tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 13 22:16:17 2003

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Re: Is the language too bound for its own good? (was Re: Klingon - Terminolog...

I tend to fall in the middle on this issue at the present time.  I believe 
the vocabulary is extraordinarily limited.  It is rich enough to say all that 
one would likely want to say perhaps, but there is a great deal that doesn't 
fall into the category of a non-Klingon item (such as taco or dog).  I work on 
translations of poetry, song lyrics, and personal letters to help me expand my 
knowledge of the language.  On many occasions, more than I think there should 
be, I was forced to recast the sentence to the point of ruining the message 
(the worst example to date is my completely failed attempt to translate the Led 
Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" (Heaven to Sto-vo-kor, etc.).  Bear in mind, 
I did have TKD, KGT, and TKW.  
       Also keep in mind, that words in English, though may have multiple 
meanings, may have completely different words for those other meanings in other 
languages.  No examples come to mind, but I know in Spanish and English this is 
true.  So, simply expanding the vocabulary to match the English definitions 
is problematic.
       As far as making the language easier to learn so that others may feel 
more at ease learning it, that is ridiculous.  If a person is intimidated by 
the complexity of the language, it is likely, they will never lean the language 
or any other either.  More likely than not, the average person would not 
learn tlhIngan Hol not due to the complex nature of the language, but due to the 
impracticality of learning the language.  Where other than on this list, a 
qepHom, or qep'a' could an average person ever use tlhIngan Hol?  For us, that is 
not of issue, but to the multitude it is.  
       At any rate, the language is at a crossroads, or nearly coming to one. 
 It has reached a point where it is developed, and has a large following.  It 
has reached a point where it needs to be expanded out.  Colleges need to 
teach it, we need to teach our youth, and we need to make the nature of the 
language to be practical.  We operate businesses, work with others who are our 
friends, we serve the public.  We need to use the language in our places of 
business when it can be, preach and exhort to others of the useful nature of the 
language.  
       The ultimate truth left is that we and relatively few others will ever 
learn and use the language.  Eventually the language will die and all we will 
have is our experiences here.  
-veS joH

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