Sound categories

Consonant:

pronounced with complete or partial closure of the .

Vowel:

pronounced without any closure of the vocal tract. Usually the of a .

Semivowel, semiconsonant, glide:

A phoneme that is similar to a vowel but functions as rather than its nucleus. Used in Klingon as a possible way to analyse as a combination of vowel and semivowel. In this case, the letters w and y, usually used as , denote the semivowels [] and [], which are pronounced the same as the vowels [u] and [i].

Monophthong:

A single

Diphthong, vowel glide:

Combination of two adjacent vowel sounds into one syllable, as in Klingon words like maw or yay, unless these are seen as a combination of and

Fronting vs. backing:

Whether the second vowel is pronounced more to the front or the back than the first (see ). Could be used to describe Klingon diphthongs that end in y vs. those that end in w.

Monograph:

A single letter that represents a single .

Multigraph:

A combination of more than one letter that represents a single .

Digraph:

Two letters that represent one phoneme; Klingon has ch, gh and ng.

Trigraph:

Three letters that represent one phoneme; Klingon has tlh.