tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 11 06:59:41 2014

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Rant about verbs of motion

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



SuStel:
> Qov needs to strongly remind her students what Okrand says in the
> introduction to TKD:
> 
>     It should be remembered that even though the rules say "always" and
>     "never," when Klingon is actually spoken these rules are sometimes
>     broken. What the rules represent, in other words, is what Klingon
>     grammarians agree on as the "best" Klingon.
> 
> There's really nothing else for it. I suspect that Okrand realizes he's
> contradicted himself from time to time, and is okay with that on this
> basis.

Two more Okrand quotations:

   The grammatical sketch is intended to be an outline of Klingon grammar,
   not a complete description. Nevertheless, it should allow the reader
   to put Klingon words together in an acceptable manner... It is not
   possible, in a brief guide such as this, to describe the grammar of
   Klingon completely. What follows is only a sketch or outline of Klingon
   grammar. Although a good many of the fine points are not covered, the
   sketch will allow the student of Klingon to figure out what a Klingon
   is saying and to respond in an intelligible, though somewhat brutish,
   manner. Most Klingons will never know the difference.
                           — Marc Okrand, The Klingon Dictionary (intro)

   ...the course to follow for a student probably falls somewhere between.
   You don't want to go too fast and loose or too far afield because then
   nobody will understand what you are doing. You won't have any rules at
   all. You don't want to be too rigorous, either. It's not math. One of
   the things that I think about when I read what people have to say about
   Klingon sometimes is when someone argues that things have to be one way,
   I think, "No, it shouldn't always be like that." It should be like that
   in maybe 75% or 80% of the cases, but not 100%. Languages don't work
   that way.
                               — Interview with Marc Okrand (HolQeD 7.4)

Or in other words:

   Any fool can make a rule. And every fool will mind it.
                                                 — Henry David Thoreau


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons


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