<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 May 14, 2019, at 08:40, Will Martin <<a href="mailto:willmartin2@mac.com">willmartin2@mac.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">You are clearly going where I have never gone before. Frankly, I never even THOUGHT of going there.</div></blockquote><br><div>Your message flatters me, but honestly I don’t think learning Morskan is *that* wild if an endeavor if one is already learning standard Klingon. There aren’t major lexical differences (that we know of) and only one known, and relatively tame, grammatical difference. Anybody who reads the brief description of Morskan in KGT should have little trouble composing or understanding text in that dialect, provided they’re already somewhat familiar with the standard one.</div><div><br></div><div>Now if you want to know about a Klingon language variant that *really* has a small population of speakers, I’m aware of one (not created by Dr. Okrand and obviously not canonical) with a lexicon, grammar, and phonology that is familiar enough that most skilled Klingonists ought to be able to understand it reasonably well with a fairly short period of adjustment, but different enough that I expect that it would be a challenge to extract meaning from text composed in this language without knowing the rules up front. Not an impossible challenge, but a challenge nevertheless. I’ll refrain from describing it in more detail, as the person who devised this language has not shared any details about it in public, and may have done so out of minor embarrassment over how incredibly geeky it is.</div><div><br></div><div>Anyway, in case you’re curious, the Morskan project is a restoration of the original Morskan lyrics for some well known songs from a particular Earth musical genre. It seemed appropriate to do them in a regional dialect. Here’s an example of one of the songs; I will leave the translation to the standard dialect and identification of the corresponding Terran song as an exercise to the reader:</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">pIch ghaj mungwIj</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">SeQ lopno'lIj</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vIqaghpu'DI' DaS Hop vItuQ</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">SovwI' Hav jI</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">pawwI' Hav jI</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">pa' chotu' 'e' Dahonmo' qanuQ</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">gha vImer 'e' vItu'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vIghIj 'e' 'agh mInDu'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Iw hIq hIvje' vIglhap 'ej vIpep</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ghIq SovaD jIjats</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Da chaq banglI' gha lats</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'ach not ghu'vammo' jIbep</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daq quvha'Daq chata 'op jupwI'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">pa' SengmeywIj hata hIq Seng bI'-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">chu'mo' je hIq haw'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vaj pa' jIbaw'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">loQ nugh chut vIlobha' jI</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vaj Da tach vImaSbogh vIghoSlI'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daq quvha'Daq chata 'op jupwI'</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">jImujlaw'mo' jIghlIj</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daqvam 'obe' DaqwIj</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ghu' vISIQpu' 'ej vISIQqa'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">qay'be'ba' ghu'vam</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vaj jIjats maj ram</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ghIq lojmItDaq jIDev'eghqangba'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">bong Hughhomvam</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vIqaSmopu' vaj Hap ghlam</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">wa' rep pIq baw'chola yab</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ngugh jI jen law' chalqachlIj jen law'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">chalqachvets chIS DaDab</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daq quvha'Daq chata 'op jupwI'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">pa' SengmeywIj hata hIq Seng bI'-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">chu'mo' je hIq haw'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vaj pa' jIbaw'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">loQ nugh chut vIlobha' jI</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">vaj Da tach vImaSbogh vIghoSlI'</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daq quvha'Daq chata 'op jupwI'</span></p></div></body></html>