tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 31 17:51:26 1995
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Re: A new Klingon word?
On Fri, 31 Mar 1995, Joel Anderson wrote:
> > The word is Jat'yIn. I'm usually hesitant to accept every Klingon word
>
> What is the source of the spelling? Actually if you change it to
> "jatyIn" you get a compound word, C: jatyIn: tongue | life, which
> actually could make some sense, if you think of "possession" by a
> ghost as giving "life" to a "tongue" once stilled by death.
That spelling is from Okuda's Star Trek Encyclopedia. The spelling is
part of the problem, if the word was spelled using standard tlhIngan Hol
orthography, I would be much more willing to accept it as a tlhIgnan Hol
word.
> But I have to disagree with your comments regarding canon.
>
> The correct rule, the 'orthodox' Trek canon, is that only what is
> filmed is ever official, with various degrees assigned to any of the
> ancillary material. This is why all of the official references, (Tech
> Manuals, Chronology, Encyclopedia) are solely based on what is filmed.
> I've discussed this online with Okuda (author of the TNG ref manual
> and other refs, and production crew on TNG,DS9 and Voyager), and John
> Ordover (Pocket Book Trek Novel editor) and like it or not, it is the
> official rule. [BTW, coming down the pike is an official "Ferengi
> Rules of Acquisition" book].
I don't disagree with this definition of canon. I'm referring to the
what constitutes a canon word of the specific dialect of Klingon which we
study and speak. If a customer tells the propietor of the Klingon
restaurant on DS9 "p'kar tel durg le frankn'l" (DS9 episode: Melora), that
doesn't necessarily mean that these words are canon tlhIngan Hol. When I
refer to tlhIngan Hol, I'm referring to one specific dialect of Klingon,
the dialect which is presented in TKD which we practice speaking on this
List. I'm likely to regard words which grossly deviate from tlhIngan Hol
as we know it to another dialect, archaic Klingon, or an alien translation
of a Klingon word. Sure, these words are canon, but there is nothing that
would indicate that these words are the same dialect which we are studying.
If you have such easy access to Okuda, I would wholeheartedly encourage
you to ask him to promote the introduction of words which we could add to
our tlhIngan Hol vocabulary. That would necessitate the presentation of
new words in standard tlhIngan Hol orthography and phrases in conventional
tlhIngan Hol grammar. E.g. {jatyIn} instead of "Jat'yIn".
When we see phrases like "qab jIH nagil", no one here is going to make
annotations in their TKD to include such constructions.
> yIrojqu'! > Joel. >
yoDtargh