tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 03 06:23:02 1999
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Re: my thesis
- From: "Qermaq" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: my thesis
- Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 09:24:41 -0500
ghItlh Judith Hermans:
>Hello,
nuqneH? ((with a slightly threatening look) Yes?)
>my name is Judith Hermans and I am in my last year at university. I'm
>writing my thesis and the subject is Klingon and it's speakers!
majQa'! chaq jatlhwI' Damoj... (Great! Perhaps you will become a speaker...)
>Now I'm first collecting all kinds of literature about language variation
>and artificial languages, but in a few months I want to conduct a survey
>under Klingon-speakers. My teachers thinks my subject stinks and he is very
>sceptic. He thinks that I won't find any people who speak Klingon and even
>if I find some, that they won't cooperate. Is he wrong?
mujlaw'. (It seems he is wrong.)
>If there are people among you who will want to help me and answer a survey
>in a few months (questions about Klingon and about yourself, because I want
>to get a profile from Klingon-speakers), please send me a mail.
qaQaHqang. (I'm willing to help you.)
>Thanks a lot!
>Judith
>
>PS. I have just started, so maybe I haven't looked well enough, but I have
>some trouble finding literature about the language Klingon itself. Not a
>grammarian or a dictionary, because I have those at home (yes, I'm a Star
>Trek fan), but something linguistic. Can someone help me with this or are
>there any linguistics reading this mail willing to answer some questions?
Ok, in English now...
The Klingon Dictionary (ISBN 0-671-74559-X) is the closest we have to a
linguistic guide to the language. The 'official' vocabulary is found in
three places - the dictionary (and use the English to have the most
definitive list, although even that edition contains errors), the book
Klingon For The Galactic Traveler (ISBN 0-671-00995-8), and a "New Words
List" found on the KLI website. (The KLI also recognizes words not from
Okrand's writings as canon in a sense, but not fitting in the corpus of what
we refer to as tlhIngan Hol.)
The FAQ for this mailing list found at
http://labs.thomtech.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm contains some good
grammatical information as well. Be sure to read that. I will simply say,
however, that if you cite it, be sure to credit the writer. I know there is
a site with a linguistic explanation of Klingon, but I cannot locate it. I
am sure the author of that page is a subscriber to this list.
If you have access to newsgroups, be sure to access the server
news.startrek.com where there is a forum called startrek.klingon. Marc
Okrand has posted there from time to time and you may be able to leave him a
question there.
And finally, the best way to learn about tlhIngan Hol is to learn tlhIngan
Hol. pagh is the Beginner's Grammarian and would be, oh, so honored to guide
you in a study of basic Klingon. Perhaps translating the Klingon I wrote
above would be a good starting point. I've provided rough translations, of
course, but you could find a more literal one.
Qapla'! batlh yIghojchu'! (Success! Learn well and with honor!)
Qermaq