tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 23 15:05:29 2004

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Re: Use of {qI'}

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Voragh:
> > Related vocabulary includes the noun {mab} "treaty" and the verb
> > {qI'} "sign (a treaty)".

ghel ngabwI':
>Do we know if {qI'} can also be used to refer to a contract, or a guestbook?
>Or is it limited to treaties?

This is a very old argument on this list.

{qI'} has never been used by Okrand.  Some believe that "(a treaty)" is 
quite restrictive; i.e. it should be read as "only treaties" and nothing 
else.  Others (me included) think that Okrand's parenthetical phrases are 
simply meant to distinguish one English meaning from another.  (E.g. {Dan} 
"occupy [military term] or {yov} "charge [mil] vs. {Huj} "charge [up]".  If 
you page through the English-Klingon side of the glossary in TKD you can 
see other examples.) I believe that {qI'} refers to signing anything and 
the note should be read "e.g. a treaty".

Although it wouldn't occur to most of us, the verb "sign" has two major 
meanings in English:  to affix one's signature and to gesture (i.e. use 
sign language).  Remember that Okrand works (or worked) for the Closed 
Captioning Institute - an organization which adds captions to movies and TV 
programs for the benefit of deaf viewers - and it's likely that he hears 
the term "sign" to refer to communicating via American Sign Language (ASL) 
fairly often.  (I would be very surprised to learn that a linguist like 
Okrand hadn't learned it himself, considering where he works.)  So he would 
immediately see the ambiguity of just glossing {qI'} as "sign".

As to why he wrote "(a treaty)" as opposed to, say, "(your name}" I can 
only guess that this is because treaties form an important part of Trek 
(e.g. the Organian Peace Treaty).  In fact, the Khitomer Accords were 
signed following the Khitomer Conference, which forms the background to ST6.

(BTW, the only time we saw a Klingon sign anything IIRC was in DS9 when 
Gowron agreed to be bound by the Khitomer Accords again, after he had 
withdrawn during the build-up to the Dominion War.  He signed by pressing 
his thumb to a PADD.)

But unless someone has asked Okrand, all this is just speculation.


-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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