First of all, I want to emphasise that I am NOT promising anything. Quite
possibly, nothing will come out of this. I want to set proper expectations
and not get anyone's hopes up.
Again: NO PROMISES. With that said...
While working on the 3rd edition of the paq'batlh, I had gathered a huge
amount of information about new revelations about the grammar and
vocabulary of Klingon which I'd edited into notes organised by the same
system as used in TKD. I'd also put in comments about how things had been
used by Dr. Okrand in the movies and SkyBox cards, a few translations he'd
done for Star Trek authors, things done by others in the Netflix dialogues
and subtitles, writings by skilled Klingon speakers such as blog posts,
etc., in areas where Dr. Okrand had left things vague or underspecified in
TKD, but where common usage patterns (if not a consensus) had developed.
Dr. Okrand has indicated that, where possible, he doesn't want to reveal
anything which would contradict how people have already been using the
language (except for clear errors). And, of course, I have been keeping
track of all updates to the vocabulary through the {boQwI'} database. I
basically had a private copy of TKD updated with all the new grammar and
vocabulary and usage notes, which I'd shared with Dr. Okrand and was
tremendously helpful in getting the paq'batlh published.
When he saw it, he suggested we turn it into a new official edition of TKD.
At the time, the paq'batlh project was ballooning and it seemed to just
keep getting bigger and bigger, so we put the idea aside. In the last few
weeks, I've edited my notes into a form that looks reasonably like a book
draft. Previously, it just had bullet points, disconnected examples, and
references to HolQeD or the mailing list or other sources peppered
throughout. I've edited the bullet points into paragraphs, edited the
examples to build on each other throughout where possible, and included the
information from the sources in the body of the book itself (except some
places where it says "For more info, see KGT/TKW / listen to CK/PK" as I
didn't want to repeat the info or examples from there). Where usage
patterns had developed independent of Dr. Okrand's input, I've put in
placeholders like "A majority of speakers use this construction or use this
word this way, while a minor does this other thing." Dr. Okrand will be
going through everything and we'll be revising things together.
Already, this project is clearly going to be bigger in scope than editing
the paq'batlh 3rd edition. The process for that started in 2019, and it
wasn't published until 2022. Depending on my and Dr. Okrand's schedules,
it's likely a 3rd edition of TKD will take even longer than that. And maybe
it'll end up being too much work and won't ever be completed. (Dr. Okrand
is officially retired, and even though he seems to enjoy discussions about
Klingon, I also don't want to pester him too much.) So, again, I'm not
promising anything.
With all that said, it's still a very rough draft, and we have no official
go-ahead from the publisher to do anything. We're putting together a book
proposal for Pocket Books ( > Simon & Schuster > CBS), which, of course,
might even just be rejected.
However, in the meantime, I'd like to be optimistic and just pretend
that the book proposal will be approved, and solicit everyone's input so we
can continue to make progress on the draft, similar to what we'd done with
paq'batlh.
Errors:
- I am fairly certain that I've covered all the typos and errors in TKD.
However, have other people compiled their own lists? It would be good to be
able to double-check.
Grammar:
- Again, I've gone through Dr. Okrand's interviews in HolQeD, info revealed
in the mailing list from the qep'a'mey and books authored by others, and
the booklets from the Saarbrücken qepHom'a'. So I think I've got everything
(in fact, we'll have to make editorial decisions to cut some things, e.g.,
the section on comparisons is way too long right now, compared to
other points of grammar; and we can't possibly explain how every verb is
used grammatically). But are there any particular sticky points of grammar
that you believe need to be clarified? For example, those of you who deal
often with beginners (e.g., the people who run Duolingo or various
qepHommey), are there particular points which beginners are frequently
confused about and could be better explained?
Vocabulary:
- What Dr. Okrand and I are looking for specifically are gaps in the
vocabulary relevant to Star Trek. The original TKD was intended to cover
vocabulary needed to say anything said by a Klingon up to Star Trek III.
The second edition's addendum added a few things from Star Trek VI and the
early seasons of TNG. KGT added some more things from TNG and DS9 as well.
What we would like for the new edition of TKD is to be able to cover
anything said by any Klingon character, or anything for which there should
be a Klingon term, up to the new shows. This includes words made up by Star
Trek writers which haven't been given a backfit into Okrandian orthography
(e.g., things like "gorch" and "kajunpakt" before Dr. Okrand confirmed
them).
Neither Dr. Okrand nor I have kept up with the new Star Trek shows, so it's
likely we might be missing things in this area. Please supply the context
for the needed vocabulary (e.g., series and episode, line of dialogue and
surrounding dialogue).
Examples:
- Again, the original TKD had examples mostly either from Star Trek III, or
constructed from vocabulary made up for that movie. New revelations of
grammar rules used examples relevant to Star Trek (e.g., how to express
length, using a painstik as an example), but it would be nice if the
example sentences are things which were actually (or could potentially have
been) spoken by Klingon characters in real situations from the shows and
movies. I've edited some examples of Klingon dialogues from the recent
movies and Discovery into the text. If anyone has any favourite quotes from
Worf or L'Rell or another Klingon character which illustrates a grammar
point or concept nicely, let me know.
(Also, we haven't figured out how Maltz and/or Dr. Okrand learned about
spoken Klingon dialogue which happened in alternate timelines, or after
Maltz's capture in contexts he shouldn't have access to. Perhaps the
Temporal Mechanics Department was involved. Truly, temporal mechanics gives
one a headache!)
Useful expressions:
- The original "useful expressions" from TKD were mostly intended to be
humorous. Dr. Okrand didn't originally anticipate that people would
actually memorise the lines and use them. For the new edition, I think we
will have a useful expressions chapter with multiple sections, for
different contexts.
For example, the first section would probably be beginner conversational
phrases. I know that a list like that has been used very successfully at
events like the qepHom'a'. (It would be phrases like "What's this?", "How
do you say [blank] in Klingon?", "My name is [blank]", and so on; the kind
of sentence beginners need to say to get started.) Maybe touristy phrases
(like those found in CK and PK) can be here as well, or in a separate
section.
Another section is probably going to be ship operations. We already have
the vocabulary and grammar to say almost anything in this regard. But, for
example, it would be good to have a ready list of things commonly said
while operating a Klingon ship, like "Take your stations!" (so someone
didn't need to invent {Delaq Do'}). Let me know if you think of anything
that is commonly said on a starship that we don't have a way to say yet.
Does anyone play a Klingon in STO or any other game where they roleplay as
Klingon characters? What are some common things you might say?
I'll take suggestions for other contexts/sections, or any phrases which
might be useful to have in TKD. In particular, think about the kinds of
things that Star Trek writers might be liable to make up, if they can't
find something right away by looking in the list of expressions in TKD.
Once again, I will note that I am making NO PROMISES about this project. I
have committed some time (a few hours per week here and there, like with
the paq'batlh) to working on it, and Dr. Okrand has agreed to spend some
time on it as well (but he is retired and doesn't necessarily have a lot of
time for this), so I'm just going to do what I can to see how far I can
push it. Any help that would make things easier for Dr. Okrand and myself
would be very much appreciated.
Qapla'!
--
De'vID
