[2695] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: {-ghach}
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Jan 21 10:51:39 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu (Erich Schneider)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Cc: tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 94 09:45:59 CST
In-Reply-To: <199401211355.AA23284@eskimo.com> (creede@eskimo.com)
ghItlh creede@eskimo.com (Creede Lambard):
>However, due to the very nature of things (since TKD comes right out
>and says that "official" Hol changes with the ascension of a new
>emperor, which I believe would probably happen with astonishing
>frequency), this is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.
Well, of course, in a recent episode of TNG, Gawron came out and said
there hadn't been an "Emperor" for 300 years. Perhaps, then, there's
been a bit of standardization {{:-).
The claim that "Klingons would break the rules whenever they felt like
it" is pretty silly. Most people do not have the "rules" of their
language/idiolect as conscious objects; they are simply there,
unconscious, and are adhered to. I feel similarly about the claim that
"Vulcans would take out all of the irregular verbs from their
language, because they're 'illogical'."
Of course, the claim that there's one language for an entire species
also seems pretty silly. One aspect I liked about some of Vonda
McIntyre's ST novels was the mention of tension between the two main
ethnic groups of Klingons, the Kumburunya and the Rumaiy. (In the
novelisation of ST3, Saavik at one point dredges up her knowledge of
the "Klingon majority language" from an Academy course, and speaks to
Maltz while Kirk and Kruge battle on the planet below. After her first
sentence he glares at her and says in Fed Standard, "why do you
address me in this Kumburunya cant when you can see that I am Rumaiy?
You do not believe their claims that they are ascendant!" When she
mentions that, in the Federation, there is a standard language so that
everyone can communicate more easily, Maltz accuses the Feds of being
"obliterators of diversity".) My conjecture is that a major "ethnic"
feature among Klingons is the shape of the forehead ridge, and that
this is why the word for "forehead" is different in every dialect.
PS. I was off the list for a few weeks over the holidays. Is there some
change in the usage of -ghach that I don't know about?
QumpIn 'avrIn erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu
