tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 12 01:19:56 1994

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Re: Martial Art Form



Amy West wrote:

> Normally I =do= just ignore the Klingon jibberish on the 
> shows.. like that restaurant scene on DSN.. ugh!  But when
> they actually say "X" means "Y", it makes you think twice...

Sadly, this does need to be considered canon.  I don't like it either (though
I haven't seen this episode yet, it probably airs here this evening), but
there's an important thing to consider:  Dorn is an actor, and one who
doesn't have quite the same interest in linguistic matters as the readers of
this list.  When *any* actors are reading scripts with Klingon words, you
have to try and figure out how they're mangling the sounds and recreate what
was printed in the script (e.g., H vanishs entirely usually, being treated as
the aspiration it is in English).

This seems to be true of most of the people who portray Klingons, with one
notable exception.  Robert O'Reilly (sp?), the actor who does Gowron, calls
Marc Okrand up and runs through the Klingon script with him when he's on the
show.  A real Klingon's Klingon that one.

By the way, for those of you out there who are purists, the KLI is trying to
obtain the Klingon from TNG and DSN scripts, so at least we'll have a better
idea of what they were trying to say.  Not much luck yet, but hang in there,
I'm expecting a lot more elbow room once the nonprofit status finally comes
through.  

Lawrence

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Dr Lawrence M Schoen, Director   ::
:: The Klingon Language Institute   ::
:: POB 634, Flourtown, PA 19031 USA ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



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