tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 23 13:59:03 1997
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HablI'mey
ghItlh ghunchu'wI':
>>>>>
tlhob muHwI':
> By the way, why are there Klingon words for Telephone or faxing machine...
There aren't really "Klingon words" for those meanings. The phrases
{ghogh HablI'} and {nav HablI'} are merely convenient ways for us to
express the idea of telephone and facsimile machines using Klingon.
They would be dangerously close to either idiomatic usage or "hindsight"
constructions, except that Marc Okrand was involved when they came up
and he didn't object to them. I consider them to be "canon idiom".
<<<<<
I can provide historical detail on this, because they originated with an idea
and request of mine. After we (Dragon Systems) recorded the "native
speakers" to make the acoustic models to build the speech recognition for the
Language Lab on the Klingon CD-ROM, I got the idea of sending each speaker
a formal thank-you letter. I translated our company letterhead into
Klingon and, using the KLIpIqaD font, scissors, tape, and a color copier,
made a bunch of Dragon Systems stationery with Klingon in pIqaD at the top
and transliterated Klingon and English in small type at the bottom.
But since this was associated with an official Klingon product, I wanted to
be sure my Klingon was correct. I had been working with Marc Okrand by
phone and email during the project, and so I sent him the text of my
transliterated Klingon letterhead, asking especially about my word for
'fax', which at the time was a compound word with no space. He wrote back,
approximately, that he liked the idea, but he would prefer to express it as
a two-word phrase, <nav HablI'>; and he also suggested the corresponding
<ghogh HablI'> for 'telephone'. I either posted these to the list, or
mentioned them to someone who passed them on to charghwI'.
Come to think of it, in the same exchange he made another recommendation. I
didn't mention it at the time because it seemed obvious, but it really
ought to be added to the canonical list. Since my office is in a different
building from the company reception desk I prefer to give people the number
of the fax machine closest to my desk. I put both numbers on the
letterhead, labeling them in English "Klingon fax" and "general fax". Dr.
Okrand suggested <le'be'>* for 'general', and so of course that's what I
used.
marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'!
Subcmdr. Markemm, Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!
** Mark A. Mandel : [email protected] **
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/
* (It's a good thing that I checked a copy of the stationery before sending
this message. I originally had <lI'be'> here instead of <le'be'>. A
Freudian slip?)
This document was created by voice with Dragon Systems' NaturallySpeaking,
except for most of the Klingon words. (But I've added <pIqaD> to the
vocabulary of my copy, along with <Do'Ha'> and <qep'a'>.)