Proto-Klingon

Proto-Klingon is a hypothetical precursor to the modern Klingon language.

History

Proto-Klingon has been the subject of a number of studies, but still theories about its phonology, grammar and morphology are incomplete at best. Allan Wechsler published an article hypothesising a Proto-Klingon phoneme system in HolQeD 1:1, and the OSV order of older Klingon forms is well documented in canon. Proto-Klingon probably was semi-agglutinating and semi-isolating, with much fewer verb and noun suffixes than it has now. For instance, it is quite possible that the verb suffixes -choH, -laH, -bej, -taH and -Qo' were auxiliary words in Proto-Klingon, not suffixes as they are in the modern language.

Many words share certain elements that seem to hark back to common roots. Some examples are:

• The prefix jI- and the pronoun jIH may be related, as may ma- and maH.
• The noun suffix -chaj may be related to the pronoun chaH, as may -maj and maH.
• The following elements may be from proto-Klingon common roots, or they may be examples of phonaesthemes, along the lines of sl- and gl- in English:
  • The ja- element in many words related to speech (jach shout, jang answer, jat tongue, jatlh say and ja' report).
  • The So- element in the words Sop eat and Soj food.
  • The cha'- element in some bird names (cha'bIp, cha'Do', cha'naS, cha'par and cha'qu').

See also

• Ancient Klingon: no' Hol