[93266] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon spoken in latest Big Bang Theory?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh)
Thu May 17 20:47:26 2012
From: Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh <qeslagh@hotmail.com>
To: <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 10:47:07 +1000
In-Reply-To: <1337260759.53277.YahooMailClassic@web82608.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
ghItlhpu' loghaD, jatlh:
> I know they sometimes interpret apostrophes as "pronounce the last vowel twice"
> (Qapla-aa!).
jIjang, jIjatlh:
> Actually that's one of the things that has *most* impressed me about the Big Bang
> Theory Klingon. It shows they've actually read the phonology properly. Remember
> that this kind of echo-vowel is explicitly described by Marc in TKD 1.1:
mujang ter'eS, jatlh:
> It could hardly be otherwise. A consonent is simply a stoppage in the air stream
> of your voice; without the following air (i.e. vowel), a consonent can't be heard.
It's not that simple. There are fine audiological distinctions that help a hearer to
distinguish between one consonant and another even at the end of words; as much as
we like to think of phonemes as separated segments, in reality each phone is affected
by those surrounding it in a number of small but audible ways.
I won't go into it in any detail, but there are a couple of examples here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant#Formants_and_phonetics
taH:
> If you listen closely to your own language, every final consonent is followed by a
> weak air stream, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to hear it.
I don't know about you, but I have no trouble distinguishing between {ro} and {ro'}
in speech. There's an abruptness about the cessation of the vowel in {ro'} that's
quite clear to my ear. (For the most part. Some speakers tend to simply stop their
airflow for {'} at the pulmonic level, rather than produce a true glottal stop. I've
noticed it in Krankor's speech, for instance - he has a tendency to use {-DI} for
the suffix {-DI'}, though of course it doesn't affect his intelligibility at all.)
QeS 'utlh
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