tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 22 06:25:19 2008
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Re: toH. qaD. qaDmey vIparHa'.
"Son" Duperchugh Alex, ghaytanHa' DaHub.
Pardon the break into English here, but I want to be clear to
everyone, and this thread has been absurdly rife with miscommunication.
Someone wrote in about Atlantean. Alex responded to that message with
something that sounded a lot like the complaint this list has endured
many times over the years: Okrand doesn't drop what he's doing and
serve the Klingon speaking community often enough to suit the
complainer, so we should relieve Okrand of the responsibility of
maintaining the language. We'll handle the vocabulary from here out,
thank you, Dr. Okrand. Otherwise "The Language Will Die."
I didn't like that post very much. It didn't seem called for. I
responded, saying that this is a request that new people often make
over the years. I was not accusing Alex of being a newbie. I was
stating the undeniable fact that this request typically comes from
newbies. Obviously, I didn't state that very clearly. For that poor
wording, I apologize to everyone who misunderstood me. That error
seems to have become the trigger that set off this stupid flame fest.
I was then lectured offline by someone else who was trying to defend
the guy who wrote in about Atlantean. Tossed into that complaint was
something to the effect of, "I often disagree with you..." and a few
other unnecessary, emotional tidbits suggesting "I don't like you very
much, but that's not why I'm writing you this time." When I pointed
out that I wasn't even addressing that person, the lecturer wrote back
a mild apology, not quite up to the task of smoothing out the feathers
he so enthusiastically ruffled. It didn't improve my mood.
Then came the remarkably pompous "Son" post, in which Alex mistakenly
had a huge emotional response to my calling him a newbie, which I
didn't do. He came about a half step short of saying, "I spoke Klingon
before Okrand invented it. For my casual amusement, I've learned every
language on Earth, real or imagined. When the publisher of TKD sought
an expert in the language, everyone on the planet pointed to me. I
taught Maltz how to speak Klingon." The whole post was in English and
I began to suspect that he was one of those linguists or language
hobbyist who knows a lot about a lot of languages, but may not be the
best judge of his actual level of expertise in any of them. So,
instead of writing back in English, I wrote in Klingon.
Predictably, his response was short and not altogether well written,
and he misunderstood me as referring to him as "The True Wind". SuSna'
ghaHbe'. SuS'a' ghaH neH. It was the first time I've seen anyone write
<<yIX 'e' yIY>>. It didn't quite make sense, but it was a minor error,
so I didn't bother pointing it out. His next post using {'e'} as the
English relative pronoun "that" was a bit over the top, though, for
one claiming such profound expertise in the language, even letting
slide the other errors Holtej pointed out.
So now, I'm asked by SuStel to apologize to Alex, because, if I don't,
then, "The Language Will Die".
Do you have any idea how normal it is for a language to die? Klingon
will die. It's only a matter of time. I hope it doesn't die for a very
long time. I'll miss it.
But I think I'll probably just miss it, anyway, since I quite honestly
believe that I deserve at least as many apologies as I owe. Between
the offline lecture and SuStel's lecture, I'm pretty much uninspired
to work with you guys. I won't suggest to you that without my
contributions "The Language Will Die". I will suggest that perhaps it
would have been somewhat enriched by it. I didn't teach Maltz, and
everyone in England doesn't point to me about much of anything, but I
do have an unusual ability to say things in Klingon that are not all
that natural for the language to say.
But if you miss that, you probably won't notice. You'll be too busy
bickering in English to worry about what anyone does or does not say
in Klingon.
Likely, the mystery has been solved as to who might have unsubscribed
me a couple months ago. Little matter. I'll do it, myself, this time.
In case the rest of you guys haven't picked up on this, SuStel doesn't
like me very much. I'd advise the rest of you to stay on his good
side. Otherwise, The Language Will Die.
pItlh
Doq
On Jul 21, 2008, at 8:20 AM, David Trimboli wrote:
> Doq wrote:
>> <<Holmaj choHmo'Qo' Okrand, wIchoHnISqang>> vIlaDDI', jIberghchoH 'ej
>> jIjangHa'. loQ vIyajHa'lu'. vItIch 'e' vIHechbe', 'ach mutIch 'e'
>> Hechba'.
>
> jIQoch. tIchwI' wa'DIch SoHlaw'. Hub'eghlaw' neH Alex.
>
> DatIch 'e' DaHechbe' 'e' vIHarlaH, 'ach vIHarnISbe' jIH'e'. Alex
> yIja'.
>
>> mujey 'e' Harlaw', vaj vIvemmoH vIneH neH. mu'oy'pu'be'. munuQpu'
>> neH.
>
> ghIlab ghew tIbuSQo'.
>
>> toH qatlh mutIchDI' bItam, 'ach vItIchDI' bIbep? bIqay' DaneH'a'?
>
> naDev chu'law'mo' Alex; roD bIjeS SoH'e'. mataHmeH maSachnIS. jeSwI'
> chu' DItIchtaHchugh, mej chaH; ghIq maHegh.
>
> peQochbej, 'ach pemaw'eghQo'. tlhIngan maHbe'!
>
> --
> SuStel
> Stardate 8554.4
>
>