tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 13 06:43:25 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Rampant Punctuation
- From: "David W. Schaefer" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Rampant Punctuation
- Date: 13 Jun 96 09:36:03 EDT
>>Should English punctuation be used in tlhIngan Hol?
SuStel replies:
> If I may: we use Roman letters to represent the "sounds" spoken in Klingon,
but it has nothing to do with how they write it. They use something called
{pIqaD}, which we don't know much about.
Hm. I'm not sure I want to agree with you just yet. I'm very familiar with
pIqaD and the notion that it may be incomplete and therefore allow for possible
symbols for punctuation that have yet to be seen. I can except that on a
certain level. (Both sides of that arguement take leaps of faith that in the
end can't really be argued at all.)
> When using our Roman letter system, there are sometimes ambiguities to be
found in Klingon sentences. For example, {muleghDI' yaS targh vIHoH} could
mean, "When the officer sees me, I kill his targ," or it could mean, "When the
officer's targ sees me, I kill it." These two sentences are very different in
meaning. Which one am I trying to convey?
In tlhIngan Hol, context is everything (any him/her/it verb prefix attests to
that). How many times has our faithful grammarian(s) asked of KLBC folks
"What's the context of what your trying to say?" in order to translate properly?
Sure, it's a difficulty and a high hurdle at times, but this is not an earthly
language.
I might grant you the ambiguity of Roman letters argument, but if we have no
punctuation "discovered" within the pIqaD, then we have no evidence that the
Roman letters we use in order to communicate Klingon onto paper have any
limitations.
> The quick answer: Okrand uses punctuation in his sentences in "The Klingon
Way" (and other sources, I'm told).
I understand the Okrand = canon ideal and all (and my copy of TKW still sits
unfortunately unpurchased on the shelf of Starbase Columbus), but I'd challenge
him on his punctuation usage. As Teresa Wells states in her masters thesis on
tlhIngan Hol (and I paraphrase), Okrand goal was to create a decidedly alien
language. The whole structure of tlhIngan Hol reflects this. Except for the
English punctuation. If you'll notice, adding English punctuation is a
relatively recent phenomenon -- you'll not find a single mark of punctuation on
anything tlhIngan Hol in TKD.
Dave S.