tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 17 15:58:50 1996

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Re: parmaq (par'mach) - oh, it *IS* canon, eh?

At 02:25 PM 12/17/96 -0800, Joel Anderson wrote:
>I never addressed the spelling, using  it as given, since we don't
>know from what Klingon dialect it comes (although I speculated on
>its origin as being made up of par and mach). ...

And that's why you think because YOU said it was a canonical word, that YOU
were right. You were not. First off, you can't make a compound word out of
verbs. And "small" being a noun is just not done. Same with "dislike". So it
can't be a compound word.

All Dr. Okrand's doing is "covering Paramount's ass". Just because a
Paramount writer throwing pencils at the roof thought of a new Klingon word,
doesn't mean it's canon. NOW it's canon because Mr. Okrand said so. It was
NOT, however, when you had originally written your statement. It could have
been in his head at the time, but now we have a WRITTEN STATEMENT from the
man himself. And, it is spelled differently than the word in the episode,
and that means a lot. (Just another factor to the conclusion that Okrand's
saving Paramount).

>Others speculated
>on spelling, and attempted to make it conform to known tlhIngan
>Hol orthography.

And that's what Okrand did -- finally.

>I appreciate Okrand's (rather more healthy, IMHO) response to the 
>DS9 episode, namely to use the wacko-klingon used in DS9 as an
>opportunity. "Ah, a new word we can use!".  [those so inclined may
>feel free to insert the obligatory canned "But, but, ONLY Okrand can
>create new words" here. While you are free to think so, I don't believe he
>wrote or consulted on this episode.]

bIlughba'. But it still doesn't make it a canon word. It's a language. It
has to CONFORM TO THE ORTHOGRAPHIC RULES. They can't just throw a word in
here and there, not caring about grammar, because then it wouldn't be a full
language any more. A language is a form of communication that encompasses
grammar.

-mayq

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