tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 21 07:06:32 1997

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Re: New suffix in KGT



ja' peHruS:
>In a message dated 97-08-20 04:03:34 EDT, SuStel writes:
>
><< This is the only sort of thing that worries me about the new book. Now that
> we have slang ways to say things which needed to be recast before, people are
> going to start relying on these slang terms, and never learn "proper" Klingon.
>  We must start learning *when* to use the special rules presented in KGT.
>  >>
>
>wa' DoS wIqIp
>
>As much as I have wanted to see rhetoric in Klingon, it feels good as a
>bland, direct language.  I am afraid of misuse of the slang and dialectal
>phrases.  I, too, do not want to dilute tlhIngan Hol (ta' Hol, not
>necessarily including all those mu'mey ghoQ).  I hope we learn KLI-approved
>tlhIngan Hol properly first and use only slang we understand clearly to
>enhance our speech, not replace it.

jImIS qoj bImIS.  jaS SuStel wIyajlaw'.
SuStel qech vIqelDI', pabqoqmo' jIbIt.
mughwI'vaD Sengbe' mu'mey ghoQ.
yajmeH qunqoq SovnIS 'IjwI', 'ach qay'be' pab chut.

pabqoq ghoQ lo'lu'DI' mughwI'vaD qay'bej.
pabna' pabqoq'e' je Sovbe'chugh, yajlaHbe'.

That's not how I understood SuStel's concern.  While I too am worried
about people trying to use "cute" grammar before learning how proper 
speech should work, appropriate use of "rhetoric" doesn't bother me. 
It makes me shudder to think that someone might latch onto the "suffix"
{?-luH} and go *looking* for a reason to use it in everyday speech, 
but I don't have a problem with phrases like "Break a pipius."

Klingon is (and should be) direct, certainly.  But that doesn't have 
to imply "bland" at all; colorful metaphors are very much a part of a 
language's existence.

We already use idioms and rely on assumed knowledge all the time, most
often when someone uses a replacement proverb.  There are quite likely
a lot of people reading this that don't yet know what a replacement 
proverb is, when and why one should be used, and what the result of it
is supposed to be.  Imagine this is your first week as a tlhIngan-Hol 
subscriber, and you're already translating like a pro, when you come 
across the phrase {latlh qabDaq qul yIchenmoH HIvDI' veqlargh}.  It's 
simple to translate, but there's an awful lot of background behind 
that sentence that you need to have in order to understand it.

-- ghunchu'wI'



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