tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 27 09:41:28 1997
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Re: Language jokes show English speaking bias...
>Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 17:31:58 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "Robyn Stewart" <[email protected]>
>
>lab Jarno Peschier:
>> I cannot really appreciate the jokes like 'ul and 'awje' after I'm
>> told what UL and A&W are (I've never even heard of them). In fact,
>> I cannot even recognize them as funny in any way until told.
>
>qayajchu'. It's isolating that this language, supposed to be equally
>alien to all Earth natives, contain components that are directed at
>only one group of them. Americans seem to forget that some things
>that are universal to them are foreign to ninety-five percent of the
>world's population.
>
>But the jokes really are for Marc, based on his experience. He
But this last is what it really boils down to. In a very real sense, the
language is as narrow as it possibly could be (hardly universal): it's the
product of ONE MAN'S grey matter, with all his personal biases and private
in-jokes. It doesn't bother me much that there's this "bias" to Americans
(or to Marc), since after all, *internally* there's no such bias. The
origins and nature of the language internally to itself is plenty
universal; it's only externally that we seem to see these biases. Klingon
*as a language* is no less accessible to a non-USAn who can't get the
jokes: the jokes are not really relevant to the language. The *jokes* are
less accessible, but that's not what we're here for.
~mark