[152] in tlhIngan-Hol
"marq"
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:17:52 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mosquito@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 19:28:35 -0500
When I saw "marq"'s hello message, I remembered noticing that Klingon doesn't
have many consonant clusters (except at syllable breaks). For instance,
one can say gharwI', but that's just 2 separate syllables: ghar and wI'.
And the first phoneme isn't a consonant cluster; it's a single sound "gh".
No examples I can think of of "qro" or "Hla" or "'art". There IS "may'"
but the glottal stop is only a pseudo-consonant, anyway. Besides which,
there's a little echo that makes the glottal stop the beginning of the
next syllable (unvoiced).
Very often, when speakers of one language are not used to certain consonant
clusters, they have a hard time with them in another language. So one might
expect Klingons to have a hard time with "marq"'s name.
---------------------
I've also been bothered by "nuqneH". It seems Klingons just DON'T say hello.
In fact, I'd say the way Klingons initiate a conversation is the following:
1. If you want to tell someone or ask someone something, just SAY it.
2. If the social ranking prevents this, get their attention in a way that is
permissible.
3. If the social ranking of someone else would prevent them from saying
something, or if they look like they're going to say something but are
restrained in some way, you explicitly ask them what they want, ie. "nuqneH".
A: HoD!
B: nuqneH?
A: naDev jaghpu' tu'lu'.
Similarly, I'd be hesitant to use even "Savan". Given cultural restrictions
in our society, one might make things like that up, but I don't think we
ought to expect Klingons to use such constructions.
Perhaps more noticable is the lack of "Good-bye" since we aren't even given
a possible phrase. I've seen and heard a few people try a few things when
they leave so that it doesn't feel so awkward. I don't think Klingons worry
about such things.
In Japanese, there is a word for Good-bye: Sayoonara. In most
"normal" conversations, though, Sayoonara is almost never used to end
a conversation. There's "well," "take care", "'till tomorrow",
"next", etc. depending on the situation, but sometimes, especially in
professional relations, there's a bow and nothing said. (That doesn't
work on the phone, though).
If there isn't a problem with this in a Terran language, what's wrong with
a different species not saying "hello" or "good-bye".
\ /
--OO--
!! mosquito@athena.mit.edu
Kevin Iga
