[tlhIngan Hol] Clarification on SIch

Wed Apr 24 10:32:51 PDT 2019

The problems with ILS strike me as very similar to the problems that the Deaf community has had with the many efforts one might bundle together under the heading of “Signed English”.

The ILS wanted to make Klingon easy to learn (primarily for English speakers), and they wanted to pump out major translations quickly. A better example of the contrast between ILS and KLI would be the ILS translation of the Bible, which was finished in a stunningly brief time, based on the King James version, taking great liberties with the vocabulary, while the KLI’s bible translation project never finished, since it was based upon the most original source material available in Aramaic and Greek, seeking to be meticulous and indisputable — and challenged by the limited Klingon vocabulary, which was not developed in canon in the interest of translating the Bible.

The ILS was rumored to be interested in its Bible as a tool for “spreading the good word”, promoting specific religious beliefs. The KLI’s interest in the Bible was more academic, simply because it is a work that has been translated into more languages than any other, (followed by Shakespeare and Agatha Christie), and so being a language the Bible has been translated into, that would add legitimacy to it as a language. 

If the ILS needed a word, they just mashed together a new word out of bits from existing words. They didn’t care about canon or authority. That wasn’t their mission.

I believe that the primary sin of ILS was the asymmetrical focus of translation. It was so important to pump a great deal of English text into Klingon, it seemed far less important to be able to understand the resulting product of translation. It’s like, “Well, I went through the process of translating the English in to the Klingon, so obviously, this impenetrable Klingon text means what the English meant that it was translated from.” There never was the idea that you could take the Klingon text without bringing along the English text to figure out what it means. The Klingon text was less an example of language conveying meaning than it was an example of doing a process to English text in order to produce a product, with its justification being the process one had gone through in order to have produced the product.

Note that the KLI managed to get a license from ViaCom to use the Klingon language in materials like The Klingon Hamlet, published through ViaCom’s own publishing house. ILS never got such a license.

The KLI takes its fun seriously. ILS was more casual. Aside from the cultural differences, ILS was very much centered around one charismatic person who was doing a cool thing. When he was lost, ILS was lost.

While Lawrence might also qualify as a charismatic person, he’s been consistently focused on making the KLI more of a community, relying on the work of a larger group of people. His primary role has been one of coordinator, often seeking ways of giving credit to others for their accomplishments with the language. The KLI never was all about Lawrence the way the ILS was all about Glen.

This is why, if Okrand ever officially relinquishes his role of being the origin of all canon, or if he passes on as eventually we all do, then the KLI will need to have matured to a level of organization capable of being the new authority of what is or is not canon, or if the language outgrows the restraints of canon, we’ll still have to be the arbiters of official vocabulary and acceptable grammar.

Fortunately, we aren’t facing that challenge just yet. I see my potential of passing before Okrand as a positive feature of my life, so I don’t have to face the political struggles that may ensue.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

> On Apr 24, 2019, at 10:42 AM, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Am 24.04.2019 um 14:47 schrieb Daniel Dadap:
>> I’ve heard the stories about the ILS, and how they went off and did their own thing with Klingon to the point where ILS Klingon and KLI Klingon were no longer mutually intelligible. I found this quite interesting, so I tried looking into it further, but sadly I wasn’t able to find much information about the ILS or very many samples of Klingon produced by them. Within the small body of text I was able to find, I didn’t encounter anything that I found to be totally incomprehensible.
> 
> The ILS had a very loose interpretation of the Klingon language which
> did not cooperate with how the KLI handled the grammatical rules. I
> don't know if you found the page at the Klingon wiki, but here are some
> examples which everyone on this list will agree is not a good way to go:
> 
> - combining verbs with nouns: "qawQaH" meaning "mnemomics"
> - using a verb as a noun: "DIpvaD tam" for "pronoun"
> - Saying that {vI-} means "I" and {wI-} is "we"
> 
> And there were more of this kind. These are just minor examples, but
> shows why they got arguments with the KLI who preferred to stick to the
> rules instead off overbending them.
> 
> Besides, it is not confirmed, but it seems there were also some monetary
> problems. The page at the wiki shows several "products" which the ILS
> planned to publish and to sell. Also, their own translation of Klingon
> Hamlet was completed in few weeks while the KLI's Hamlet took several
> months, because they probably put more effort in finding a good solution.
> 
> Find details here:
> http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/InterstellarLanguageSchool
> http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/AlienLanguagePrimer
> 
> (PS: I'm not saying the ILS was a bad thing; this is a collection of
> facts for the record. The old KLI wiki had much worse comments on ILS
> founder Glen Proechel.)
> 
> --
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
> http://www.klingonisch.de
> _______________________________________________
> tlhIngan-Hol mailing list
> tlhIngan-Hol at lists.kli.org
> http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org

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