[tlhIngan Hol] Verbs of measure

Will Martin willmartin2 at mac.com
Mon Apr 1 12:13:40 PDT 2019


I think it would be a stretch to say that those who read and compose messages by typing or copying words and sentences into boQwI’ speak Klingon. I mean, yes, many who speak Klingon do enjoy the assistance of boQwI’, but this message seemed to suggest limiting the group under consideration to those who wholly rely on it, without memorizing any vocabulary or learning any grammar.

I’ve always been impressed by how much work most people on this list actually put into the skill levels they’ve achieved here, either by impressive natural talent or by dogged determination and years of practice.

Speaking for myself, the skill I inexplicably honed at using this language has been an odd source of self-esteem to carry me through times when the rest of my life didn’t bother to offer many boosts in that area. Even if I’m picked last for the neighborhood volleyball team, at least I knew I was one of the very few people in the world who could speak Klingon. I might lose a girlfriend or a job or whatever, but, darn it all, I am a Friend of Maltz, and several words exist in the Klingon vocabulary because I asked for them.

I may suck at a long list of things I’ve tried to do before, but hey, I came up with the idea of expressing the question “Which weapon do you want?” as the command, “Choose your weapon!” because we don’t have a question word for “which” in this language, and we don’t need one, either. So THERE!

I may not have enough vocabulary at my fingertips to conversationally keep up with a lot of the people on this list, even after decades of participating in this list, but man, if you just give me a few minutes and boQwI’, I can craft some really beautiful Klingon sentences, and I know the grammar well, even among the best here. Not perfect, mind you, but pretty darned good.

If boQwI’ was all anybody needed to speak Klingon, then it would not be such an effective source of nerd pride.

The Few, the Proud, the Guys (think gender-neutral version of that term) With Entirely Too Much Time Without Something More Important To Do: Klingon Speakers.

I’ve been one since qep’a’ wa’DIch.

Then I got married and stopped going to qep’a’mey… [sigh]

But hey, I’m still here, after all these years.

Last Friday, I had a simple first moment. I realized that it had been a while since I ate, and I thought, “I’m hungry,” in English while I said, {jIghung} and gestured the same in ASL, all with one smooth mental exercise of expression. It’s not an impressive feat, but it was truly unplanned, simultaneous, and innocently accidental in three languages.

And it felt really weird...

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Mar 31, 2019, at 12:21 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> “They” cannot conceive of non-Trekkies who speak Klingon, so anyone who does must be a Trekkie, and that’s where they’ll put you.
>  
> -- 
> SuStel
> http://trimboli.name <http://trimboli.name/>
>  
> From: Will Martin <mailto:willmartin2 at mac.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2019 10:36 AM
> To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org <mailto:tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
> Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] Verbs of measure
>  
> They don’t.
>  
> Sent from my iPhone.
> charghwI’
>  
> > On Mar 30, 2019, at 8:42 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> >
> >> On 3/30/2019 8:04 PM, Christa Hansberry wrote:
> >> Where do non-Trekkies who hang out on the Klingon mailing list and read and compose messages by typing or copying words and sentences into boQwI' fit in? :-P
> >
> > "Trekkies who speak Klingon."
> >
> > --
> > SuStel
> > http://trimboli.name
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > tlhIngan-Hol mailing list
> > tlhIngan-Hol at lists.kli.org
> > http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org
>  
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