[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon spoken in latest Big Bang Theory?

[Terrence Donnelly]

--- On Wed, 5/16/12, Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh <qeslagh at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh <qeslagh at hotmail.com>
> 
> ghItlhpu' loghaD, jatlh:
> > I haven't seen the episode, but is it possible they
> were going for «taHjaj wo'»?
> > I know they sometimes interpret apostrophes as
> "pronounce the last vowel twice"
> > (Qapla-aa!).
> 
> 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:
> 
> "When Klingon {'} comes at the end of a word, the vowel
> preceding the {'} is often
> repeated in a very soft whisper, as if an echo...
> Occasionally the echo is quite
> audible, with a guttural sound like {gh} preceding the
> echoed vowel. For example,
> {yIlI'} "transmit it!" can sound more like {yIlI'ghI}. This
> extra-heavy echo is
> heard most often when the speaker is particularly excited or
> angry."
> 

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. 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. MO's comments about ' just make that explicit for Klingon, probably to emphasize that ' is a real consonent.

-- ter'eS