tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 02 21:25:53 2006

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Re: How do you say "pizza" in Klingon?

Stephen A. Carter ([email protected]) [KLI Member]



On Wed, 2 Aug 2006 20:56:58 -0700 (PDT), Eric Zay wrote:
>That's not the same situation at all.  During WWII Japan was ruled by an emperor the Japanese believed to be a god.  That puts an entirely different spin on the situation.  It raises the use of unwanted words almost to the level of blasphemy.  

I don't believe you're correct.  For one thing, in Japan it was the
military government that decreed the changes, not the emperor -- just
as in Iran, it's the president decreeing the changes, not the
mullahs.  (And if you argue that the Japanese ultranationalists were
pushing their agenda through in the name of the emperor, I'll argue
that any moves the president of Iran makes are at the whim of the
ayatollah who is the Supreme Leader, the clerics in his Council of
Guardians and Expediency Discernment Council, and the Islamic
Consultative Assembly.)

Even if you're right, though, it doesn't change the point that
top-down language control is perfectly possible if the speakers go
along with it, as my other examples showed.


-- Stephen Carter
   [email protected]
   Nagoya, Japan







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