[tlhIngan Hol] Is Star Trek: Discovery a new canon category?

[nIqolay Q]

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 11:05 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:

> Yes, as canonical as "quab jee nah geel." That's the canon of *Star Trek,*
> not the canon of Okrand. They are not the same thing.
>
To quote KGT:

"While the conventional phrases used in some rituals are uttered in modern
Klingon (such as those used in the Rite of Ascension, a ceremony
symbolizing a young Klinggon's attainment of a certain spiritual level),
those used in a great many others are in a form of *no' Hol* (such as those
associated with the *bIreqtal* [*brek'tal*], the ceremony in which the
killer of the leader of a Klingon house marries the widow and thereby
becomes the head of the house himself). In these cases, the phrases must be
studied and memorized by the participants, then repeated back accurately.
Improvising or paraphrasing is entirely inappropriate. Depending on when
the phrases for the ritual originated, the words and grammatical
constructions may be somewhat like or very different from those of modern
Klingon. If the words have survived into modern Klingon but some of the
grammatical features have not, it may sound as if the celebrant is speaking
improper, ungrammatical Klingon. This is not the case, though the same
phrase uttered away from the ritualistic context would be taken as such."

I interpret this passage (and others from the same chapter) to mean that
Okrand is taking the gibberish and bad translations from the shows (like,
say, *Qab jIH ngIl*) and lumping them together in the general category of *no'
Hol*, explaining away the use of bad grammar and pronunciation on the show
as "well, they're just doing it like they did in the old days". He doesn't
explain what the different grammar and pronunciation rules were like back
then, or otherwise elaborate on the syntax of *Qab jIH ngIl*. But the
aberrant grammar and pronunciation are nonetheless accounted for
canonically as an archaic form of the language. In other words, "quab jee
nah geel" *is* the canon of Okrand, though not in any way that relates to
modern Klingon or that can really be learned from.
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