tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 18 07:52:05 1996
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Re: perpetual Today Is A *****
On Wed, 17 Jan 1996, Dennis Orosz wrote:
> I think you've been debateing the nuances of the grammer so damn long
> your losing touch with the language...the soul of a warrior is the soul
> of a romantic, a poet,
You obviously do not know the man of whom you speak. charghwI', as long
as I have known him, has always tried to express himself with Klingon from
the perspective of a warrior. I would identify him as a model of creative
expression, whose very success hinges upon his ability to cast his
thoughts as a Klingon, while staying within the bounds of the grammar of
tlhIngan Hol.
> But we ought not to be so hung up on every slight digression that we
> loose the ability to communicate with the non linguists around us.
> ...but grow the language and learn to speak
> it as it ought be spoken...Klingon is a "living language". [...]
> It should contain
> corruptions and adoptions [...].
> And the "average" Klingon is one hell of a lot more concerned with survival
> then he/she is with grammer.
You are missing the point by a mile. What is the point of language?
Communication. I would not accept the claim that Klingon is a "living"
language. There are no native speakers. There are no communities for
whom Klingon is the primary language. We have a group of people who
study the language, and communicate as best we can with the tools we have.
If we permit "corruptions" and "adoptions" to the language, then we are
hindering our ability to communicate with the language. By accepting and
respecting the grammar, we allow ourselves the freedom to be expressive
with the language, secure in the knowledge that we will be understood by
people who also respect and understand the grammar. If we deviate from
the grammar, then our audience will not know how to interpret our use of
the language, and then communication breaks down. We can't go to a
native speaker and ask, "what do you think it means when I say X?" Our
sole source of knowledge about the grammar is Okrand, and we must stay
faithful to what we know.
You can't consider Klingon to be a living, breathing and growing language
like English. We don't have that luxury, because we don't have a
community of native speakers. Because our community of speakers is so
small, any distortions introduced to the language will only serve to
weaken it's utilitiy as a medium of communication.
The challege, rather, is to learn to use the tools that the grammar
of Klingon provides, to express oneself clearly, as a warrior. How do we
say "have a nice day"? va! bIHegh DaneH'a'? Think like a warrior! And
as far as I can recollect, this philosophy of language use was first
articulated clearly by charghwI', the man who you claim has lost touch
with the language. yIDoghQo'!
> I'm sorry to have been on this soapbox so long but you can't divorce the
> language from its speakers and expect it to make sense and this labratory
> atmosphere of stative verbs and glottial stops; sigh. Seems to me to
> completely lose the Klingon from Klingon.
We *are* its speakers. tlhIngan Hol wIjatlh maH neH. 'ej
choyajchu'chugh vaj pab Dayajchu'nIS. pab vIpabbe'chugh vaj
choyajlaHchu'be'. pab vIpabchugh 'ej pab Dayajchu'be', vaj
choyajlaHchu'be'. 'ej mayajchuqlaHchu'be', vaj maQumlaHbe'.
maQumlaHbe'DI', QapHa' Hol.
> Dennis
--Holtej