[2578] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: -bogh question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 17 13:11:23 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: Will Martin <whm2m@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 12:46:13 EST
On Jan 17, 11:42am, Richard Kennaway wrote:
> Subject: Re: -bogh question
...
> Have tlhIngan-Hol members heard of the language E-prime? E-prime consists
> of English with all forms of the verb "to be" omitted. Try translating
> English text first into E-prime, before translating to Klingon, to get rid
> of the ubiquitous "be".
>
> E-prime has other purposes, but I'll let people discover them for
themselves.
I respect E-prime, though I have little experience with it. I heard it
described on NPR and have made a few attempts to write and even speak it,
though the latter requires more practice than I have given it. Things stated
in E-prime interest me in that they state what a specific observer sees,
hears or knows through the senses without the luxury of casual judgement or
promises made for the future. There is less presumption. In this, Klingon and
E-Prime exhibit similarity. I intend to explore this further.
As an example, I felt cold while walking into work today, though that
leaves me without a tool with which to generalize about the weather. The snow
still falls, as it fell then. People huddle back into their collars as they
walk by my window. It refreshes me to rethink my words in E-Prime in much the
same way that Klingon hones the quality of my attention to the details of
expression. Any thought worth thinking deserves attention, and both Klingon
and E-Prime require a higher quality of attention than that of the lazy
*be*ers who judge and generalize in English.
-- charghwI'
