tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 24 18:03:42 2009

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: pu'jIn

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Christopher Doty wrote:

>>> Is there any known semantic or phonological or syntactic or
>>> morphological
>>> (read: ANY) difference between a noun–noun construction and a
>>> compound in
>>> Klingon, besides the orthography?
>> For a semantic difference, perhaps {'Iwghargh} "bloodworm" vs. {'Iw
>> ghargh} "blood's worm" or "worm of blood"?
>>
>> I can't speak for everyone, but when I say {HolQeD}, the first
>> syllable gets less stress than when I say {Hol QeD}.
> 
> This is what I would expect, since the final syllable of a noun gets
> stressed, so two nouns that are independent of each other (that is, in
> a N-N construction) likely have independent stress on both nouns, but
> HolQeD, since it is a compound, should only have stress on the QeD,
> no?

We have *very* little clear evidence on stress in Klingon. Okrand's 
pronunciation on the tapes and the KCD game often contradict TKD's 
section 1.3. I have an instinctive understanding of how Okrand stresses 
words, and I stress them the same way, but I'm not able to summarize 
those rules. I think we both tend to apply English stress patterns, 
except when there is a glottal stop at the end of a syllable, in which 
case we stress it. I even break the rules in my own name: I stress the 
{SuS}, not the {tel}. When hearing other people say my name at 
qep'a'mey, it sounds weird, because they usually follow the rules in TKD.

-- 
SuStel
tlhIngan Hol MUSH
http://trimboli.name/mush

Back to archive top level