[Tlhingan-hol] Comment on transliteration WAS: Defiant

[Brent Kesler]

I also wanted to mention: Phnom penh.

bI'reng

On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 10:43 AM, Brent Kesler <brent.of.all.people at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 1:56 PM, Doug Henning <likethemagician at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Sticking to only Klingon syllable structure, you would probably
>> transliterate the name as *DIvay'enIt*, to avoid a consonant cluster
>> without a vowel. Elision of the vowel *'It*, turning C*I*C into CC,
>> seems to be a common alternate pronunciation of Klingon names, as in
>> *wo'rIv* > "Worf".
>>
>
>
> I don't mean to pick on Mr. Henning (or anyone else), but I have a strong
> opinion on this subject, and I want to give it.
>
> It seems that Klingonists have preference for trying to make non-Klingon
> words fit Klingon phonology. This isn't necessarily a bad thing--it's a
> good exercise to put yourself in someone else's place and imagine how
> something normal to us would sound strange to them.
>
> But sometimes I think we take it too far, as if Klingons would never enjoy
> the challenge of moving their tongues in strange ways to make strange
> sounds that make sense to strange people.
>
> We have some evidence that they're not entirely hostile to foreign speech
> patterns: janluq pIqarD.
>
> Of course, if you're trying to translate something, it is *your*
> translation, and you can choose whichever strategy makes the most sense to
> you. A couple years ago when I was writing weekly news summaries in
> Klingon, I deliberately chose a midway strategy: try to stick close to the
> original, but don't make it too difficult for a hypothetical Klingon to
> make sense of. So "Gaza" became {ghaSa} rather than {gha'Sa'}. Both are
> fine choices, but I wanted to emphasize the foreignness of the name.
>
> In the end how you transliterate something is your choice, but I just
> wanted to offer something to think about when you make that choice.
>
> bI'reng
>
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