
         ************************************************************
         *          An Introduction to the Klingon Language         *
         *                                                          *
         *               Part 3: The Klingon Alphabet,              *
         *                       and Pronounciation                 *
         *                       Varyances with Dialects            *
         *                                                          *
         ************************************************************


     The Klingons, regardless of race or culture, all use a form of writing
called pIqaD (pronouced PEE-kaD, with stress on both the pI and the D). As this
is only rudimentarily understood, with the aid of the late Maltz, a transliter-
ated form of the pIqaD system was concieved in order to facilitate translation/
transliteration of the various forms of Klingonaase. Accompanying this trans-
literated form is a phonetic guide that will enable anyone who can speak in
standard Galactic or English to approximate the proper sounds of the Klingon
language. With a little practice there should be a minimum of difficulty in
forming words and phrases that are at least relatively intelligeable by most
Klingons. There will be a problem with having a 'Federation' accent, but even
the most experienced non-native Klingonaase speakers manage to retain some sort
of an accent regardless of the amount of training and use they recieve.


     The transliterated form of pIqaD is arranged as follows:



          a,b,ch,D,e,gh,H,I,j,l,m,n,ng,o,p,q,Q,r,S,t,tlh,u,v,w,y,'



     Note that ch,gh,ng and tlh are considered separate letters, so the
     syllable 'no' would proceed the syllable 'nga' in a Klingon listing.



     The following is the phonetic guide for the pIqad above:


                            VOWELS

     a - as in psalm or awful, but never as in crabapple.

     e - as in sensor or jenny

     I - as in misfit or idiom. It can be as in zucchini, but this appears to
         be limited to plurality in Klingonii/Klinhaii dialect as far as wide
         useage goes. For the most part, though, only rarely.

     o - as in mosaic or modem

     u - as in prune or june or gnu, but never as in but or cute



     Note here that when a vowel is followed by  w  or  y, the combination of
     sound may not represent the same sound as in the Galactic/English spelling

             pIqaD        sounds like          as in English

             aw               ow                  cow

             ay                y                  cry

             ey               ay                  pay

             Iy               ey                  key

             oy               oy                  toy




                           *** CONSONANTS ***


     b - as in bronchitis or gazebo. Some Klingons, primarily the Wijngan, tend
         to pronounce this sound as if it were  m  and  b  articulated almost
         simultaneously. This sound variant can be approximated my by saying
         imbalance without the initial i sound. Some Daqawlu speakers tend to
         interpose the  m  and the  b  sounds.

    ch - as in chew or artichoke or cheese.

     D - this sound is close to the  d  in android, but is not quite the same,
         as in English  d  is made by touching the tip of the tongue to that
         part of the roof of the mouth just above the teeth. Klingon  D  can
         be approximated by placing the tongue slightly higher above the teeth
         than in English  d . In Wijngan dialect, this is also pronounced more
         like it was  nd, as in hand, while many Kumburan speakers actually
         drop the  d  to a silent letter and just use the  n, as in can.

    gh - this is not like anything in Galactic/English. It can be produced by
         putting the tongue in the same position it would be to say  g  in the
         word gobble, but relaxing the tongue somewhat and humming. It is the
         same as Klingon H (see below), but with the vocal chords vibrating at
         the same time.

     H - This is also not like anything in Galactic/English. It is best approx-
         imated by the  ch  sound in Bach. It is produced in the same way as in
         Klingon  gh, but with a strong articulated rasp, and the vocal chords
         do not vibrate. In Kumburan and Daqawlu dialects, the rasp is a bit
         less stressed, more like the  j  in Tijuana.

     j - as in Junk, but never as French jour, regardless of dialect.

     l - as in lunge or alchemy

     m - as in mud or pnumatic. Daqawlu speakers who transpose the  m  and  b
         sounds must learn to memorize the correct spellings without the aid of
         phonetic interpretation.

     n - as in nectar or sunspot. Kumburan speakers who pronounce Klingon D as
         n  have shown that they can indeed tell the difference between the two
         sounds when articuated by another Kumburan speaker. Even a  D  that
         sounds like  n  in pronounced with the tongue in the Klingon D
         position and not the English d position. Klingon n is produced with
         the tongue in the same position as Galactic/English d.

    ng - as in furlong, never as in engulf. The  g  is never pronounced as a
         separate sound, and although it never occurs at the start of English
         words, it does so for many words in Klingonaase. It can be best spoken
         by saying the words 'dang it!', but without the 'da'.

     p - as in parallax, and always with a strong puff or pop. This normally
         discharges saliva, which is something Klingonaase speakers never worry
         about, especially Daqawlu speakers.

     q - this is similar to the  k  in kumquat, but not quite. Klingon q is
         pronounced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth much
         farther back than it does in  gh  or  H. In fact, it almost sounds
         like the speaker is choking (much like certain attempts of
         non-speakers in the use of French). This sound is also accompanied by
         a puff of air. It is never pronounced  kw, as in quagmire.

     Q - This is a rather overdone Klingon q. It is identical to Klingon q, but
         is very gutteral and raspy, and strongly articulated, somewhat like a
         blend of Klingon q and H. Klingonii/Klinzhaii speakers tend to further
         stress this by pronouncing it as if it had a glottal stop between the
         Q and the next syllable, tho this is mostly confined to certain more
         'colorful' metaphors.

     r - similar to the  r  in Spanish, but only lightly trilled.

     S - this sound is halfway between  s  and  sh, as in syringe and shuttle,
         and is made with the tip of the tongue reaching toward that part of
         the roof of the mouth which it touches in Klingon D.

     t - as in tarpaulin or critique. It differs from Klingon D it two ways:
         (1) like p, it is accompanied by a puff of air, and (2), the tongue
         touches a position on the roof of the mouth farther foreward than that
         for D.

   tlh - this sound does not occur in English, byt is very much like the sound
         tle in kettle, if properly pronounced. To produce this sound, this tip
         of the tongue touches the same part of the roof of the mouth it
         touches for  t, the sides of the tongue are lowered away from the
         sides of the upper teeth, and air is forced between sides of tongue
         and teeth.

     v - as in vulgar or demonstrative.

     w - as in worry or cow. In Daqawlu and Wijngan dialects, this is often
         overstressed, more like English 'hw' or 'huw'. This occasionally will
         happen in the other known dialects, but it usually limited to stresses
         of deliberate intent, especially in Kumburan.

     ' - this indicates a sound that is frequently uttered, but not written in
         English. It is a glottal stop, that slight catch in the throat between
         the two syllables of English 'uh-oh' or 'uh-huh'. When Klingon ' comes
         at the end of a word, the vowel preceeding the ' is often repeated in
         a soft whisper, as if a weak echo. When ' follows  y  or  w at the end
         of a word, there is often a whispered, echoed  u  or I, respectively.
         Occasionally, the echo is quite audible, with a gutteral soung like
         gh  preceeding the echoed vowel. This commonly occurs in Kumburan, but
         in other dialects this extra-heavy echo is heard most often when the
         speaker is extremely angry or excited.



                               *** STRESS ***



         Each word in Klingonaase of more than one syllable normally contains
one stressed (or accented) syllable. The stressed syllable is pronounced at a
slightly higher pitch and with a little more force than the nonstressed one(s).

         In a verb, the stressed syllable is usually the verb itself, as
opposed to any prefix or suffix. However, if a suffix ending with  ' is separ-
ated from the verb by at least one other suffix, both the verb and the suffix
ending in  ' are stressed. Suffixes indicating negation or emphasis are frequ-
ently stressed, as is the interogative suffix.

         In a noun, the stressed syllable is usually the syllable right before
the first noun suffix. If, however, a syllable ending in  ' is present, it is
usually stressed instead. If there are two syllables in a row that end with a
' , then both are equally stressed.

         Finally, it should be noted that there are some words which seem to
have variable stress patterns, with the stress sometimes switching from one
syllable to another. This has even been recorded as happening when a word is
spoken twice in the same sentence. This phenomenon is not yet understood, but
if accepted rules are followed, stress will wind up on accepted syllables.

         In this text series, the system used to transliterate Klingonaase does
not indicate stress. The sole exception to this is the phrase text file at the
end of this series.

