[180] in tlhIngan-Hol
Syllable structure vs. marq
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:19:15 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 11:55-0500
In-Reply-To: <9201301912.AA17276@ima.ima.isc.com>
I've delayed sending this until I could get the whole vocabulary typed
in, so that I could search for exceptions.
Klingon syllables are mostly of the form CVC, where the C's stand for
consonants and the V's stand for vowels. This gives Klingon a simpler
syllable structure than English, which allows, for example, CCCVCCCC
("strengths"), but more complicated than Japanese, which is mostly just
CV. But there are three exceptional categories of syllables:
1. CV.
Some syllables lack a trailing consonant. These include ALL the pronoun
verb prefixes, and a miscellaneous assortment of about a dozen nouns and
and two conjunctions. Interesting point: there are no, get that, zero,
verb roots with CV structure; ALL verbs have a final consonant.
2. CVrgh
There are about twenty roots in -rgh, distributed randomly through the
mian parts of speech; there are no affixes in -rgh. I have a theory
that this is a descendant of a single sound in Old Klingon, perhaps a
voiced counterpart of Q, no longer found in the modern consonant
repertoire. In syllable-initial position, this consonant has merged
with gh or Q; we have no way of telling which. I'd suggest "margh" as a
good pronounceable Klingon name for Mark; or perhaps "morgh", which was
Worf's father's name. (By the way, is Worf's name really "worgh"?)
3. CVG'
G stands for Glide; that is, for w or y. Attested rhymes in this
category are -aw', -ay', -oy', and -uy'. We already know why there is
no ow or uw in Klingon; see TKD 1.2, p. 17. But -ey and -Iy do occur;
why no -ey' and -Iy'? I have a theory about this, but the message is
getting too long. Also "missing" are any words in -ew' and -Iw'; I
think they are missing only by chance and that a more comprehensive
dictionary would show some words with these rhymes. Even "naked" -ew
and -Iw are rare.
