tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 10 21:12:35 2001
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Re: *Paramount* chaw'
ja' QIS:
> As with any living language, anyone can coin a new word.
In my opinion, Klingon isn't quite a living language. It's just a good
simulation of one. The speaker base is small and scattered enough that
most of us have decided to make the effort to use only words which can be
understood by someone who isn't part of "the group". I know that *I* am
not trying to create a language. I'm trying to use a language which
already exists.
We have certainly failed somewhat in this. Members of "the group" can
recognize a pseudo-word or two which do not appear in the official lexicon,
and likely never will. There are pseudo-cultural references which are
completely lost on people who don't have the shared history of "the group".
Some conventions have arisen and have been accepted by "the group" almost
to the point of becoming rules of grammar. But I'm pretty confident that
the goal has been met sufficiently well that one doesn't need to have
participated in this mailing list in order to know Klingon well enough to
read Qo'noS QonoS, for example.
>...I suspect most on this list worship Okrand and would ignore your new
>word.
The term "worship" is rather stronger than I'd put it. I prefer to call it
"respect". One does not paint eyebrows on the Mona Lisa, run _Finnegan's
Wake_ through a spelling checker, or glue earrings on Michelangelo's David.
Similarly, an appropriate respect for the language which Marc Okrand has
crafted demands that we not distort it by bolting on our own creations.
If your "new word" follows the rules as we know them, fine. If its use is
understandable in its context, great. If you're engaging in wordplay for
effect rather than for communication, be prepared for either commendation
or condemnation -- and recognize that groans might be either. :-) However,
if you just invent a Klingon word at random because you don't want to spend
a sentence or so describing something, expect grumbles and flames, not
applause.
>...I wouldn't
>invent a word just for the sake of doing it, but if you feel there is a
>real need for a word and others agree with you, there you go.
Bah. I am perhaps unqualified to speak strongly against this, as I have
twice enjoyed the privilege of asking Marc Okrand for a word and receiving
an answer. Even so, I still think that "inventing" a Klingon word is
unacceptably presumptious.
If you feel there is a real need for a word, please don't make one up.
Make a good argument for its necessity and you'll probably be able to get
your wish communicated to Okrand, who might find a "natural" way to express
the idea, or might provide exactly the word you want, or might announce
that Klingon has no word for that particular concept (e.g. "hypochondria").
Borrow a word from another language in the meantime. We often do that in
English, after all.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh