tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 06 20:20:11 1999
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Re: canon words
Pillow wrote:
: I cannot find <qen>. If someone cold enlighten me + tell me the source.
It's an adverbial meaning "recently, a short time ago" Okrand posted it on
the startrek.klingon newsgroup (2/03/99) hosted by Star Trek: Continuum:
qen 'arlogh Qoylu'pu'?
Recently, how many times has someone heard it?
(i.e. "What time is it?")
Several members of this mailing list routinely monitor startrek.klingon
(sometimes abbreviated to "st.k") and re-post any of Okrand's rare messages
here.
: about canon words: I was at HetaQ's martial arts camp the day the verb
: <bob'It> was "born". Am I correct to assume it is not a canon word? What
Not unless Marc Okrand coined or approved it. (BTW, I assume it means to
sever a particular appendage?)
: is the policy for using such words? I have noticed a few words on the
: data base which are not TKD, KGT, or qep'a' source words. Are these the
: only canon sources?
By no means. There are also CK and PK, st.k and the earlier MSN Expert
Forum newsgroup, Okrand's articles in the KLI journal "HolQeD", the "Star
Trek: Klingon!" CD (KCD), some material included in the British TV magazine
"Radio Times" special 30th anniversary Star Trek issue, and the scripts for
the movies (ST3, ST5, ST6) and a Hallmark commercial for a Bird of Prey
christmas tree ornament. Okrand has occasionally provided a word or two to
authors of other official Star Trek books published by Simon &
Schuster/Pocket Books. Two examples being A.C. Crispin's novel "Sarek" and
Michael Jan Freedman's "Federation Travel Guide". Most of the post-TKD
words were collected in KGT, published in November 1997.
: What the heck does "canon" really mean?
Webster's definition:
Main Entry: can·on
Pronunciation: 'ka-n&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin, from Latin
ruler, rule, model, standard, from Greek kanOn
Date: before 12th century
1 a: a regulation or dogma decreed by a church council b: a provision of
canon law
2 [Middle English, prob. from Old French, from Late Latin, from Latin,
model]: the most solemn and unvarying part of the Mass including the
consecration of the bread and wine
3 [Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin, standard] a: an author-
itative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture b: the authentic works
of a writer
c: a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works <the canon of
great literature>
4 a: an accepted principle or rule b: a criterion or standard of judgment
c: a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms
As Klingonists use it, canon means the body of "authentic" Klingon
writings, i.e. everything Marc Okrand - and only Marc Okrand - has written,
said or translated in Klingon. This includes all the example sentences in
TKD, CK, PK, KCD, the text of the Klingon SkyBox cards, examples on st.k
and HolQeD, etc. It also refers to transcripts of the Klingon dialog which
Okrand translated for the movies and the Hallmark commercial; some lines
are still uncertain due to an actor's less-than-clear pronunciation.
(Before you ask, AFAIK no one here has ever seen the scripted lines Okrand
provided to Paramount, so we're forced to rely on our ears and what clues
may be provided by Closed Captioning or references by Okrand after the fact.)
Canon does NOT include the so-called "Klingon" heard on the television
programs or seen in the pro novels, unless we know for a fact Okrand
approved it. (There's very little of this BTW. One television example of
authentic canon is the anthem {Qoy qeylIS puqloD} heard in DS9 "Soldiers of
the Empire", which was originally written and performed for KCD.
: I was browsing my TKD and found <bighHa'> for jail. It reminded me of
: "big house". There seems to be deliberate puns in the lexicon.
There are indeed many puns in the lexicon; Okrand has a devious sense of
humor and a knowledge of several languages, particularly Spanish and
Californian Amerindian languages. Some words are actually very personal
inside jokes. For example, we know that Marc had a neighbor {jIl} named
Jill. We may never discover all of these.
: Has anyone compiled a list of these words?
We all generally compile our own or annotate the dictionary. While many
people have suggested posting and maintaining a list of puns on the KLI
website similar to charghwI's list of post-TKD words, the consensus on the
list is that this would spoil the game for new members. Discovering a new
pun, or figuring out what the pun must be for words that sound suspicious,
is part of the fun we get by playing with the language. So as you notice
them, feel free to share them with the list. You may just notice one the
rest of us have missed - which does happen from time to time.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons