tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 03 16:02:17 2000
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Re: Dangerous pun?
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dangerous pun?
- Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 16:05:30 -0700
lab ter'eS
> 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?
I understand that as a Klingonist confronted with a new word, you're going
to stretch it in every possible direction looking for puns, hidden
meanings, mnemonics, or what-have-you, and I think that this is all you've
done here: stretched the word beyond recognition and found a negative
meaning that isn't there.
> Consider:
> a. the word "nig" is a fairly common shortening of the actual N-word.
I've never heard that short form, but I'll take your word for it.
> 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).
Even if he intended this, which I doubt, I don't think it's offensive. A
secondary translation ("tribe" is the first translation of tuq, and "house"
the second) of one syllable combined with a visual (not sound) match to
part of another syllable makes up an offensive phrase. And the meaning of
tuqnIgh is at least neutral, and more probably a term of honour. If it
were describing some kind of pariah, or an individual singled out in any
way, I might look again at it, but tuqnIgh is a member of a house. The
only offense in the phrase is what a person brings to it.
> 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?"
The *sound* "nig" isn't even in the word, as /gh/ contains no hard 'g'
sound. Would you hesitate to tell Michael Dorn about a "dark dirty night"
or to quote an archaic line about someone "standing nigh"? Such niggling
resemblances don't mean anything, and Marc Okrand is in no way negligent in
releasing this word. We haven't historically negotiated with him over the
sounds of words, only threatened his life over really painful puns, like
baghneQ.
Does bIt sounds like bitch, a word used to denigrate women because women
have often been sent home from doctors with tranquilizers, told they are
just nervous, when men with the same symptoms would have been correctly
diagnosed?
Does vaQ sounds like an offensive word an aggressive English speaker might
shout?
Does negh refer to the proportion of blacks who were drafted to fight in
Vietnam?
Does puS sound like a coarse term for the genital region of the "weaker sex"?
Yeah, maybe. Does it matter? Should it be changed? No.
Qov