[tlhIngan Hol] clipped klingon formal or informal

[Will Martin]

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.

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Feb 15, 2022, at 7:55 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Suppose there's a priest of Melkor in his temple at Armenelos.
> 
> This priest starts invoking Melkor, and during the ritual he wants to say things like "approach", "manifest", "reveal yourself". But the priest worships Melkor; he doesn't approach him the way he'd approach a lesser spirit, which he'd perhaps try to force/bind/constrain.
> 
> So the question is, in such a setting, in a setting where a god is worshipped, is the use of clipped Klingon appropriate? 
> 
> Could the priest of Melkor say to him {nargh}, {ghoS}, {'ang'egh}? Or would the use of clipped Klingon in an occasion like this be considered inappropriate/disrespectful?
> 
> --
> Dana'an 
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