[179] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: tlh at end of word
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:19:12 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: "Allan C. Wechsler" <ACW@yukon.scrc.symbolics.com>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 11:11-0500
In-Reply-To: <9201311417.AA12464@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 09:17 EST
From: Elias Israel <eli@village.boston.ma.us>
On Thu, 30 Jan 92 18:16:00 EST,
"Allan C. Wechsler" <ACW@yukon.scrc.symbolics.com> writes:
>Not affricate; that is, with no stopped onset? The choice of "tlh" as
>the orthography suggested an affricate to me, as does the fact that
>non-Klingons tend to hear this as "kl". If this were a pure fricative,
>wouldn't Okrand have used "lh" in the orthography? (But more thoughts
>on the orthography later.)
Can you go through that again slowly, for the benefit of those of us who
did not take phonology in college? {{:-)
Eli
qaja'bej. "tlh" wIQoypa' SuS He SoQmoH'a' jat? ... Oh, oops. Sorry.
The question is, does the tongue completely cut off the airstream before
the "tlh" is heard? Or is it just a smooth hiss? Consider the
difference between the English sounds "sh" and "ch". "Sh" is just a
smooth hiss, while "ch" has a cut or chop in the airstream before the
hiss. (German doesn't have a native "ch" sound; when they have to write
it, they spell it "tsch", implying that they are quite conscious of this
initial closure.)
In fact we can now answer this question authoritatively. Last night on
NPR, they interviewed Mark Okrand, and he pronounced the word "batlh"
very clearly. It definitely has a "stopped onset" when he does it.
