ja' naHQun:
>In tlhIngan Hol; it seems; it is merely a place holder
>so that NO words start with a vowel.
The letter {'} is a whole lot more than a mere placeholder. It's a
full-fledged consonant. It's no less of a sound than any other, and its
presence or absence changes the word. The usual example is this pair:
tI - vegetation (n)
tI' - repair (v)
-- ghunchu'wI'