The speech of residents of the planet Morska has some identifiable phonological characteristics also. Most striking is the absence of the sound tlh. Syllables ending with tlh in most dialects end with ts (pronounced the same as in Federation Standard ) in the Morskan dialect; at the beginning of syllables, instead of saying tlh, Morskans say something that sounds very much like a combination of standard Klingon gh and l---that is, ghl. Compare, for example (Morskan/ta' Hol):

• ghIts/ghItlh ("write")

• mats/matlh ("be loyal")

• ghlIngan/tlhIngan ("Klingon")

• ghlo'/tlho' ("thank")

• ghluts/tlhutlh ("drink") [[p.23]]

The Morskan dialect also pronounces H differently from the standard way. At the beginning of syllables, H sounds like Federation Standard as in ; at the ends of syllables, H is not pronounced at all:

• hIv/HIv ("attack")

• ba/baH ("fire [a torpedo]")

• hu/HuH ("bile")

Finally, Q at the beginning of syllables is pronounced the same as standard Klingon H:

• Hapla'/Qapla' ("success")

• Hoy/Qoy ("hear")

Because of this pronunciation difference, sometimes speakers of the Morskan dialect and those of ta' Hol misunderstand one another. Words such as the following have been responsible for the loss of more than one life:

• Hagh: Morskan, "make a mistake"/Standard, "laugh"

• Hoj: Morskan, "make war"/Standard, "be cautious"

• HoS: Morskan, "be sorry"/Standard, "be strong"