingon has no initial consonant clusters, there's
>no way to tell what {Qa-pla'} might sound like when spoken by a native
>Klingon.

Quvar:
> > A klingon would say /Qa-pala/ or so, adding a vowel somewhere.
> > {pla} is as difficult for a klingon as is {mwpa} for you.

lay'tel SIvten:
>In other words, not difficult at all.
>You're making suppositions. Just because the language has no initial
>clusters doesn't mean that Klingons find initial clusters difficult.
>After all, they seem to have no trouble at all with DIvI' Hol.

Klingon certainly does have words with consonantal clusters.  Don't confuse 
"Federation linguist" Marc Okrand's preferred transcription with the 
phonetics of "real" Klingon.  Okrand tends to insert a week vowel - usually 
/I/ - to break up the cluster, but other transcription systems used in the 
Federation do not.  Here's a partial list, roughly sorted:

Initial clusters:

{bIraqlul} - brak'lul (anatomical redundancy)
{bIreqtal} - brek'tal ritual
{bIreQtagh} - bregit lung (food item)
{ghIlab ghew} - glob fly
{ghIlaSnoS} - glasnost'

{ghIrIlqa'} - Grilka (Quark's Klingon wife) (PN)
{qImlaq} - K'mlak (PN)
{qItI'nga' - K'Tinga class (vessel) (SN)
{qIvo'rIt - K'Vort class (vessel) (SN)
{quwargh} - Quark (PN)
{tIghla'} - t'gla (epithet; type of spineless animal?)
{vIghro'} - v'gro (type of cat-like animal)
{Suto'vo'qor} - Sto-Vo-Kor (GN)
{ghuwI'nItlh wa'lIS} - Gwynyth Walsh (PN)

Initial clusters with extra vowel or /'/ inserted:

{qI'empeq} - K'mpec (PN)
{be'etor} - B'Etor (PN)
{bI'rel} - B'rel (SN) (class of small Klingon BoP)
{bI'reS} - beginning (of an opera, play, story, speech, etc.)
{ghI'boj Sech} - Torch of G'boj (PN? GN?)
{tI'ang} - T'Ong (SN) (why not just *{tang} or *{tong}?)
{tI'vIS} - T'vis (PN)

Final clusters:

{qIvo'rIt} - K'Vort class (vessel) (SN)
{wo'rIv} - Worf (PN)
{pIqarD} - Picard (PN)
{torghen} - Torghn (PN)
{mayqel Do'rIn} - Michael Dorn (PN)
{rabe'rIt 'o'raylIy} - Robert O'Reilly (PN)
{ghuwI'nItlh wa'lIS} - Gwynyth Walsh (PN)
{barbara' ma'rIch} - Barbara March (PN)
{bIl jo'rIj} - Bill George (PN)

Medial clusters:
{'entepray'} - Enterprise (SN) - pronounced /'en-te-PRAY'/ in the films

Clusters in "Paramount" {Hol}, tlhIngan Hol spelling unknown:

Ursva - assumed name of Enteprise in ST6 (SN)
Groth - Koloth's ship the IKV Groth in DS9 "Trials and Tribble-ations" (SN)
Skral - the river where Kahless slew Molor (GN)
G'trok - author of the epic poem {lu qeng} "The Fall of Kang" (PN)
J'puq - author of a famous cookbook (PN)

Although one can argue whether one word or another is really a consonantal 
cluster or actually a week "schewa" vowel, one thing that jumps out from 
this list is how many of them are proper names (PN), ship names (SN) or 
geographical names (GN).  My guess is that most of these may have been 
borrowed from other languages spoken on Kronos (not to mention other 
planets).  So the solution to the "cluster questions" may be that {tlhIngan 
Hol} per se - i.e. the "current" privileged dialect (originally spoken in 
the First City Region?) - has no clusters, but it does permit them in 
borrowings.

Now, how a "native" Klingon might pronounce these is anyone's 
guess.  (Certainly all those we've seen in the movies and TV episodes have 
no problem with them! <g>)  I imagine that some Klingons would pronounce 
the helping vowel, while others wouldn't, perhaps because they have a good 
ear for languages or know the source language for these borrowings and want 
to show off a little.  (Just listen to the various attempts by news readers 
and reporters to pronounce foreign names and places.)  Considering the 
imperialist, expansionist nature of the Klingons, it's amazing there 
haven't been even more borrowings.



--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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