<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">On Feb 9, 2019, at 19:30, SuStel <<a href="mailto:sustel@trimboli.name">sustel@trimboli.name</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">He didn't get rid of <i>to be</i> because of a profound
connection to Klingon culture.</div></blockquote><br><div>He didn’t “get rid” of “to be”. There was never any “to be” to get rid of. Many languages on Earth also lack copula verbs, and the lack or presence of such verbs is no more reflective of culture on Qo'noS than it is on Earth.</div><div><br></div><div>Okrand made many decisions about the language, and while many of them were culturally motivated (e.g. phrasing things that would be “which” questions as commands - “paq DalaDbogh yIngu'!”), most of them weren’t. While I’d be happy to accept that things like the qualification suffixes, or grammatical gender being based on ability to use speech (or being a body part) have something to do with Klingon culture, I think it would be a stretch to claim that things like SVO, agglutination, lack of tense, etc., are reflective of culture.</div></body></html>