[Tlhingan-hol] Stress and Intonation

[SuStel]

On 4/28/2016 12:26 PM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
> there is this problem I had quite some time now..
>
> I was hearing klingons in star trek, and they sounded quite different
> from the klingon I was reading -pronounciation wise- in the books.
>
> and I was wondering.. there is something I'm missing here.

The Klingon spoken in the TV shows is not written or coached by Marc 
Okrand. If you're lucky a scriptwriter picked up a copy of /The Klingon 
Dictionary/ and looked up a few words, but they never tell the actors 
how to pronounce it. One early example of Michael Dorn speaking Klingon 
on /Star Trek: The Next Generation/ sounds like "Tee hongy JEE!" This 
was obviously his attempt to pronounce *tlhIngan jIH* without anyone 
telling him how it was supposed to be pronounced.


If you're unlucky, and this is much more common, the scriptwriter just 
made up a word, usually containing the syllable /cha./ Marc Okrand often 
backfits these words into Klingon for us: e.g., *parmaq.*

*
*

On the other hand, the Klingon in /Star Trek III, Star Trek V, Star Trek 
VI,/ and /Star Trek Into Darkness/ was written and coached by Okrand. It 
usually sounds good, and not too overblown. There are some flubs here 
and there, mostly in /Star Trek VI./

/
/

One interesting bit of Klingon in /Star Trek VI/ is where General Chang 
is speaking it at Kirk and McCoy's trial. Before the soundtrack switches 
to English, Christopher Plummer speaks /very/ slowly, one syllable at a 
time: *Qo'! noS! waaaaDaq! baH! ta'!*. His pronunciation is good, but 
agonizingly slow. The English version is much quicker. I've often 
wondered if perhaps this is a Klingon legal tradition, a special ritual 
form of speaking used in trials, perhaps to deliver an opening statement.


-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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