[Tlhingan-hol] Pronouncing Klingon correctly

[Will Martin]

Okrand has repeatedly pointed out that he split {t} and {D} specifically to make the Klingon phoneme set as alien as possible, since human languages may pronounce all Ds and Ts dentally, as does English, or palatially as do some middle-eastern languages, or may use all four consonants (dental and palatial versions of each of the two consonants), but none of them use one dental and the other palatial.

He didn’t do it because of English, regardless of regional accent. He did it to be non-human. It’s a pride point for him, judging by how many times I’ve heard or read him explain that. It’s one of his language-geeky things in the language, judging by the way that he seems perpetually disappointed that people don’t notice and appreciate this more than they do.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Nov 30, 2015, at 1:20 AM, Anthony Appleyard <a.appleyard at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> This subject is handled in the book "Klingon for the Galactic Traveller", which I have. But it omits one source of trouble.
> 
> I am British and I pronounce {t} and {d} correctly everywhere, naturally from babyhood. But most Americans seem to mishandle {t}, pronouncing it as {d} except at starts of words, e.g. "latter" as "ladder".  And many seem to mishandle {d} also, inside words or at the ends of words, slurring it or dropping it. And this may carry across into their pronunciation of Klingon. (I wonder if this is why Marc Okrand chose the opposition {t} (not retroflex) versus {D} (retroflex). to distinnguish.)
> 
> (OK, OK, 'ej jiQagh, with the {r} sound, dropping it at the ends of syllables as in standard British English, e.g. pronouncing "Thor" the same as "thaw", and "horse" as "hawss".)
> 
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