tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 11 19:47:13 2001

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Re: *Paramount* chaw'



> The speaker base is small and scattered enough that
> most of us have decided to make the effort to use only words which can be
> understood by someone who isn't part of "the group".

My point exactly.

> one doesn't need to have
> participated in this mailing list in order to know Klingon well enough to
> read Qo'noS QonoS, for example.

Maybe not, but I have seen many posts on this list that include words
not in TKD or KGT.  That makes understanding them quite difficult.  I
bought both books to help me translate and learn the language, but alas,
they are apparently incomplete.  Lo and behold, the word list at kli.org
cites an additional seven (7!) sources of words.

> 
> >...I suspect most on this list worship Okrand and would ignore your new
> >word.
> 
> The term "worship" is rather stronger than I'd put it.

>From the flames I've received, both public and private, I'd beg to
differ.  I stand by my original phrasing.

> I prefer to call it "respect". 

Duly earned respect, I might add.  Okrand created a beautiful language. 
It is wonderfully concise compared to English.  (like comparing C++ to
Pascal)  Not many people could create a new language with its alphabet,
grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and history and have it all come together
and work as well as he has done.  If anyone wishes to leave final
authority to him, I can understand that and in fact, I implied as much
in that they would ignore new words not from Okrand.

> One does not paint eyebrows on the Mona Lisa, run _Finnegan's
> Wake_ through a spelling checker, or glue earrings on Michelangelo's David.

Sure we do.  A town in Florida a week or so ago made a shopkeeper put a
"loincloth" on a copy of David outside his store because it was deemed
indecent.  Mona Lisa sells macaroni and her mug graces every box.  And
industrious souls in our midst have claimed Shakespeare as their own,
reworking it in this very language.  Nothing is sacred, including
Okrand.  
  If the fellow in question invents a good word that I find useful, I
may indeed use it.  However, If the new word is unnecessary or
unacceptable I would dump it in a heartbeat.  For example, I cannot
bring myself to use the impossibly corny (but Okrandian) chang'eng for
pair, and rewrite my sentences as necessary to avoid it.

> If you feel there is a real need for a word, please don't make one up.
...
> that Klingon has no word for that particular concept (e.g. "hypochondria").
> Borrow a word from another language in the meantime.

This leads me to a question I've never considered before and don't
remember reading about.  Is tlhIngan meant to be only a historical
language?  Or is it meant to be used?  When Worf wants to discuss his
more Terran experiences with a fellow Klingon, do they revert to English
and admit that tlhIngan "has no word for that particular concept?" 
Undoubtedly, ancient Klingon WAS unspoiled by weak and inferior Terran
concepts, as Okrand has laid it out.  But as Klingons and humans began
to interact more and more, don't you think the Klingons delighted in
insulting and disparaging human ideas and other such flaws? At first
they may have borrowed words, but surely the purists would have
protested the corruption of their language and proposed new Klingon
words instead. Indeed the French today are doing just this, rebelling
against the influx of English words like pizza, blue jeans, and computer
and inventing their own.

One final note, we were all encouraged a few months ago on this list to
adopt a Klingon name if we so desired, even if it did not conform to
tlhIngan Hol spelling conventions or even its alphabet.  We didn't have
to clear it with Okrand first.  (Nor, I'm sure, would he want us to.) 
And if a name is not a word, I'll eat mine.

QIS


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