tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 16 19:29:21 1996
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Re: Dr. Okrand Speaks
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dr. Okrand Speaks
- Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 22:30:14 -0500 ()
- Priority: NORMAL
On Sun, 15 Dec 1996 21:38:36 -0800 Voragh
<[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Dec 1996, charghwI' wrote:
>
> :On one hand, I thank you for sharing. On another hand, I hope
> :this does not lead to Okrand getting inundated with questions
> :and deciding to not answer anything at all in the future.
> :
> :It would have been nice had you asked us first, but then his
> :explanation did have at least one surprise for me.
>
> And why does Kenneth need your permission? If he pays MSN's monthly
> subscription fee, he has a right to use any and all of its features,
> including the Expert Forum BBS of the Klingon Compendium area. Why should
> his membership in KLI prevent him from participating in something he's paid
> for? After all, isn't MSN paying Okrand (either with a check or with free
> Internet access) to participate in order to lure subscribers? As
> someone who can't afford any of the commercial online services, I am
> grateful that Ken shared Okrand's answers to his questions with the rest of
> us.
I am also grateful and expressed myself poorly without more
fully thinking it through. My experience with Okrand has been
that he is very busy and protective of his privacy. I am
concerned that an onslaught of questions may drive him away from
us having any access to him at all. I explicitly said that in
the first paragraph above.
In particular, I was simply responding to the example sentences
that Ken sent to Okrand and I had a
rising-hair-on-the-back-of-my-neck experience as a reflex
because his sentences were so fundamentally flawed and there are
many people here with sufficient expertise to straighten them
out without bothering Okrand.
It just felt like taking a bicycle to a car mechanic to have the
chain oiled. Your MOM could do THAT.
But, by the grace of his response, I see that Okrand offered
something valuable to both Ken and the rest of us. I am
thankful to Okrand and to Ken and hope nobody is offended.
Please realize that I've put a lot into learning this language
well for a lot of years, (I think I'm one of a dozen people who
got HolQeD vol. 1, no. 1 during the original first mailing) and
I have never enjoyed such casual access to Okrand. I had already
decided to join MSN and am still waiting for my CD to arrive,
and I see a newbie pass an ugly pile of words to Okrand and in
Okrand's response, I get a question answered that I've humbly
waited about two years to have answered.
Yes, I had a little tinge of negativity in my immediate
response. There is a limit to my regret for this minor flaw.
> If no one asks Okrand questions, MSN will let him go. Besides, who else is
> going to ask him about tlhIngan Hol? Rihanssu RPGers? Kardasi enthusiasts?
You are quite right. So long as he doesn't get flooded with
stuff that gains us nothing, this is a good thing. I'm sure I'll
write some if my membership ever happens, and I'll surely share
the results as well. What good would it do for me to know
something about the language that nobody else knew, after all?
I'd be a dialect, all by myself. That's the thing about language.
So, maybe we'll find out if Okrand likes the word {'arlogh}...
> Voragh
charghwI'