tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 03 11:23:28 2000
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Dangerous pun?
I was looking at the new words from Maltz, and have become very uncomfortable with one of them: {tuqnIgh} 'member of a House'. Why? Since {tuq} means 'House', given the sound of the following element, this becomes a pun that sounds (to me) very much like "house n*gger" (a reference to a token black, or "Uncle Tom" sort of person).
Am I being too sensitive, or reading too much into it? Consider:
a. the word "nig" is a fairly common shortening of the actual N-word.
b. the word {tuqnIgh} does refer to a person (not an object).
c. MO is known for his lexical puns (not that I think this "pun" is intentional).
d. many of the actors who portrayed Klingons are black.
e. having read what I just wrote, would _you_ be comfortable telling Michael Dorn, "So, you're Martok's {tuqnIgh}, see?"
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think it would be a shame to leave the potential for offense when the solution to removing it is so simple. Someone with regular contact with MO should ask him to check again with Maltz and see if they didn't get the spelling of that word wrong. And they should do it fast!
-- ter'eS
http://www.geocities.com/teresh_2000
http://www.geocities.com/weseb_2000