tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 12 14:44:13 1994

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archaic style?



I'm currently in the process of contemplating my writing of a tlhIngan novel,
in which a couple of very regal characters speak what I would like to be
archaic Hol.

Now, this is not as inconceiveable as it sounds, so hear me out. We do have
canonical evidence that some very formal phrases (albeit only toasts, and
only {-jaj} phrases at that) that sorta kinda indicate that speaking in OSV
carries certain connotations, possibly archaic.

My theory on the {-jaj} OSV issue is this:

Sometime in Klingon past, the language was OSV in unemphatic speech. From
that era came a very many great proverbs, and literature that has been
revered for generations. Thus it is fashionable nowadays to speak OSV, at
least in toasting; in fact it is taboo to do otherwise. There *might*
(<--keyword) be other phrases that carry this special syntax.

This shouldn't be such an alien concept to us. We always remember
Shakespeare's, "To thine own self be true." No one's ever changed it to, "Be
true to your own self," and for good reason.

Well, what I propose to do in my novel is have these two characters speak in
OSV in all their speech. I think it would carry the same literary
connotations observed when modern English literature has its characters use
the archaic, "thou, thee, thy/thine."

But what do y'all think of this idea. I don't know how else to go about
archaizing tlhIngan Hol.

Don't get yourself worked up. This novel (which could be my largest tlhIngan
accomplishment to date, if I pull it off while surviving my hormone roller
coaster) {{:-()! won't be submitted to the KC (KlingonCommunity) in general
until spring, I reckon.


Guido#1, a.k.a. "Boy Wonder!"



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