[Tlhingan-hol] 2 letter language code for Klingon?

[Michael Everson]

On 4 Oct 2011, at 20:44, David Trimboli wrote:

> Leaving aside the question of whether TalkNow!'s use of KLI pIqaD makes it official, "tlh" is not a Romanized equivalent of a Klingon letter. It is a trigraph in a transcription system that was devised completely independently of any knowledge of any Klingon writing system.

Nicely put. 

> "tlh" is a representation of the *sound* of "tlh," not a rewriting of a Klingon symbol that represents
> the sound of "tlh."

Yes, and as I pointed, out pIqaD nothwithstanding, we don't know that the ultimate Klingon script is even an alphabet. (In principle.)

> When I write {tlhIngan Hol}, I'm not converting Klingon writing into Latin writing.

Correct.

> I'm converting Klingon *sounds* into Latin writing.

Correct.

> Klingon writing never comes into it. The only reason the pIqaDHey that appears in TalkNow! happens to be a phonemic representation of Klingon is because someone threw together a writing system based on the transcription system.

Of course if Klingons did use an alphabet it might be the case that the pIqaD represents the sounds accurately. Alphabets are simple and straightforward, at least in principle.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/