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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/30/2018 10:05 AM, Lieven L. Litaer
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:9af3b85d-c989-ad9b-78ce-702de1f29715@gmx.de">This topic
is returning very often, and Okrand seems to be "not at all picky
about that." (email to the mailing list from loghaD, 11/16/14)
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>The creator of the language hardly needs to worry about whether
words he can make up at the drop of a hat need to have spaces in
them.</p>
<p>Okrand is also more concerned with spoken Klingon than written.
His transcription system is just a description of pronunciation,
and you don't usually pronounce spaces between words. So when
pronounced, <b>HoDlupDujHomquS</b> is identical to <b>HoD
lupDujHom quS</b><i> chair of the captain's shuttlecraft.</i></p>
<p>But that doesn't make the long constructions single words. That
phrase, however it's pronounced, consists of three words. If you
want to specify that you meant the chair of the captain's <i>red</i>
shuttlecraft, you can just stick another word in there, whether
you originally thought of the phrase as one word or three: <b>HoD
lupDujHom Doq quS.</b> If <b>HoDlupDujHomquS</b> were really
one word, you couldn't do that.<br>
</p>
<p>Spaces are just punctuation. Okrand has never been concerned with
punctuation. Punctuation is part of a writing system, and we know
very little about the Klingon writing system, so we know very
little about their punctuation. How we punctuate in a
transcription system that has nothing to do with any actual
Klingon writing system should be largely irrelevant.</p>
<p>However, if everyone feels justified in making a big stink about
how you have to capitalize all the letters that Okrand
capitalizes, even though the system looks ridiculous, I don't see
what leg you have to stand on to want to eliminate the spaces that
Okrand uses consistently throughout his transcription system.
Basically, if we are to start eliminating spaces because we feel
like it, then we should also be able to eliminate the silly
capitalization of the transcription system. There's certainly
enough call to do so.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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