tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 27 20:58:46 1997
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Re: "Soldiers of the Empire" and KGT
- From: "Neal Schermerhorn" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: "Soldiers of the Empire" and KGT
- Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 00:01:32 -0400
ghItlh SuSvaj:
>I have to agree. I'm as frustrated with the apathetic attitudes of Star
>Trek writers as anyone else. It makes me especially angery that Paramount
>is sueing HetaQ for possession of a language that it seems only vaguely
>aware of. But I think it is a credit to Okrand that he tries to bridge the
>gap....
True - the postings on this thread are all true. We cannot forget, however,
that this language was begun as "Paramount nonsense", and that MO created
it as a job. This means that when his bosses approve something as part of
the Klingon mythos, his responsibility to them and to this language is to
incorporate it or cover their asses, as different viewpoints would see it.
He did not create this language as a fan's exercise, nor as a favor to us.
It was his job. If my employer provides less-than-optimal equipment to me,
I must make the best use of it as I can. No use in whining.
Now, that does not mean I do not ever whine! But we all need to recognize
how this language came to exist in the first place. If our mission was to
create a KLI dialect, we could easily (well, maybe not 'easily') do that.
But that is not our mission - we recognize as proper Klingon only what MO
gives us. He gives us 99% regular comprehensible tlhIngan Hol and 1%
"Paramount nonsense" he needs to incorporate somehow. Not a bad percentage,
if you consider how natural languages are so rarely as regular. So I feel
that these backfits and weirdnesses are really elements of complexity and
analysis-resistance which make Klingon more like a natural language.
We so often complain about not enough new words. Be careful what you wish
for - you just might get it!
As for why the writers don't use the tlhIngan Hol as accurately as we do -
a similar question is Why can't we write as well as they do? It takes years
of practice to perfect either discipline. I think it would be wonderful for
Paramount to make use of the offered volunteer assistance in translating
Klingon dialogue, but it would then probably not be pronounced properly
anyway - and there is the problem. If Klingon was easy, everyone would be
doing it. But the continuous debate on this list - many years old - is a
sign that this is not an easy task on any level, from the writing to the
speaking to the understanding of the language. I lament the inability to
understand most of what I hear spoken on ST. But because it is complex
enough to attract our interest, it is also complex enough to limit who can
employ it easily. An unfortunate 'Catch-22', but a fact of life. Oh well...
Qermaq