tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 14 08:47:06 2003
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Re: Is the language too bound for its own good?
- From: "Lawrence Schoen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Is the language too bound for its own good?
- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 06:42:28 -0700
I believe d'Armond's response reflects my own view perfectly, and I applaud him for both his thorougness and the elegance of his words.
In fairness though, I can certainly understand the frustration that some people feel, and the plea for "more" words and so on. But step back and look at the full picture and the history of the KLI. Okrand actively participates in providing new materials, and routinely does so in two ways.
First, he welcomes the annual "wish list" which we compile and present to him at the qep'a'. I'd estimate that better than two thirds of the new vocabulary found in KGT can be traced back to previous wish lists.
Second, he provides new vocabulary and commentary in the guise of "prizes" in various competitions (cf. the current batch of new items from the June 2003 issue of HolQeD), or as acknowledgements of contribution to the language (cf. the Friends of Maltz).
>What I think should happen now is an expanse of the
>language...more books, more publicity, easier ways for people to
>learn the language (because this language is a bit more
>difficult than others and learning a foreign language sucks as
>it is, something should be thought of to win over the masses of
>people too intimidated by the difficulty), and more people
>spreading the language in their own homes/communities/schools.
Well, I've been pushing for more material since we did HAMLET. And in fact we are moving forward. If you're serious in your belief then get onboard one of the various projects and contribute to the effort rather than just grumble or talk about what should be done. The KLI already provides the structure for plenty of work to be done, so as to avoid individuals wasting their energies reinventing the wheel or duplicating one another's efforts. We have people working on translations of Shakespeare and Beowulf and the Tao Te Ching and the works of E.A. Poe, and more besides, and as they come to completion we'll publish them as books. We have people writing original fiction and poetry in Klingon, and we publish these in the issues of jatmey. d'Armond and others have been working on a commercial Klingon textbook, and when that's finished we'll publish it as well.
As for Klingon being "bit more difficult than others" that's utter nonsense. I'm sorry, but languages simply ARE. The relative difficulty new learners experience is a function of their own familiarity with linguistic concepts and their own linguistic bias. This is the same claptrap that causes English speakers to insist that Spanish is "an easier language" than say, Japanese. Nonsense. Spanish is just much more similar (more closely related) to English than is Japanese. There's nothing inherently easy or difficult in any language.
It's a nice excuse, a handy crutch, to say that Klingon is too difficult, but that's all it is. Nonsense.
Lawrence