tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 29 05:19:24 1994
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Re: please pay some respect to lingual minorities
- From: KLI Round Table Acct <klirt>
- Subject: Re: please pay some respect to lingual minorities
- Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 08:19:23 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Sami Laitala" at Nov 28, 94 04:47:25 pm
> After subscribing THLINGAN-HOL, I received an interesting
> file. I'd like to comment on a few lines in it that annoyed
> me.
>
> > There are basically two kinds of postings that will <
> > appear on this list: <
> > <
> > - Messages about anything, written in Klingon <
> > - Messages about Klingon, written in English <
>
> This gives me an impression that only these languages are
> allowed. I would find that attitude rather awkward since I
> know that people who subscribe and contribute articles to
> thlingan-hol mailings also contribute to such lists as
> esperanto, welsh-l and conlang and I know several subscribers
> of thlingan-hol can read Finnish. It would be a FAIR REQUEST
> to include an English translation or abstract from those
> people, who would feel more confident expressing themselves in
> some other language than English. Non-native English speakers
> like myself can't necessary follow all the hair-splitting
> argumentation on Klingon grammar.
Your point is well taken, and your suggestion is a more than reasonable
solution. I will bring it up with Eli myself and I suspect it will
result in a prompt change of the info letter that goes out to new
subscribers.
> Having said all this I realize that it wasn't meant that way,
> yet I feel offended by suggestion that my language isn't as
> good means of communication as English. Or if it's not that
> then learning Klingon is a privilege of English speakers only,
> and all the others should keep away. Even though this is a
> serious topic, my little remark is not meant to be taken too
> seriously, yet I would like to see those lines changed into
> something more respectful toward speakers of other languages.
The only defense that I can offer is that all materials currently
available about Klingon are written in English, both the canonical works
such as TKD and generated materials such as HolQeD. I do appreciate your
acknowledgement that the oversight in the info letter was not intended as
a slur toward nonEnglish speakers. While I am not a big proponent of
political correctness, I have to agree that the letter is a bit insensitive.
> Even though I can't understand a word of Klingon yet, it seems
> to me that Klingon is agglutinative language like Finnish. (Is
> it?) the idea alone gives me a thrill...
Absolutely. Klingon is indeed an agglutinative language. And, given
that you are a native speaker (presumably) of a similar language, we look
forward to your own insights into Klingon as you become more familiar
with the language and the technical jargon we use here.
> By the way, is there any lingual minorities within the Klingon
> Empire, I just wonder, eh...?
We know there are various dialects of Klingon, and we even know a bit
about them (though to my knowledge no one has done any work really
detailing the phonetic variations heard on the PK tape).
> Sami,
>
> [email protected]
Lawrence
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