tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 28 10:16:42 2003
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Fwd: Chicago Tribune Editorial
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Fwd: Chicago Tribune Editorial
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 09:57:53 -0500
FYI.
This was posted yesterday to the Vulcan linguistics list. You'll see why.
--------------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------------
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 13:53:21 -0500
Subject: Chicago Tribune Editorial
Published May 27, 2003
How do you say "Never mind" in Klingon?
What? You don't speak Klingon? Too bad. For a few days there, you
might have had a distinct advantage if you were seeking a job as a
translator with the Multnomah County (Oregon) Department of Human
Services.
According to recent news reports, they were seeking interpreters in
55 languages, among them Klingon. The reason? "There are some cases
where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would
speak," county purchasing administrator Franna Hathaway told a reporter
for The Oregonian.
She may have been misinformed, another official has suggested. What is
undeniable is that after news of the alleged Klingon-translator
position made the news wires, the Multnomah County folks suddenly had a
change of heart. Officials rescinded the offer, the Associated Press
reported, stressing that no taxpayers' money had been spent on Klingon
interpretation.
Pity. For our money, Klingon should be covered.
Klingon is the language sometimes spoken by Lt. Cmdr. Worf and others
of the Klingon persuasion on the "Star Trek" television series. It can
be mainly heard, we thought, at "Star Trek" conventions, where fans
dress up like their favorite characters and often take to uttering a
few syllables of Klingon dialect.
It's a guttural language with a lot of grunts and sharp-edged
syllables, mirroring the Klingon predilection for action over
negotiation. (Our favorite Klingon maxim: "Heghlu'meH QaQ
jajvam"--"Today is a good day to die.")
If we read between the lines of Hathaway's comment, it would seem to
draw a strong connection between speaking Klingon and requiring mental
health treatment. To this we must object, in the name of all "Star
Trek" fans. We'd like to set the record straight about Klingon. Just
because you forsake the mother tongue for the language of a noble
warrior race does not--repeat, not--automatically require medical
attention.
Quite the contrary. As Multnomah County officials noted, some people,
not just the fans, consider Klingon a complete language. According to
Star Trek" lore and the Klingon language Web site (www.kli.org), "Star
Trek" movie producers hired Marc Okrand, a linguist, to create a
working language for the Klingons in the "Star Trek" movies of the
1980s. Okrand eventually wrote a Klingon Dictionary and not too
surprisingly, if you know "Star Trek" fans, they began to learn the
language. (The Web site proudly noted recently that it has had more
than 1 million hits since 1999.) Now there are reports of annual
"immersion" conferences in which participants speak nothing but the
language. And there's a Klingon version of "Hamlet."
Okrand said that he gets letters written in the language, and knows of
people who have performed marriage ceremonies in Klingon.
Truth be told, we don't speak much Klingon around here. There's
nothing wrong it, of course. It's just that we prefer Vulcan.
--Copyright 2003, Chicago Tribune
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--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons