tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 21 20:07:43 1996
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Re: Engishization of Klingon (Was: RE: KLBC a phrase about Honor)
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>Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 13:34:44 -0800
>From: Terry Donnelly <[email protected]>
>
>I wonder if there's any chance of Okrand ever turning "maintenance" of
>his language over to a third party? (Probably, if it stops making
>money!) But seriously, the KLI would be the logical entity. I have a
>recurring fantasy of this happening.
It's a fantasy I occasionally have also... and I'm sort of hoping it
doesn't come true.
Certainly the KLI would be a logical choice. And likely a bad one. The
Klingon community, sadly, is NOT a unified one. Not only are there more
than one organized group studying Klingon, but there are all the
individuals out there. The one unifying force in all Klingonism is
Okrand. If he were to hand the reins over to the KLI and say "OK, it's
your language now," I wouldn't in the least fault anyone (especially the
ILS) who thought the language was no longer "original," and that the
pronouncements of the "heir" were no longer really "authentic" Klingon. It
just wouldn't be the same. Klingon is Okrand's creation, and his it pretty
much remain.
Now, I do agree to some extent that Okrand's been a little careless here
and there lately. But I don't think it is to an extreme extent. He *does*
still care about the language, and *is* still concerned with keeping some
linguistic purity in it. Some of the problem is simply that the language
has by now gotten too big to fit all in his head at once. He can't
remember all the previous canon and check for consistency, or all the rules
at once. We can do a better job, because there are more of us. Having him
turn over Klingon to a group with him still as final arbiter is another
thing altogether. That might work out (depending on how well he maintained
his control). Some suggestions regarding ways to help solve this problem
have actually been suggested to him (and he likes some), but he's a little
too heads-down in work most of the time.
>The main danger in this would be dissention in the ranks, especially if
>one's favorite construction were disallowed. We would need a rigorous
>process fair to all involved for deciding issues, and the discipline of
>Klingon warriors to abide by the KLI's decisions. But I'd rather have
>the Hol in the hands of people I trust, who have the skill and the love
>of the language to do right by it, than in the erratic hands it's in
I dunno. A group of people arguing their favorite viewpoints is likely to
be even more erratic than Okrand has been (I think "erratic" is too strong
a word at any rate). It's bad enough when we can't agree now that we say
"we'll have to await clarification"; can you imagine if we had to decide on
an answer and some of US make others wrong?
>now. (Am I the only one dismayed by Okrand's musing (threat?) that
>Klingon orthography might not be alphabetic?)
I'm not dismayed. I rather hope it turns out not to be, and we get a nice
weird one. I hope he gives us an excuse to make the alphabetic one "OK",
like the excuse I use, but I'd be quite happy with a non-alphabetic
system. Alphabets are too easy. Given Klingon's mainly CVC structure, I,
too, think a syllabary would go well. It wouldn't need over 4000 glyphs;
consider a hybrid system of some symbols for the CV combinations (including
diphthongs or not among V) and another set of final bare consonants for use
at the ends of syllables. That's not all that unheard-of in a writing
system. (of course, various exceptions for rgh and whatnot). Or alphabets
or syllabaries for the content words and special symbols for the affixes
(as someone suggested). So we'd even have different spellings for the two
meanings of -wI', etc.
~mark
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