[tlhIngan Hol] Clarification on SIch

[De'vID]

On Sun, 21 Apr 2019 at 19:11, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:

> ja' De'vID:
> >> Now, this sentence was (probably) not written by Okrand. But it's Star
> >> Trek canon, and it's reasonably good Klingon, so I think (at least in
> >> L'Rell's dialect) this means that {SIch} can also have
> >> Dictionary.com's sense 5.
>
> Am 21.04.2019 um 18:54 schrieb SuStel:
> > That's not how we define Okrandian canon round these parts, so I'm
> > leaving the jury out on that.
>
> I agree with SuStel, following the strict seperation between Okrandian
> canon, and anything else - no matter how good any translation is.
>

I've written before about the importance of keeping track of what comes
from Okrand, but I think there's a useful difference between, say,
Okrandian canon (comes from Okrand) and Okrandian Klingon canon (Star Trek
canon which uses Okrand's Klingon).

Okrand himself specifies the rules for generating noun-noun constructions
and compound nouns, for example, in TKD. Since {poH qut} has been used in
Star Trek now, and its meaning is fairly unambiguous from the components, I
see no reason not to accept this as the "canon" way to say "time crystals".
(TKD even allows such words to be written without a space, like *{poHqut}.)
I'm much more likely to use {poH qut} than {jolvoy'} (since Discovery is
currently on-air), and also be likelier to be understood. {poH qut} is
Okrandian Klingon canon, even if it isn't Okrandian canon.

Similarly, Okrand gave us rules for understanding how and why Klingons in
the shows and movies sometimes say things which aren't quite right,
according to the known Okrandian sources at the time. Klingons have
multiple languages, regions, and dialects. Klingon sometimes uses special
grammar in certain contexts. We can't conclude that {SIch} can *always* be
used the way L'Rell used it, but Okrand has given the readers of KGT
license to always be able to reconcile what's on screen with what he
describes. In this case, the reconciliation is obvious: {SIch} can be used
in this way in L'Rell's dialect. And since she's Chancellor, well, if I'm
speaking to a Klingon in the Discovery universe at the time of Chancellor
L'Rell, I'd be pretty comfortable using {SIch} in that way, too.

I can virtually guarantee that if someone were to show that line to Okrand
with the explanation that L'Rell spoke it on Discovery, he'll confirm that
it is correct. Again, it's fine to distinguish between "it comes from
Okrand" and "it was approved by Okrand" (as some of K.R.A. DeCandido's
words are), and it's fine to wait until he does confirm it and not just
assume he would (though he has a lot of things to do, and I've never known
him to contradict on-screen Star Trek canon). But I think there's also a
danger, in absolutely refusing to interpret a word in any way except as
illustrated by an existing canon example, of being more Klingon than
Kahless (I think the Earth expression is "being more Catholic than the
Pope").

-- 
De'vID
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