tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 12 21:21:30 2007
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Re: Why Do You Study Klingon?
ja' ...Paul:
> ...What's the point?
tlhIngan Hol vItIvmo' vIHaD. motlh tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI' vIparHa'mo'
vIjatlh. loQ munoymoHmo' tlhIngan Hol vIlo'.
'ach ram meqmey. Quj vItIvmo' jIQujtaH.
> But what do you do with the language once you've learned it?
> What's the
> difference between using Klingon to talk about the Nintendo Wii (no
> offense, Doq, just the most recent example of a random conversation
> done
> in the language), and using a "code" to talk about the Nintendo Wii?
ngoq mughlaH De'wI'. qechmey tlhol DellaH Hol. pImbej.
> I accept "practice" as an answer, no worries -- but the point
> remains; if you've practiced the language enough to feel
> comfortable with it, what then? You can't really decide to take a
> vacation to Qo'noS to try out your skills on the natives. :)
Qo'noSDaq jIghIQbe'ba', 'ach wejlogh <yotna'> vItIvta'.
> There is really only one point I can think of for continuing to use
> the language, and that is to expand it. The return on investment
> is the feeling that you've done something to contribute to the
> evolution of the language.
pay' Hemeymaj chevlu'chu'. Holmo' DanaDlu' DaneH; qay'be'. Holmo'
vInaDlu' 'e' vItIvbej je jIH. 'ach DuplIj vIlajQo'. Hol DachoH
DaneH 'e' Damaq. Hol wIjatlhboH DachoHqangchu' SoH'e'.
pImqu' DupwIj'e'. Hol vIlo'chu' vIneH. lutmey vIqonbogh tIv
latlhpu' 'e' vItul. meSchuS rur tlhIngan Hol, 'ej jIqeqqu'ta'mo'
vIchu'DI' 'ey QoQwIj 'e' vItul.
jaS bIvanglaw': <<wab le' vIlIngmeH tlhoy jIvumnIS. jIbuD, 'ej baS
'ay'vam vIweqDI', wab le' DaQoy 'e' Daghet vIneH. maQochbe'jaj.>>
ghuy'cha'! qech DaDelmeH nuH DIghajbogh Dalo'qangbe'chugh, qIgh
Dalo' 'e' botbe' vay'. 'ach qIghlIj'e' wIpab maH 'e' yIqapQo' jay'!
> And I don't even necessarily mean that we start letting people
> 'make up words' and such. One would hope that after long
> discussions (around things like /-meH/, etc.) we could come to a
> concensus, and somehow record these decisions for posterity, and,
> until further notice, refer to them as 'authoritative'.
Qo'. mawuq maH 'e' chaw'bogh DIb wIHutlh.
Go ahead and use the language the way you think it should be used.
If your usage is seen as uniquely effective and elegant, others will
likely emulate it. But I strongly believe that having the goal of
publishing an authoritative decision on a point of usage is
unreasonably presumptuous.
> I differentiate this from contributing *content*, because really,
> this becomes no different than "encoding". The Shakespearean
> translations are amazing works, and I don't want to detract from
> the effort and achievement they represent. But usually the purpose
> of translating someone is such that persons who don't speak the
> language a work was original conceived in, can similarly enjoy the
> ideas presented. As no one speaks Klingon natively who doesn't
> also speak another language fluently...
qatlh tlhIngan Hol lutmey lumughbe'qu'lu'pu'bogh DabuSHa'?
> I'm not trying to convince people learning Klingon is pointless; I
> admit fully that learning it (or at least, learning what I've
> learned) has given me more insight into language as a whole. But I
> wonder what the point of *using* the language is...
HIq DaSammeH tach yI'el. Hol vIlo'meH Hol vIlo'. ram.
> Maybe I've just hit a personal point where what I get out of
> studying/using the language is limited; there's no more benefit I
> can get from it, at least not until Okrand comes out with something
> new that may give us more interesting linguistic concepts to chew
> over (and vocabulary isn't going to do that -- I'm talking about
> something more meaty, like grammatical syntax clarifications, new
> suffixes, etc...)
Suja'chuqchugh neH SoH latlh je, bIyonbe''a'? bIQuchmeH
SachnIStaH'a' pab? ghuy'cha'.
>
> I'm curious what other people "get" out of studying Klingon,
> particularly some of the long-timers, like Alan and Steven,
> Terrence and DloraH...
Daj tlhIngan Hol lujatlhbogh latlhpu'. pIj rurchuq yabDu'maj.
jatlhwI' law' vIqIHta'. Hoch DIS qep'a'Daq maghomchuq. majaw 'ej
maQuj 'ej matay' 'e' vItIv. chaq ghu' DatIv je SoH.
-- ghunchu'wI'
P.S.
> Maybe it's just time for me to break down and try to pick up a real-
> world language, or start investing some time into another conlang
> like Lojban or Esperanto...
If you're going to carry the same mindset of "I want to leave my mark
on the language" that you show here, you're probably going to get the
same sort of reaction from any language group.