[tlhIngan Hol] Introducing oneself in Klingon: Beginner's question

[Will Martin]

SuStel has certainly earned the role of Beginners’ Grammarian (BG) for the past few years, for his loyalty to the role, persistently watching for those needing help and for the thoroughness and accuracy of his answers. That said, the one reason someone else should do it is that traditionally the BG has been a gifted beginner.

Why?

Originally HoD Qanqor was the Grammarian. Like the Highlander, There Was Only One. He was peerless. At Qep’a’ wa’DIch, he and Seqram were the only two who could speak the language interactively, and Seqram explained that a year earlier at the Klingon summer camp that preceded the formation of the KLI, he had seen Qanqor speaking Klingon and came to the passionate realization that he, Seqram, absolutely HAD to learn the language.

But over the years, Qanqor got tired of answering the same questions, over and over again for new people, so he appointed a skilled beginner to be BG both to reduce his workload and to force that BG to more intensely explore the less examined corners of the grammar.

Everyone who took on the BG mantle became better at the language out of necessity. Any beginner who wrote in with a question was always answered first by the BG. Everyone else held back to give the BG first dibs because it was an educational experience for both the beginner and the BG. Others would comment after the BG, both to fill in greater detail or to make corrections, for the BG’s benefit as much as for the beginner.

That’s the aspect of being BG that SuStel doesn’t fulfill. Personally, given Qanqor’s absence of many years, I think SuStel is better qualified to be the Grammarian and we should find someone who is at a stage of learning that is driven, yet incomplete. We won’t get qualified new grammarians if we don’t give talented and dedicated, but somewhat ignorant Klingon speakers this role to drive them to learn the language with greater competence.

We got lazy about BGs. We initially had term limits, and we dedicated real effort at deciding who should be BG out of our interest in expanding the population of competent Klingon speakers. Then we slacked off on term limits. Then we let the role go to someone who dropped the ball and we didn’t pick it up when they disappeared. We appear to be less concerned about nurturing expertise among new speakers, relying instead upon the self-motivation of exceptional individuals.

In the past, I would have had difficulty suggesting that SuStel be the Grammarian because he had what I considered to be an ego investment in theories about Klingon grammar that were arguably radical and likely inaccurate. Since then, a couple of my own theories have proven themselves to be inaccurate, and SuStel has recognizably matured toward a more profoundly comprehensive understanding of the grammar. He’s put commendable effort into keeping his expertise current when other experts like myself and the other BGs and Qanqor, himself, have wandered off to other distractions of the Real World. He’s shown himself to be trustworthy as the authority on what we do and don’t know about Klingon grammar. He’s very objective when combing through canon to find the most accurate interpretation of the best rules and guidelines to understand the language, rather than to start with a pet theory and cheat the game of finding any evidence to reinforce it or ignore evidence to the contrary.

He’s fair.

He’s not always pleasant, but then pleasantry among Klingon speakers is a rare quality. I often find myself suffering the consequences of my own limited supply.

So, that’s my recommendation. SuStel becomes the Grammarian and some beginner who is talented, yet incomplete in their grasp of the language becomes Beginners’ Grammarian for a limited term, and we continue passing the baton around in order to grow the population of qualified grammarians.

> On Jan 5, 2022, at 3:52 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Fri, 31 Dec 2021 at 09:37, James Landau <savegraduation at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> So let me get this straight . . . sentences with a would-be copula require a pronoun and -'e' in the subject . . . so *Jim Miller jIH* doesn't need an -'e' because *jIH* already is a pronoun, whereas *Kate Stewart 'oH pongwIj'e'* needs a subject pronoun *'oH* and an -'e' because "Kate Stewart", the subject, is a noun and not a pronoun?
> 
> 
> Do you have The Klingon Dictionary? If so, see section 6.3. All pronouns can be used as verbs in the sense of "I am", "you are", etc. If the subject is a noun, then it follows the third-person pronoun and takes the suffix {-'e'}.
> 
> Also, is the Beginner's Grammarian still a thing? I usually wait a day when the subject says "beginner" for the BG to reply, but it seems no one is currently doing that job. In the last little while, it seems that SuStel and I have been answering beginners' questions. 
> 
> Looking back over the archives, it seems that the post has been vacant since February of 2017:
> http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/2017-November/006554.html
> 
> SuStel has already been BG, but if it's possible to serve a second time (and it seems there is a precedent in HoD trI'Qal), then I nominate him to be BG (again, and retroactively as of 'arHa's stepping down), as he's been answering beginners' questions (and grammar questions more generally) the most often since the post has been vacant:
> http://klingon.wiki/En/BeginnersGrammarian
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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