[464] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: pIqaD issues
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 25 11:42:51 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: Michael Everson <EVERSON@IRLEARN.UCD.IE>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 12:35:23 GMT
In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 7 Jan 1993 10:01-0500 from
On Thu, 7 Jan 1993 10:01-0500 Allan C. Wechsler said:
>
>The same is true in orthography. The "silent e" at the end of some
>English words was once audible. Now it serves the weird function of
>(unreliably) marking vowel length. Every single irregularity in the
>English spelling system can be explained by studying the history of
>English. To a lesser extent, by reasoning in reverse, the history of
>English can be reconstructed from modern spelling.
Not always without help. The -b- in debt has nothing to do with the
history of the pronunciation of English, though it does have something
to do with the interference early writers of English had of other languages
(Latin in this case) they knew.
The silent -e at the end of many monosyllables in English is a reliable
mark of original long vowels in Middle English, even though it was also
pronounced in its own right at that period of history. /ma:ke/ became
/me:k(e)/, /li:ne/ became /lain/ and so on. Axel Wijk once proposed a
minor spelling reform for English which would not radically change
everything, but which would regularize English spelling rules so that
certain sounds would be predictable from spelling. (Words like cough,
rough, through, enough, bough, though would be respelled completely.)
Wijk generalized the silent -e for many monosyllables:
mat mate
met mete (couldn't think of a better example, sorry)
fin fine
hop hope
foot spoone
It'll be interesting to take screen dumps from the ST videos and
try to put Klingon on the computer examples we have.....
Michael Everson
School of Architecture, UCD, Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, E/ire
Phone: +353 1 706-2745 Fax: +353 1 283-7778 Home: +353 1 78-25-97
