tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 29 09:37:02 2003

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Re: MOST terminology

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

From: "Christian Einfeldt" <[email protected]>
> Okay.  Thanks.  Good to know.  I was under the mistaken impression,
> then, that Dr. Okrand was like the clockmaker who creates the clock,
> winds the clock, and then lets the universe expand on its own
> momentum.  It sounds like that impression was incorrect.  It sounds as
> if there might even be regular reviews or meetings which Dr. Okrand
> conducts to evaluate new submissions, etc?  Is that guess correct?  or
> how does Dr. Okrand meet and interact with the Klingonist community,
> which I guess is rather large and international.

Oh, no.  In order to study "The Klingon Language," as opposed to "Somebody
Else's Klingon Language," it's necessary to act as a fictional
anthropologist/linguist, and try to capture pieces of the Klingon language
as actually spoken by Klingons.  This, anyway, is the theoretical basis of
this list, and one of the guiding principles of the KLI, at least as far as
I see it.

There are no committees, no reviews, no official means to decide language
issues.  If Klingons were real, then such institutions would be pointless:
how could a committee decide the proper use of someone else's language?  We
(the mailing list and the KLI, for the most part) stick to the story that
Marc Okrand has a Klingon contact who is providing this information, and
when Marc announces information, it.is "real" in that it comes from a
Klingon.  Certainly Okrand himself keeps up this story: most of his articles
in HolQeD these days refer to Maltz (his Klingon informant) and how he feels
about certain pieces of language information.

If a group of people were to decide that they were going to form a committee
to expand Klingon, would this really be Klingon anymore?  It might be
"Klingon Mk. II" or "Committee Klingon," but it wouldn't be the Klingon
spoken by Klingons and reported to us by Okrand.

What if Okrand were on this committee?  I doubt he'd do it.  He's a busy
man, having nothing to do with Klingon.  I think he's as attached to the
idea of a Klingon informant telling us real information about the language
as some of us are.

He does compromise, though.  The KLI gives him an annual "wish list," in
which we suggest words, topics, and ideas for him to ask Maltz about.
Sometimes Maltz gets back to him on some of these things, and he writes up
an article for HolQeD.  (The upcoming HolQeD article about body functions is
an example of this.)  He has been asked to make translations for a number of
Star Trek- and Klingon-related products, including trading cards, a poster,
even a television commercial, and from these we often learn more about
Klingon.

My fear is that if Klingon were to be expanded by committee, that committee
would turn this alien language into one that contains mostly familiar
concepts.  "We need a word for 'car'" would produce the "Klingon" word for
"car."  Do Klingons even USE cars?  Do they have their own word for it, or
have they just borrowed an English term?

SuStel
Stardate 3993.5

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