Compiled by E.T.

Disclaimer 1:

I am not a linguist. The following is correct to the absolute best of my knowledge, but may contain inaccuracies either due to oversimplification or due to my own understanding being coloured by the languages I have studied.

Disclaimer 2:

Linguistics is not an exact science. The exact meaning of many of the following terms may vary by language. Much of this terminology was developed to describe Indo-European languages and may already be of limited applicability for other families of Earth natural languages, let alone an alien language like Klingon. Whether or not a certain term can/should be used to describe Klingon can therefore be contentious. Similarly, it may be possible to describe aspects of the language in more than one way.

Disclaimer 3:

This glossary uses terms generally in usage by Terran linguists and grammarians. Not all of these terms have been used by Marc Okrand to describe aspects of the Klingon language. Some Klingonists may therefore refuse to use them or deny their applicability. This glossary is simply intended to give Klingonists without much prior knowledge of linguistic terms an overview of terms in use by the community. This glossary is also not aiming at general completeness; it attempts to list only the terms in any way applicable to Klingon, though some that are not may be included for contrast.

Phonology: the study of speech sounds

Vowels

[sec:VowDesc]

Vowel space:

The space in the that is used to produce . Also the name of an either trapezoidal or triangular diagram used to map vowels.

Openness, open vs. closed vowels:

How far the tongue and lower jaw open the mouth, see image below.

Vowel height, low vs. high vowels:

How far the back of the tongue is lifted, see image below. This is mostly equivalent to openness and the description of open vs. closed is now preferred.

Backness, back vs. front vowels:

How far back or forward the back of the tongue is lifted. See the above picture for front vowel positions; for back vowels, the middle of the tongue is lowered and the dorsum pushed towards the back of the throat, like the vowel [u:] (as in English “loop”).

Roundedness, rounded vs. unrounded vowels:

How much the lips form a rounded shape.

Cardinal vowel:

A vowel in which the tongue is in an extreme position.

Nasal:

A pronounced with a lowered which makes the airstream go out through both the mouth and nose. Vowels are nasal in the Krotmag and Tak’ev dialects of Klingon.

Length:

How long or short a vowel is pronounced, marked in with a colon. Klingon vowels are all short, except for the written Iy. Note that in English, lengthening a vowel generally changes the vowel itself, cf. “slip” [slp] and “sleep” [sli:p], however, Australian English f. ex. contrasts [æ] (as in “lad”) and [æ:] (as in “bad”).

Raised:

When the tongue is raised higher than is typical in a certain vowel.

Retracted:

When the root of the tongue is pulled back towards the throat in a vowel.

Fronted:

When the tongue and lower jaw move forward in vowels.

[sec:VowChart]

Klingon vowel space with and marked. Locations are to be seen as approximate and likely more extreme than what most speakers actually pronounce. Diphthongs are marked by arrows that show the movement from the first to the second vowel. This shows more clearly why Iy is phonetically a (when following its description in TKD) as it does not move in the vowel space. The Okrandian spelling is to the left with notation in square brackets to the right.

Sound processes: How sounds change or interact

Assimilation:

When a changes in contact with another phoneme to make one or both phonemes easier to pronounce. In English, the letter “n” before “b” or “p” is often assimilated into an “m” (pronounce the phrase “ten books” quickly). Klingon does not have assimilation, but particularly beginners may assimilate f. ex. the St in qaStaHvIS to either using an English “sh” in place of the Klingon S or to using a retroflex “T” as well. Both are done in order to avoid the large movement of the tongue between the retroflex and . This is to be avoided.

Rhoticity:

Whether or not the letter “r” is pronounced in . Typically an English concept, where rhotic accents such as Scottish, Irish or General American pronounce the “r” in words like “water” in some way, while non-rhotic accents such as most Southern English or Australian accents instead change and lengthen the final . In this framework, Klingon is always rhotic; the word qar therefore rhymes with Scottish/Irish pronunciation of “car”, but not with the Oxford English pronunciation of that same word.

Gemination, consonant lengthening:

A being articulated for a longer period of time; on Earth common in languages such as Italian, Japanese, Finnish and most Semitic languages. In Klingon, it is used by some speakers when two of the same consonant neighbour one another across a border. A word like qettaH may therefore be pronounced either [’qhth.thx] (no gemination) or [’qht:hx] (gemination). Note that in English a written double consonant typically the preceding rather than geminating the doubled consonant.