tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 05 12:13:24 2009

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Re: tera'Daq jIghIQvIS

Doq ([email protected])



I can't imagine that a Klingon would transliterate the French "r" as  
an {r} when it is obviously much closer to {gh}. Given that Klingons  
have no "f" nor initial consonant cluster of any form I wonder if a  
Klingon would bother even trying to represent the "fr" as {vIgh}. It  
seems more likely that they'd just drop the "f" as unpronounceable and  
begin the French word "France" with {gh}.

Similarly, the nasalized "an" in the French pronunciation of "France"  
sounds nothing close to any Klingon vowel. It's as close to {o} as it  
is to {a} and not really a very good match to either, and there is no  
{n} in the French word "France". Like the "r", the letter may be there  
in print, but there is no sound there like either an {r} or an {n} in  
the word. We are riding wild and loose enough to assign the "ce" to {S}.

I'd tend to transliterate it as {ghaS} or {ghoS}. Since the latter is  
a word, I'd probably pick {ghaS}. It's not close to "France", but  
then, neither is anything else. The same could, of course, be said for  
the Native American "tsa-la-gee", which the French bizarrely  
transliterated as "Cherokee". Transliterations often stink, but the  
only thing that really matters is that everybody who speaks the target  
language agrees with them. Note that "Germany" doesn't sound like  
anything that any other nation calls that country.

So, until the only guy who can make a Klingon word a Klingon word  
tells us how Klingons pronounce "France", we're probably best off  
spelling it *France*. At least that way, everyone really will know  
what you are talking about.

Doq

On Jul 3, 2009, at 7:13 PM, [email protected] wrote:

> In a message dated 7/3/2009 16:47:47 Eastern Daylight Time,
> [email protected] writes:
>
>> The word français means "French", not "France".  "France" in French  
>> is
>> "France" - where the 'n' is not a separate sound but just makes the
>> 'a' nasal. {vIranIS} is probably still how it would get  
>> Klingonicized.
>>
>>> Getting a little tricky here, I think a cultured speaker of {ta'
>>> tlhIngan Hol} would probably pronounce "Finland" as {vInlIN},
>>
>> Why abandon your native-name idea now? The Finnish word for "Finland"
>> is "Suomi", which is practically perfect Hol already:   SuomIy.
>>
>>
>
> I'd go with {vIraS} (or even {tlhaS) and {SuwomIy}.
>
> lay'tel SIvten
>
>







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