tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 19 06:45:04 1998
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Re: How do I say...
- From: "Neal Schermerhorn" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: How do I say...
- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 09:51:57 -0400
ghItlh StaZ:
>yeah, just another example of a language becoming too English. =) I
>mean, Japanese is the same way... no punctuation in traditional Japanese,
>but now with communications with America... punctuation is common place
>in the language. =/
When you speak Klingon, however, you put pauses in the speech, you don't
just rattle on like a machine. There is no given way to notate those pauses
and inflections, so punctuation is borrowed. If you would, if speaking the
sentence, come to a stop, use a period. If you'd come to a stop but not want
to end the idea, use a comma. If you are emphatic, ! and if you are asking,
?. I have no problem with these. The only other punctuation I use in Klingon
is the colon, and you can see that above.
I do NOT think Klingon should be punctuated exactly like English with
subordinate clauses set off and all. Remember, the a b ch D e gh H alphabet
is merely a transcription - it's not even 'Klingon' itself, except that it
represents spoken Klingon sounds.
I would surmise that in 'traditional' Japanese, which is ideographic
(term?), they still do not use punctuation as we know it. But again, the
language's Romanized transcription of its spoken variety is just that - a
transcription! The punctuation is just part of the ASCII set which we use to
represent as much of speech as possible.
Qermaq