<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">The issue at hand is whether Okrand wrote that description accurately, intending it to be pronounced as the glide between two sounds that a linguist would recognize in a typical American pronunciation of the word “oh” that rhymes with “mow”, or if he was merely making sure that you would never use the “o” sound in “pot”, which is the Klingon {a} sound. <div><br></div><div>Meanwhile, in recordings of Okrand speaking Klingon, there is no second vowel sound in {o}. The Klingon {o} is like the first half of the American word “oh”, though normal, non-linguist, non-Klingon speaker doesn’t realize that the American word “oh” has two sounds. They don’t notice the glide from the first half of the word “oh” to the second half because it is always there. American English never uses the first vowel sound of “oh” alone. </div><div><br></div><div>Does that help?<br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone. <br><div><br></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Jun 28, 2020, at 12:17 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/28/2020 10:39 AM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:9C92409C-E1CE-42D5-BC52-12C209AF5A59@mac.com">While I
completely agree with you, I do so with the understanding that, as
in Japanese or Danish, a long vowel is a vowel literally held for
a longer duration. The pronunciation of the long vowel doesn’t
shift in either of those languages the way that what we call a
“long” vowel shifts in English.<br>
</blockquote>
<p>When I said "long," I meant it in the sense of <i>lengthened,</i>
not as the diphthong English "long o." Okrand's pronunciation of <b>toD</b>
and <b>lenHom</b> includes a <i>lengthened</i> <b>o.</b><br>
</p>
<p>English "long" vowels were once actually lengthened vowels in Old
English that had values closer to the Latin values. During the
Great Vowel Shift the lengthened vowels turned into diphthongs. We
still call them long, though in English that means a particular
set of diphthongs. And we still have literally long and short
vowels in English, but they rarely play any semantic role. Most
people don't even hear them. (For instance, the word <i>cheese</i>
is pronounced with a "long <i>e,</i>" and it is also literally
lengthened. The vowel's length is what turns the written <i>s</i>
into a voiced <i>z.</i> But if you shorten the <i>e</i> sound to
rhyme with <i>fleece,</i> it's still the same word, just
pronounced strangely.)<br>
</p>
<p>It may be that Okrand is influenced by his American accent:
because <b>toD</b> and <b>Hom</b> both end with voiced
consonants, he may be lengthening the <b>o</b> the way you would
in English.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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