tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 10 20:24:32 2001
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RE: *Paramount* chaw'
Why not just throw gasoline on a flame?
This has nothing to do with hero worship. The simple truth is, one person,
all by himself, made up this entire language. He was paid by Paramount to do
it. He has the copyright on The Klingon Dictionary and the other books and
tapes he wrote. He really owns the language. Paramount lawyers want to think
they own it, but when it comes down to it, there's only one valid opinion
when it comes to what is or is not Klingon language. At best, the rest of us
can only claim authority based on the thin idea that we are familiar with
the language as Okrand has produced it. We basically act as proxies for
Okrand when we attempt to answer questions as close to the way he would if
he were doing it.
As soon as any one of us tries to claim more authority than that, we're
simply wrong. We are then working on something that is no longer the Klingon
language, though it has so much of the Klingon language in this new
language's development that we are guilty of plagerism.
Got it?
Okrand gives us the words. Nobody else makes them up. People can try, and on
rare and typically humorous occasions, Okrand gets back to us and makes our
words valid by his own choice. But you can't make up words. I can't make up
words. Nobody but Okrand can make up words.
charghwI' 'utlh
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chris [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 11:02 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: *Paramount* chaw'
>
>
> >> Who coins new Klingon words? Is the KLI able to do it, or is it
> >> solely the prerogative of Paramount and/or Dr Okrand?
> >
> > Only Okrand.
>
> As with any living language, anyone can coin a new word. In junior
> high my friends and I did it all the time. The key is getting people to
> use the new word. In my junior high example, everyone outside my little
> circle of friends thought we were weird and ignored us, so these new
> words would not get widely used and quickly died out.
> I suspect most on this list worship Okrand and would ignore your new
> word. But who knows? Give it a try and see if it sticks. I wouldn't
> invent a word just for the sake of doing it, but if you feel there is a
> real need for a word and others agree with you, there you go.
>
> QIS
>