[2752] in tlhIngan-Hol
Mark Shoulson: The Man, The Myth, The Klingonist
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 24 22:27:41 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 11:21:58 -0500
In-Reply-To: Amy West's message of Fri, 21 Jan 94 18:32:36 PST <2w9igc1w165w@ne
tlink.nix.com>
In answer to Amy West, the place to look for the Bible Translation project
info is
Klingon Bible Translation Project
Kevin A. Wilson
409 Prospect Street, Box 330A
New Haven, CT 06511
If Klingon can handle the translation, and if anything ever does come of
it, it would be best if everyone were semi-organized, and since Kevin is
sucker enough to... I mean willing to organize it, we might as well stay
under his roof.
Good taste? Sanity? I've taken a smallish amount of heat on this myself.
I have several responses. (1) I'm not a manaical Trekkie. Cope. I'm a
language maniac. (2) Good taste? Every single constructed language to
come down the pike has tried translating at least some of the Bible (the
Paternoster is the classic example). Is it the right thing to start with?
Probably not (not all that interesting linguistically), but I don't hear
complaints about the Bible being translated into this or that language,
constructed or natural. Does anyone really think that Klingonists will
damage the meaning any more than KJV translators? Think again. (3) Waste
of time? Linguistics has now been classed as a waste of time, them.
Bummer; all those University departments they have to shut down. Any time
you translate anything from anything into anything you stand to gain
insight into how both the source *and* the destination languages work, as
well as how languages *in general* work to organize thoughts, and also get
a deeper understanding of the meanings and ambiguities of the material as a
bonus. (4) People are starving in the world and you waste your effort
doing... Oh please. People are starving in the world and we spend
millions of dollars and millions of person-hours a year working out new and
exciting ways to drape fabric over our bodies (fashion industry), or
writing books about things that never happened, and even more time reading
them, or watching other people excecise (pro sports) or playing solitaire
for crying out loud, and you begrudge me an hour or two to study
linguistics? There is nothing so important that nothing else is important.
It looks like *you're* priorities are what need straightenning (not yours,
Amy, I was addressing the hypothetical devil's advocate).
Gads, narrow people get me steamed.
~mark
