[tlhIngan Hol] pseudo-Klingon words from the paq'batlh

Lieven L. Litaer levinius at gmx.de
Tue Jul 2 10:54:57 PDT 2019


Am 02.07.2019 um 19:37 schrieb nIqolay Q:
> Why not?
> Klingonists invent new words all the time.

NOOOOOOO! [add echo here]

Hold on! There's a big difference between building words based on the
rules described in TKD, and inventing completely new words.

It's true that {turuqqangqa'moHtaHneS'a'} was never written by Okrand,
but if I make up words like {bawuS vISop} nobody will ever know what it
means. I f anyone starts creating words, we will end up in a mess.
That's why there is the unwritten rule (ehm, it's in the FAQ) that we
should NOT make up any words.

> In the case of transliterations, we don't have formal rules.

But the informal rule (again, see the FAQ) is that we should not do it.
It's true that there are systems that show how to transliterate, but
again, it's not 100% clear. You may think that {moSqaw} is obvious, but
a Russian writer may prefer {moSIqva'}.

> Transliterating Jesus's name as *QIStoS* or *yeSwa' bar yoSev* or
> *na'Saretlhngan 'I'eySoS* is presumably less important than explaining
> to the reader why he's worth writing about in the first place.

And that's why the safest way is to simply write "Jesus", which is a
word that everyone understands in enarly every language.

--
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.de
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/Transliteration



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