[Tlhingan-hol] qaghwI' between consonants

[Robyn Stewart]

Lieven is quite right: if you want your name to conform to tlhIngan Hol pronunciation, it must follow the same rules as any other word. 

I said what I said because there is a long and glorious tradition of Klingon names that do not confirm, and I want no one to be shamed for having one. Some of us explain the diversity of names by saying that Klingons tradition draw names from a wider phonetic pool than their own language. Many people have brought Klingon names with them from other branches of fandom, or predating TKD. e.g. Tr'kal and Krankor. Some develop tlhIngan Hol versions of their names, just as we know we can call Worf, wo'rIv. 

The last thing I want to happen is for someone keen and new to announce a name to the list and to be told that his or her very name is wrong. I welcome K'zk'rt and Gak'xaf to our number, but eventually I sm going to ask them how to pronounce their names. 

- Qov

> On Oct 24, 2015, at 5:53, Lieven <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Am 24.10.2015 um 08:11 schrieb Robyn Stewart:
> > 3.Names can take any form the user wants them to, including letters and letter combinations that aren’t in tlhIngan Hol.
> 
> First to make clear: Qov is one of the most experienced Klingon speakers I have ever met, so I have my greatest respect to her knowledge and grammatical opinion. That's why it's not easy for me to contradict.
> 
> This is important for true beginners to understand this correctly:
> 
> Yes, names can be whatever they are. Of course there is no rule for names, and they may look what they look like.
> 
> But, on the other hand, it depends on the question asked: if you want to make a name which follows correct tlhIngan Hol syllables, then you can NOT do what you want. The Klingon letters we use are some kind of pronunciation system, and the apostrophe between most consonants just cannot be pronounced. I definitely DISCOMMEND any beginners to write words like {qun'noQ} or {QIt'vur} because they simply can NOT be pronounced. It's like writing english names like "Kpnolstkr" and "Apprlk" - it just makes no sense.
> 
> What you can do is what most authors do, writing "english" Klingon names as we know "K'mtor" or "K'Tinga", but that'sno tlhIngan Hol.
> 
> {paq'batlh} is really one of very few exceptions [please name any others], which is based on the incorrect spelling of the autors, and that's why okrand has explained it as archaic klingon.
> 
> -- 
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka Quvar valer 'utlh
> Grammarian of the KLI
> http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
> http://www.klingonwiki.net
> 
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