[tlhIngan Hol] clipped klingon formal or informal

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Tue Feb 15 06:19:30 PST 2022


On 2/15/2022 9:05 AM, Will Martin wrote:
> I don’t see Clipped Klingon as a matter of informality so much as 
> urgency. You use it with a pet because it is simpler and the pet is 
> more likely to understand. You use it in a battle because you want 
> your command done NOW and you don’t have TIME for no stinkin’ prefixes 
> or suffixes. In both cases, the context of things you are likely to 
> say is extremely narrow, so you don’t need much in the way of grammar 
> to differentiate between the few things you are likely to say in this 
> setting. The delay between the expression of a command and the 
> execution of it can determine who lives and who dies, so you want the 
> command as brief as possible, hence “Clipped”.
>
> Speaking to a god that you worship, I’d expect to hear {-neS} a lot, 
> and maybe a few {-jaj}es here and there in the form of praising the 
> potential that the god is successful and flourishes and is worshipped 
> by increasing masses, etc. Perhaps {-chu’} might appear more often 
> than in typical speech.
>
> I’d expect the OPPOSITE of Clipped Klingon, because you are dealing 
> with an entity that can destroy you at a whim. You want to be very 
> explicit and clearly understood so as not to accidentally incur wrath, 
> and to coax your superior toward a decision that is in your best 
> interests.

I agree with charghwI''s conclusion: clipping isn't about a lack of 
respect; it's about urgency. It might also be used to show casualness, 
as is done in Power Klingon.

I would expect all kinds of ceremonies, religious or otherwise, to use 
full Klingon: not only unclipped, but also with fewer nouns turning into 
pronouns and dropped pronouns. Every time Klingon ceremonies are 
depicted in the shows, they're done slowly and formally.

It's possible that in some kinds of magic, such as the Klingon version 
of the Witch-king binding evil spirits to the corpses of his enemies to 
produce barrow-wights, clipped Klingon would be appropriate, as the 
binding is a struggle and the commands urgent.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name




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