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

nIqolay Q niqolay0 at gmail.com
Fri Aug 11 07:54:54 PDT 2017


On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 10:04 AM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:

> lieven:
> > Theoretically, if ALL that Qov has translated is just fine,
> > following the grammar, with no confusion - then why should
> > we not show it?
>
> In that case I want to ask, to include in boQwI' every other sentence
> every other grammarian has ever written.
>

boQwI' contains a number of entries which aren't Okrand canon (and they are
marked as not being by Okrand). There's the {taH pagh taHbe'} speech from
Hamlet, the "Blood was ankle deep" drinking song from DS9 (whose lyrics are
described as "not grammatical in modern standard Klingon, since they are
ancient"), a few words used in novels and the like (marked as "extended
canon: use with caution!"), and so on.

My guess is that the intent is to include non-canonical words or passages
that beginners may nonetheless have already heard of in some context other
than KLI-approved Klingon, so they can find information about them
(including their non-canonical status) when they come to look them up. In
this case, beginners coming to boQwI' from DSC might look up lines from the
show, and if those beginners find entries saying "this is a line from DSC,
it's probably okay but it's not by Okrand" that will probably be more
useful to them than finding no results at all and wondering why.

The majority of people who use boQwI' aren't die-hard Klingon fans like us.
(I was surprised when I first read that from De'vID. I hadn't really
anticipated the possibly that someone could be interested in Klingon
without going all-in.) It's quite likely that they aren't going to know
about the canon/non-canon distinction beforehand unless they are told.

Speaking for myself, I trust SuStel and lojmIt tI'wI' nuv more than Qov.
> So, why include her sentences and exclude theirs, or yours ? You're a
> grammarian, right ? Why should I study Qov's sentences, and not yours ?
>

Lots of people are going to be interested in Qov's sentences, because they
are going to be broadcast to potentially hundreds of thousands of people,
who have been told that it's all legitimate Klingon by the producers of
DSC.

Conversely, almost nobody outside the mailing list is going to be
interested in the things SuStel or lojmIt or you or me or even Qov have
said here unless they're reading the mailing list archives. No aspiring
Klingonist is going to come across (for example) my recent translation of
"The Second Coming" on the Internet somewhere and then hit up boQwI'
looking for more details. Including Qov's sentences in boQwI' would at
least provide an opportunity to get out in front of the issue, and help
beginners understand that these sentences aren't canonical.

(And, to reiterate... has anybody asked Okrand for his thoughts on the
matter?)
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