tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 19 11:46:04 2002

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Re: QeD De'wI' ngermey



On Tue, 19 Nov 2002 [email protected] wrote:
> > Now perhaps you can argue that Klingon never had and never will have any
> > such lofty goals, but then I would contend that in fact, Klingon is thus
> > only intended to be a toy language.
>
> Don't confuse "goals" with "usefulness".  If Dr. Zamenhof had proposed
> Klingon in 1887, and Okrand had invented Esperanto for the Star Trek
> franchise, would you still think Klingon needed expanding?

Esperanto would definitely need expanding.  Or did you mean if the Klingon
language we have today was what was actually generated in 1887?  The fact
that you flipped the names around is really moot.  The real question is,
do you think Esperanto needs expanding for its intended purpose, and do
you think Klingon needs expanding for its intended purpose?

What I'm hearing is that Klingon doesn't need to be expanded, because its
purpose is limited to fiction.  Ultimately, Klingon serves no purpose,
therefore it needs no expansion.

The usefulness of a language can only be based on how well it achieves its
goal.  Supposing Esperanto was really developed to be a unifying language
for international trade and politics, if it cannot communicate concepts
like "cyberspace", it becomes useless in the modern world, because the
goal has been missed.

Now, Klingon was developed to make up some good consistent technobabble in
a science fiction series.  It has achieved that goal remarkably well, so
you can argue that it needs no expansion because it's already achieved its
goal.  But then you have ask, "where do we go from here?"  Unless we're
all planning on becoming writers for the next 47 Star Trek television
shows, the language has no purpose but to be a toy for entertainment.

And ultimately, most of us outgrow our toys after a while (or we replace
them with new toys.  ;)

...Paul

 **        Have a question that reality just can't answer?        **
  ** Visit Project Galactic Guide http://www.galactic-guide.com/ **
           "Hell, there are no rules here -- we're trying
             to accomplish something." -- Thomas Edison



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