maDISnIS'a'?

[Andrew Strader <strader@decode.is>]

qonlu':
>If you really have something you wish to express (like {'arlogh} before 
>that became a word) and there is no way to express it within the patterns 
>we've seen in canon, then I see just cause in using strange grammar, so 
>long as you admit that it is strange and confess that you simply don't have 
>a more conventional way of saying this.

Klingon grammar confessionals? What a concept. Maybe we need some 
Commandments too.

Most of us do Klingon for the sheer enjoyment of it, tho oftentimes perverse. 
It's fun to fantasize about a Klingon language. There is an internal 
conceptualization (i.e. there are aliens out there and we are learning their 
language -- very cool) and an external conceptualization (there's some guy 
who was hired by a corporation to create a language to lend verisimilitude to 
a product, and we're learning THAT -- quite dull). When someone waffles 
between the internal and external conceptualizations to try to prove a point, 
I just get that sinking feeling and wonder if anyone really finds this 
interesting anymore.

So, 'arlogh became a word when Okrand made it up? It wasn't always a Klingon 
word that was just discovered at some point? Fine, then your stepping out 
of the story. But remember that once you do that, this language is a waste of 
time. Then there are plenty of real languages out there you can learn if you 
want to win friends or debates, and your correctitude will have a good deal 
more relevance and perhaps even appreciation. We're all quite aware that 
there is an external history to the language and that it can be used to 
create tyrades about correctness, but we're not generally interested in that.

I think that is really the matter with those of us who like to theorize about 
the language and assume for the sake of enjoyment that it is a complete 
language, barring the incompleteness of what Okrand has disseminated to date. 
If you don't enjoy that, then you really belong on a different mailing list. 
Me, I'll stick to doing what I find most interesting, not excusing myself 
from showing disdain to those who interfere. After all, this is a hobby, and 
when it ceases to be fun, there really is no point in letting it go on.

-- 
Andrew Strader