[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: taHqeq

[Will Martin]

I can no longer pride myself in any current role within the lunatic fringe maintaining Klingon stuff, though I am proud of my original Annotated Klingon Dictionary, awakening others to the importance of keeping notes about sources. I’m also proud of starting the New Words List before handing it over to other capable hands. This community is well served by volunteer efforts to be sure about what is correct.

The task has always been borderline impossible, since the perimeter has always been porous and there have always been pretenders, like novel authors who don’t bother consulting Okrand, or individuals who want a particular word so badly they just make it up, so that they could expedite their translation of some “great, significant” work, or some such.

And yet, through all these years, we’ve managed to have a wonderful collection of people to step up to the plate and keep the language alive. I’m sure Okrand is still stunned by the work of this community. He did this joking, nerdy thing all those years ago, and we’ve kept it going far beyond any ambition he ever had for it. We have made him far more significant than he otherwise could have been.

It’s interesting, this interaction between this language and those who learn it. I was once surprised by the realization that for all I’ve done in my life, as silly as my Klingon work has been (viewed from the broader cultural sense of history or destiny), the Klingon language gave me an opportunity to be among the best in the world at doing something.

It may be a silly thing, even embarrassing to admit to in conversation among many acquaintances, and certainly making me the butt of more than a few jokes among associates, but I look around and wonder what else I could ever do and have so few others in a line of those better than me at those things?

Martial arts? Yeah, right. I’m apparently “naturally skilled”, but insufficiently disciplined to dedicate myself to noteworthy status.

Computer support? I’m good, but there are a LOT of good people doing this.

Theoretical physics? Lacking any family background in academics or wealth, humble roots eliminated any opportunity to acquire credentials as a foundation.

Flight? I can’t afford an airplane and am married to someone who would never accept the idea of an ultralight, and I wouldn’t have a place to keep even that.

I’ve dabbled in a LOT of things as an over-thinker with wandering interest among many topics, but the one area where I can count myself as among the best, most historically significant couple dozen people in the world, the Klingon language has given me a place to shine.

I shine less now, and others are welcome to shine more.

Still, we shine here.

That’s what drives us.

We want to be among the best in the world at something, and we’ve found that thing in the Klingon Language.

We are at our best when we shine cooperatively, polishing the resources available to the community. We shine less brightly when we go at it with sharp elbows, more intent upon dissing others than improving the resources for the whole community, but it’s really hard to not shove back when shoved, and there have always been those who, without doing the work or earning the stripes or caring about the language or the community, charge ahead, trying to take over the language as a “leader”, downplaying Okrand’s simple ownership of the language as its originator. There’s always been someone declaring that it’s time to dump Okrand and take over the language, ourselves, and THOSE people needed to be shoved.

I’ve done more than my share of shoving.

Much of it was necessary, in defense of the integrity of the language.

Some of it was not justified, but instead merely acting out of habit from the justified shoving. When you’ve shoved for good reasons enough times, it becomes a little too easy to shove yourself past the point of being an asshole.

I’m not an asshole, but on this list, I have had my moments where I was indistinguishable from an asshole.

We need to shove invaders. Among those working for the language Okrand is still the sole source of, we don’t need to shove each other.

Our work will never be perfect, but wow.

It shines.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

> On Jan 20, 2021, at 2:09 AM, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Am 20.01.2021 um 07:53 schrieb De'vID:
>> Amazing. I wonder how many tidbits like this are floating around in
>> miscellaneous articles (HolQeD, newsgroup postings) which most people
>> aren't aware of? I've been quite meticulous in collecting these things
>> (and documenting them in the {boQwI'} database), but I've somehow missed
>> this. Someone really needs to make an updated edition to The Klingon
>> Dictionary which incorporates information like this.
> 
> This idea pops up every few years, and it's surely a good idea. It just
> has two major problems:
> 
> a) Copyright issue, since they simply won't allow us to do it. (And this
> conserns not only CBS. HolQeD also has a copyright notice)
> 
> b) It's a hell of work to compile all that information. This is not only
> about collecting the information; to have it in a kind of
> book/collection, it needs hours and hours of formatting, spell checking,
> layout, design etc.
> 
> The only solution that seems to be working is what we are doing right
> now: try to set up an online compendium, like you do with boQwI', and I
> do with my Klingon Wiki. An honestly, coming back to problem "b": How
> many people do you really have in your team working on boQwI'? I have
> given up asking people for assistance for my wiki. :-(
> 
> http://klingon.wiki/Word/taHkek
> 
> 
> --
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
> http://www.tlhInganHol.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> tlhIngan-Hol mailing list
> tlhIngan-Hol at lists.kli.org
> http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org

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