tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 19 15:54:01 1999
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Re: Klingon WOTD: baj (v)
> Then strike "intense". But this is not a mistake or a case of Okrand
simply
> "forgetting exactly how {net} works" as he's done with, for example, {lu-}
and
> {-lu'} on occasion. He's never used the word once in the 14 years since
TKD
> was first published in 1985. This is rather a case of Okrand forgetting
or
> ignoring the fact that {net} exists at all. Either of which leads me to
> suspect that {net} was never intended to be a part of Klingon grammar, but
> simply a one-off backfit for yet another Valkris-ism. This no doubt
explains
> his comment in TKD (p. 65f.):
>
> {net} is used only under special circumstances, but {'e'} is common...
The "special circumstances" are those times when the second verb of a
Sentence as Object construction has an indefinite object. Compared to the
frequency in which the second verb has a definite object, I'd call the rest
"special circumstances."
The FORM of the word, {net}, undoubtedly came about as a Valkris lip-sync.
In fact, the whole concept of a "sentence pronoun," which not an unusual
one, probably came about when he wrote the dubbed Klingon for the scene.
Using {'e' X-lu'} is SUCH an easy mistake to make, and Okrand makes SO MANY
mistakes (I mean, let's face it: we pick up mistakes ALL OVER THE PLACE!),
that I don't have trouble believing that he simply forgot all about this
rule.
To put it another way: when I first learned how {-lu'} worked, and started
using it regularly, I fully understood the CONCEPT, but I kept forgetting
that I had to use the "wrong" prefix. I'd write things like {muleghlu'}
instead of {vIleghlu'}. I did this for a long time before catching onto my
own mistake (and I don't think I was ever corrected, meaning no one else was
catching onto it either). I think it's perfectly possible that Okrand keeps
using {'e' X-lu'} because he simply hasn't noticed (in time) that what he
just wrote is a mistake.
> If we want to fit this into our understanding of why Klingons say the
things
> they do, perhaps it's best to consider {net} -- together with {jaw},
{HISlaH}
> and {rIntaH} -- as features of whatever dialect Valkris spoke. Wasn't she
> identified in the novelization as Rumaiy (or was it Kumburanya?), which
would
> certainly explain her troubles with {ta' Hol}.
One can never argue with the "dialect" argument. Any time some actor says
something we don't know how to reconcile, we relegate the problem to a
special dialect. I would even venture to say that sometimes this answer is
the "correct" one.
However, we still have never heard that {jaw}, {HISlaH}, or {rIntaH} have
anything to do with dialects. Maybe they are, but there is no evidence of
this.
SuStel
Stardate 99882.9