tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 30 14:20:24 2006
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Re: writing systems for Klingon
>
> There are at least five writing systems in which Klingon might appear.
> 1. pIqaD. This is the native Klingon writing system mentioned in TKD and
> which we know virtually nothing about. We simply don't have Klingon's
"own
> alphabet". Were Klingon to be found in this writing system, it would
create a
> major stir among us, I believe.
> 2. "pIqaD" or pseudo-pIqaD. This is the closest we have to a Klingon
> writing system, but it was created by a Terran for Klingon. It is widely
used in
> fan materials, but is seldom seen otherwise. It is well suited to writing
> Klingon as we know it.
> 3. other alphabetic systems. There are two main versions of these.
Neither
> is used much anymore. They are a mapping to English letters, not Klingon
> sounds, hence they are not well suited to writing Klingon.
> 4. Star Trek glyphs. This is a set of ten symbols resembling some of
those
> in group 1 above. They are often seen on Star Trek and are used there
only
> for their alien appearance. They are also the Klingon writing on the
Skybox
> cards, where each symbol can have from one to four phonetic readings, but
even
> there the readings are based on the English alphabet rather than Klingon
> phonetics.
> 5. The transcription scheme based on the English alphabet. This is the
only
> 'official' way of writing Klingon, coming as it does from the Federation
> linguist whose informant was the Klingon captive Maltz. It is the only
system in
> which mainstream materials (TKD, TKW, KGT, {Hamlet}, {ghIlghameS}, and
> {paghmo' tIn mIS}) are printed.
>
> lay'tel SIvten
>
Thanks for that detailed account. In the context of my project, I will be
using the language's alphabet whenever possible (for example, Arabic writing
for the arabic version). Considering this project is after all some form of
fan material, using "pIqaD" seems appropriate.
The last issue is, as you guess, punctuation. This is a long structured
text, and Alan Anderson kept my original punctuation (colons, semi-colons,
question marks, periods). I know that punctuation is not a clear-cut issue
in Klingon. Would that be rude if I was to use the "Skybox" "down-triangle"
for periods and question marks, and "up-triangle" for semi-colons and
colons? Would a heavily punctuated text be poor Klingon? Would interrogative
sentences ending with a "down-triangle" be incomprehensible?
thanks
Florian