On 6/27/2020 2:44 AM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
(All of this is very hard to describe using written words only, and many people even speak differently depending on their dialect.)
Listen to the sounds on the Klingon CD. When Okrand speaks a syllable like {bom} it rhymes more "bomb" than it does with "bo-u-m"
As an example of dialectical differences, no American English accent rhymes /bomb/ with Klingon *bom.* /Bomb/ has the same vowel as /father./ I think the solution here may be that it's not that every Klingon *o* is a diphthong, just the syllable-final ones. The vowel in *gho* is a diphthong, identical to *ghow;* but the vowel in *ghop* is not a diphthong, and it doesn't sound like *ghowp.* Likewise with *u:* *ghu* sounds like *ghuw; ghup* does not sound like *ghuwp.* This would allow what Okrand told you to be correct, with the exception of the syllable-final vowels described in the dictionary, an exception he wasn't addressing with you. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name