tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 05 12:55:38 2009

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Re: tera'Daq jIghIQvIS

Mark J. Reed ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

The nasalized French "a" is not by any stretch as close to {o} as {a}.
 It is exactly a nasalized version of {a}, which Klingons probably
nasalize before {n} and {ng} without even realizing it, just as we do
in English.  I could see transliterating "France" as {ghanIS} or
{ghach} or any number of variants, but an {o} makes no sense at all.


On 7/5/09, Doq <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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 franÃais 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
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Sent from my mobile device

Mark J. Reed <[email protected]>

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