[tlhIngan Hol] Morskan and the unidentified “regional dialect” in PK

[nIqolay Q]

On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 10:51 AM Daniel Dadap <daniel at dadap.net> wrote:

> Except that the usual context in which English loses aspiration on
> aspirate stops (when they are part of a consonant cluster with an initial
> /s/) is illegal in Klingon phonology. But maybe Morskan allows more types
> of consonant clusters than standard Klingon does, if “Morska” is a
> semi-faithful rendition of what Morskans call their home. The speaker was
> Dr. Okrand himself, and the lack of aspiration was systematic enough that
> it seemed quite intentional. (FWIW at least one of the apparently
> non-aspirated /p/ sounds might have been a /b/, but it’s a little hard to
> tell.)
>

Word-final stops are also frequently unaspirated in English, though not as
consistently as they are in consonant clusters with /p/. Does Dr. Okrand
usually aspirate his word-final /p/s? Since aspiration isn't phonemic in
either English or Klingon, it's possible he just pronounced the letter how
he was used to instead of strictly going by-the-book. IIRC, he also doesn't
consistently trill or roll his {r}s. (In other words, since some of the
sounds of Klingon are pretty close to, but not exactly the same as, sounds
in English, it's possible Okrand sometimes reverts to English pronuncation
now and then.)

I’ve had the same thought. I think you’ve said that before, too, so I’m not
> sure whether I had the thought independently or because of you. I have also
> thought it quite likely that this particular phonetic change is also the
> reason they’re called “Klingons”, if other spacefaring races first made
> contact with Klingons living in the outskirts of the empire.
>

I've also had similar thoughts on the origin of "gladst". *jaSHa' Qubba'
yabDu' Dun. *

That's also an interesting point about the word "Klingon" itself. (Or
perhaps the first Klingons encountered by the Federation were Klingonaase
speakers being expelled to the fringes...)
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