tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 25 10:25:09 1999

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: RE: KLBC: capitals in the writing system



Greetings

I noticed this while catching up, so here's my belated two cents.


On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, William H. Martin wrote:
>
>pagh offered a good answer, though I feel compelled to comment a 
>little.
>
>> To start with, the writing system we use is *not* the "real" Klingon 
writing
>> system. The real system is called <pIqaD>, and we know very little 
about it.
>> Due to some Star Trek / Paramount issues, we probably never will know
>> anything substantial about it.
>
>The man, Okuda, who designed the characters in pIqaD refuses to 
>allow them to be assigned to any specific letters of any 
>alphabet. He uses them on the sets in "greeked" gibberish and 
>wants to continue to do so without any responsibility to anyone 
>who would like things written in pIqaD to actually say anything.
> 

It is true that both Paramount and the Okudas want to keep {pIqad} as 
alien as possible, meaning no direct association with equivalent 
letters/words (though the fans and Klinguists disagree and have 
established unofficial associations for {pIqaD});

however, according to Michael Okuda in a HolQeD interview [v1n1p11], the 
symbols known as {pIqaD} were "created by company called Astra Image 
Corporation for Star Trek I. The company's no longer in existance."

Michael Okuda continues to explain that the displays are created 
arbitrarily for visual effect only.

A middle ground would be to include the as-of-yet unofficial {pIqaD} 
amidst unassociated symbols, which would both act as separators for the 
{pIqaD} words while still being unreadable at a glance.

Well, there's my fifteen minutes, I mean, two cents.

***
Dawut (David)

P.S.
Can I say "Klinguists" and get away with it? I have also wondered about 
my use of the word "Klingonism." Perhaps I should mark them with an 
asterisk as is done with tlhIngan Hol?


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com



Back to archive top level