tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 11 07:07:25 2014
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Rant about verbs of motion
A couple more quotes:
Agreeing is not a trait typically associated with Klingon nature,
however, and apparently, at least under certain circumstances,
this may extend to grammar as well. (KGT p.172)
And my favorite...
In the 16th century the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund once made a grammatical mistake in his Latin. When told of this, he replied, "Ego sum imperator Romanorum, et supra grammaticam."
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
> 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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