tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 28 18:12:36 2002
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invention and innovation
- From: Andrew Strader <[email protected]>
- Subject: invention and innovation
- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 23:11:53 +0000
- Organization: Decode
Stephan wrote:
>also esperanto speakers often refer to the canons of the inventor.
>seemingly no one wants to criticize him, but he himself said that
>esperanto is the language of the esperanto speakers (as far as i
>know). did MO say something similar to this? or is it solely you
>decision to follow MO's canons? but what if he's wrong?
Whereas Esperanto is an attempt at a kind of linguistic perfection, Klingon
is mainly an emulation of culture. As such, it can be just as "wrong" as
Okrand wants it to be, as any natural language is. It is completely
fabricated. I think we do criticize Okrand freely in our own ways. For
instance, I think he has been "wrong" about the label of -'e'. I personally
think he just didn't know the difference between topic and focus.
Nonetheless, it is a real suffix demonstrated with particular usages, so the
best we can hope for is an eventual deduction of its "true" function. Okrand
has said something to the effect that he likes that people are thinking up
their own ideas on the language. It's in one of his HolQeD interviews, I
forget which one. This is encouraging to hear from him, because a few people
around here develop an unhealthy Okrandian fundamentalism, which ultimately
makes things unfathomably dull for the majority of us.
--
Andrew Strader