tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 04 11:33:56 2000
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RE: Dangerous pun?
ter'eS
> 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.
This sort of thing is unavoidable. For example, /buD/ means "lazy".
In Sanskrit, "Buddha" means "awakened", and is the title of a person
who is venerated throughout Asia. Is /buD/ an insult to Buddhists,
accusing the Buddha or Buddhists of being lazy? (Note that /D/,
a retroflex "d", is not the same as /ddh/ - a dental "d" followed
by an aspirated dental "d(h)".)
What about /yuD/ "dishonest"? It has been pointed out before that
this sounds like the word for "Jew" in some languages.
One could easily mispronounce (or mishear) the "b" in /jab/ for a
"p" sound. So does that mean that Klingon implies that Japanese
people are servile?
You can read all sorts of things back into Klingon. The important
thing is that it was not intentional.
> 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.
This is just stupid. I'm glad I don't live in Washington.
> 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.
I can understand the concern. Most non-Klingon-speakers, when they
see a /gh/, pronounce it as a hard "g". However, I think it's
stupid to be overly Politically Correct. When I read English
literature, I don't get offended when I read about "a chink (i.e.
weakness) in the armour", for example, because I know that the
word wasn't intended in a pejorative fashion. In high school I
took part in a Shakespearean play where the word "chink" was used
to refer to money. (I'm of Chinese descent.)
If anything, this is an opportunity to teach non-speakers how to
pronounce /gh/ correctly.
> It's been my experience that non-U.S. Americans don't really get
> the nuances of U.S. American racial politics.
chaq bIlugh.
--
De'vID