tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 24 16:48:27 2009

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Re: Klingon orthography (was: Okrand at qep'a')

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



First, I find the use of English-style capitalization quite
distracting.  I'm used to reading {q} and {Q} as separate letters, so
have trouble recognizing {Qastahvis}.

I agree that there's room for improvement in the system, but I don't
necessarily agree that it's worth a reform effort.

Nevertheless, my thoughts follow.

> ===
> In IPA this is
>
> [a b tÊ É É É x É dÊ l m n Å o pÊ q qÏ r Ê tÊ tÉ u v w j Ê]

Though we would normally not transcribe things so narrowly as to
indicate the aspiration on the voiceless stops, as indeed you didn't
in your passage...

> A casing orthography would give:

Cased IPA: Just Say No. :)

> ===
> In Americanist-type transcription one might render these:
>
> a b Ä d e Ç h i j l m n Å o p q x r Å t Å w v w y Ê

I think that both [Å] for {tlh}  and [x] for {Q} are counterintuitive;
you need some indication of the affrication.   And my natural
inclination is to Ç as [dÊ] instead of [É].

> a b c d e g h i j l m n Å o p q ê r s t Å u v w y â

Yeah, the ê comes through as an empty box here.

> a b c á e Ç h i Ç l m n á o p k Ï r á Î tl u v w y â

If using <c> with no diacritic for {ch}, why do you need a diacritic
for your {D} replacement?

> a b c d e g h i j l m n á o p k Ï r s t tl u v w y â

Better. :)

If replacing {q} with <k>, why not use <q> for {Q}?

I could see Î for {tlh} - misleading though it is - but not for {t}.
The "aspirated t" meaning of Î is not exactly au courant. :)

Also, the dot over the n is too subtle in this font; barely
distinguishable from plain n.

My monographical suggestion would be this:

a b c d e g h i j l m n à o p k q r s t à u v w y â

Only two non-ASCII characters, both in Latin-1 and readily typed on
most systems' "international" keyboard.  They even have uppercase
forms if you insist upon using case distinctions.

Or, if you're not averse to digraphs:

a b ch d e gh kh i j l m n ng o p q qh r s t th u v w y '

-
Mark J. Reed <[email protected]>






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