[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: lIlwI'

[Will Martin]

Note that Okrand was somewhat tech-averse when he wrote TKD and was not consulted about typeface. It wasn’t his idea to make the “eye” and “ell” identical, and they would not have been if the publisher had chosen a better font. He let “the experts” make that choice for the book, and it certainly was not his choice to go sans serif to remove the clues as to which is which.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting that Klingon speakers have no problem with it because the limits of the phonology make it obvious which is which.

> On Apr 4, 2022, at 10:39 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 at 16:21, Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu> wrote:
>> Klingon Word of the Day for Monday, April 04, 2022
>> 
>> Klingon word:   lIlwI'
>> Part of speech:         noun
>> Definition:     simulator
>> Source:         November 2016 email to Lieven
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> (Lieven, 11/25/2016):  {lIl} is a verb meaning something like "simulate, impersonate". The idea is one of doing something such that the subject of the verb looks or behaves like something (or someone) else or represents something (or someone) else. The word has no connotation of fraud or anything underhanded (in this respect, it’s like {ghet}). The object is the thing being simulated or the person being impersonated. {lIlwI’} (“simulator,” for lack of a better term) is different from {lIw} (“substitute”) since {lIw} implies replacement (the notion of “instead of”) while a {lIlwI’} doesn’t replace anyone or anything. 
>> 
>> PUN:
>>  “did you know there is a big flight simulator in the French city of Lille?” (Lieven, 7/06/2017)
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> 
> I doubt that this is anything but a coincidence, unless we have evidence that Okrand has some connection to that city. There are lots of flight simulators all over the world. Lille is a city that happens to have an airport, and is thus present in many flight simulators.
> 
> I think it's more likely that {lIl} is a joke based on the similarity of the lowercase ell and uppercase eye in a sans serif typeface. The meaning of the verb is that something looks like or behaves like something else. Thus, {l lIl I 'ej I lIl l}. I think Okrand is likely aware that the Latin alphabet characters used to transcribe {'It} and {lay} are often mixed up by people who copy Klingon words or sentences without understanding the allowed phonology.
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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