[1982] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Power Klingon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Nov 10 23:41:53 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: j.guy@trl.OZ.AU (Jacques Guy)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 15:33:06 +1100 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <9311101529.AA03370@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU> from "Will Martin" at
Nov 10, 93 10:22:53 am
> > >#There's also "Don't lick my forehead" which
> > >#sounds a lot like "QuchwIj DroSQo'", which represents, if I hear aright,
> > >an innovation in Klingon words, as "?DroSQo'" starts with a consonant
> > >cluster.
> >
> > >I suspected when I read this, and wasn't disconfirmed on listening, that
> > >the word is probably DeroSQo' (cf. tera'ngan, pronounced tra'ngan)
> >
> > Maybe. Then again, the way he pronounces the sounds, he'd have put in that
> > obscure vowel even if it really *were* {?DroSQo'}. We also have never seen
> > a Klingon *verb* root that was polysyllabic before. But given a choice
> > between a polysyllabic verb plus faulty pronunciation by Okrand and a
> > consonant-cluster initial, I think I'd rather believe the former.
>
> ghIDIj, HeSo' and HoSghaj are polysyllabic verb roots. Yes, they are
> rare, but they do exist, like open vowels at syllable end without glottal
> stops (as in HaSta). Still, DeroSQo' suffers from the "r" not clearly
> belonging to the first or second syllable.
>
Judging from my little exposure to Klingon (TKD and the postings here
that do not tax my aching brain cells to heavily), DeroSQo' necessarily
syllabifies as De-roS-Qo' since:
No Klingon word (except perhaps some interjections) starts with a vowel.
No Klingon word starts with two consonants or more.
But I would bet almost my bottom dollar that the word is DoSQo'
(without an r), because:
1. Klingon D is a voiced prenasalized cacuminal (a.k.a. retroflex) stop
2. Such sounds are often misheard as a "ndr" like cluster by English, and,
let's say it, speakers of non-Klingon-like languages, especially in
fast speech, where voiced stop can easily become a flap. It is the
phenomenon by which a certain English pronunciation of "sorry" sounds
like "soddy" to American ears.
