tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 15 12:12:05 1996

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

<Qapla'!> (was: Re: nuq?)

Looks like time to remind people -- or inform them, for those who haven't
heard (of) it -- about Okrand's interview on NPR (that's the U.S. National
Public Radio network).

After discussion of Klingon, how M.O. had come to be involved with it,
what it was about, and so on, the time ran out, and the interview ended
about like this (from memory):

     ****************

Q: Well, we have to wrap this up now. Tell me, Dr. Okrand, how does a
Klingon say goodbye?

A: He doesn't. When he's finished his business he just leaves. 
	(sound of chair scraping across floor)
	(sound of footsteps walking away)
	(sound of door opening, a few more footsteps, door closing)

Q: And... that's Dr. Marc Okrand, the inventor of the Klingon language.

     ******************

Although we have plenty of ideas that we don't know how to express in
Klingon (HIHarHa': I took down and typed up the Wish List at the qep'a'
wejDIch!), we seldom have positive canonical evidence that no
expression exists in Klingon for a given concept. But here we do. Here is
unequivocal canon stating that
	KLINGONS DON'T SAY GOODBYE

This social action is alien to their culture and therefore has no
expression in their language, much as English has no formula to be used
on accidentally meeting the gaze of the person you are conversing with.
For us, such an event is nonexistent, undefined, because in our
culture(s) we expect to look each other in the eye a lot; but there are
cultures in which doing this (at least to an elder) is a great insult, and I
suppose these cultures probably have words or actions to cover such a
highly charged event. For Klingons, leaving is what you do when you're
done with whatever you meant to do here, and that's all. It has no more
social significance than breathing, and so it has no special expression.
Period.

     marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'! 
Subcmdr. Markemm, Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!
**              Mark A. Mandel : [email protected]             **
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
=> KLINGON PAGE! http://www.dragonsys.com/klingon/klingon2.html <=

Back to archive top level