tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 04 10:16:30 2000

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Re: Dangerous pun?

I've been lurking for close to a year now, and I haven't even gotten
around to purchasing TKD (one of these days...  =).  I would like to
jump in here, however, and address this complete lunacy for a moment.

[email protected] writes:

> 2.  It is true that, strictly speaking, {gh} is not the same sound
> as /g/, but, for the average fan of Klingon, they are
> indistinguishable in use.

Oh, so now it doesn't matter if the word even sounds like what you're
complaining about?  Ridiculous as this whole discussion is, I would
personally have a little more respect for it if you limited the
argument to _people who bothered to pronounce Klingon correctly_.  In
my high school Spanish class, I knew people who deliberately
mispronounced Spanish words to make insults, but no one complained
that Spanish is a racist or sexist language.

(Might as well stir up the pot a little... =)  Perhaps you are
projecting these racist sentiments from your own mind?


> 3. It doesn't matter that {nIgh} is not intentionally part of the
> N-word. The mere sound coincidence is problem enough.  Perception is

Baloney.

> reality; it doesn't matter if MO didn't intend to cause offense (and

Baloney.

> I firmly believe he did not).  The aide to the Mayor of Washington,
> D.C. was fired last year for using the word "niggardly" to describe
> Federal support for his programs.  The statement made no reference
> to blacks, and the word isn't etymologically connected to the N-word
> or even spelled like it, but offense was taken, and he paid the
> price.

Yes, and that was the most disgusting event I have heard of in a long
time.  It's gotten to the point that you can't use words longer than 2 
syllables without somebody whining about it instead of picking up a
dictionary.

> 4. It's true we've never negotiated with MO about words before, but
> we've never had a word quite like this one before, either.  As you

Yes, and there hasn't been a word exactly like butlh before either.
It's another language!

> point out, this is a term of honor.  It's likely that KAG groups all
> over will want to begin using this word.  Some members of those
> groups are black.  If I were black and a KAG member, I'd hate to be
> in the position of being confronted with this word on a regular
> basis.

*hem* If you were black _and stupid_.

> It's been my experience that non-U.S. Americans don't really get the
> nuances of U.S. American racial politics.  As a thought experiment,
> to see if you can get an idea of the kind of offense I think this
> word can cause, imagine that MO's next group of "Maltz words"
> includes the terms {qa'nuq} 'a minor appendage to a more important
> object', {natsIy'} 'the ideal form of government', and {say'tlhon}
> 'a final solution to a nagging problem'.  Would it matter that he
> didn't do it on purpose?

It wouldn't matter!  See above.

> I realize that this is a very U.S.A.-centric concern, but, let's
> face it, most of the fans of Star Trek and of Klingon are
> U.S. Americans.  If {tuqnIgh} meant something offensive in Basque, I
> probably wouldn't care. 8+)

So freakin' what?!  I don't care if a trillion people got up in arms
about it.  Lots of people were upset about "niggardly", too, and they
were Wrong.  "Niggardly" is a perfectly good word with nuances of
meaning.  (Insert allusion to Newspeak here)

Whining about how "the US is bigger" is lame.  I live in the US.  I
think it's a great country, and with a little effort it could be much
closer to what I'd want.  The main problem is that most Americans are
arrogant fools.  They see [country]/[language]/[ethnic] doing
something and they whine about it, because "it's not how Americans do
it".  Normally it would surprise me to see the same behavior on this
list that I experienced from high school freshmen.

Klingons ain't Americans!

I really liked that example about "phuc".

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