Making Up Klingon Words

[qoSagh]

What do people feel about new Klingon (or actually tlhIngan Hol) words that come from fandom and not from Okrand / KLI / Paramount? Most of these would be proper nouns like names. My Klingon Name qoSagh has no meaning that I know of in tlhIngan Hol, but has it's roots in an English translation of a Russian word. The only proper noun in the name of my club is qaptaQ which has roots in a Egyptian word. My title in the club is meycha which has it's roots in a Japanese word. I am sure that many of us have developed character or ship names along the same lines.

The other type of word that pops up from time to time, and I too have used them, are Klingonaase words spelled as they would be in tlhIngan Hol. The best example I can think of is Komerex being spelled qomereqs or qomereQ (I've seen both). I know a fan who's Klingon name was Kraath, which has also been spelled Qeytlh, although that is probably not the best translation one could do.

I ask this because I was at a recent convention and offered a Klingon business card to a fluent speaker of tlhIngan Hol. He critisized me for having words that "didn't exist" in my name and title. I pretty much blew off the critisism, but that got me to thinking about how this would be viewed generally within Klingon fandom.

In a role play sense I would think that a Klingon who hears a "foreign" word would think of it as he would spell it in his native tounge. Thus when shown a human pet and told it was a dog he would think of it as a Dagh. That is where I have always tried to go when comming up propper names of figuring out how a Klingonaase word would be spelled in tlhIngan Hol.

Anyway I thought I'd throw this out to everyone and see what you thought.

[ngabwI]

I ask this because I was at a recent convention and offered a Klingon business card to a fluent speaker of tlhIngan Hol. He critisized me for having words that "didn't exist" in my name and title.

Excuse me a moment....  :blink:

::APOPLEXY::

::Wiping foam from mouth:: There, I feel better.

The person you describe needs to have the pole in his {Sa'Hut} replaced with a boot. Your name is what you want to be called. Period. Your Klingon name doesn't have to be "real", or even make sense.  It doesn't matter if the words that make up your name were ever written or spoken by Okrand. All that matters in a name is whether or not you enjoy answering to it.

Hol speakers like this chap my aft regions. Tear apart the grammar of a sentence, offer an alternate construction, but picking on someone's name does nothing more than show the Hol speaker to be a bully.

That speaker can choke on his "advice".

::Puts away soapbox::

And you can tell 'em I said so...

HovpoH 701280.1

[SoplaHtaHwI']

What ngabwI' said...

A person's or even ship's name need not be Hol.
However, and here I differ of opinion with most of you, I think: if said person then decides to spell his (or her, indeed) name or that of his ship in Hol, he should take care to do so following the Hol rules.

qoSagh: The best example I can think of is Komerex being spelled qomereqs or qomereQ (I've seen both)

q = k, Q != x (q is equal to k, Q is not equal to x). In all three languages I feel sufficiently confident in to comment on their soundings, x sounds ks. Q in Hol however sounds not at all like that.

Going on what I know of Hol, Komerex should be spelled qomeretlh or qomeregh, although I guess qomeretlh would be better, both in sound and in said placement of the letter on a keyboard...

Another point I want to make is why??? what is wrong with Komerex, or indeed Kraath  spelled the way they are? Even though Hol is the most popular (and to some the only) Klingon language,  -aase should not be squandered so easily.

As for Qaptaq and meycha, even though they may or may not have the Okrand seal of approval on them, they seem fairly consistent with what Hol says about spelling. Furthermore they are foreign words, so who cares that they are not Hol?

I keep in mind the recent issue I had with the word Zulu. In Dutch, my mother's tongue (and indeed my father's too), it is spelled Zoeloe, just because that's what it sounds like in Dutch. No harm done, and if someone disputes it, an explanation should be enough. If that does not help, a meqleH (mek'leth) between the ribs should suffice.

(Edit -- attributed quote)

 

[qoSagh]

I like the idea about the meqleH in the shoulder blades. That seems to settle most disputes not just the linguistic ones. Although I tend to think that this situation was a manufactured dispute in that it was brought up simply to be argumentative.

As for qoSagh, meycha and qaptaQ, they were not designed to be foreign words, at least not in tlhIngan Hol, they were designed to be consistant with the language exactly so they would be seen/read/imagined as native words. I always intended them to be words in tlhIngan Hol, even if they were not in widespread use.

It also seems to me that if I were a native speaker of tlhIngan Hol, and I were reading something and came across an unfamiliar word, I would sound it out, maybe if the usage was not evident ask what it was, but otherwise continue reading. Much like I do in English. Since in my case a Business Card seems pretty self evident, I thought usage would not be a question. I have worked to make pronunciation a non-problem also.

Also I do not dismiss Klingonaase at all, it is after all the Klingon language that I "grew up" on, in that it was still more common when I got involved in Klingon fandom. The only reason I see for spelling words from one into the other, would be for consistancy in doccuments. It is not so bad if the main document is in English and contains words from different languages, but to have a document in tlhIngan Hol, that has words from Klingonaase can get confusing for the listener. This is especially true as many current con attendees have never heard or heard of Klingonaase.

 

[El Payaso Malo]

My Klingon Name qoSagh has no meaning that I know of in tlhIngan Hol...

When I had first read it, I thought that it was "serious world" mashed together, but then I noticed the lack of a '.

q = k, Q != x (q is equal to k, Q is not equal to x). In all three languages I feel sufficiently confident in to comment on their soundings, x sounds ks. Q in Hol however sounds not at all like that.

Okrand does indeed use Klingon Q to replace English x. The best example that I can remember is in The Klingon Dictionary page 58 in which he states that Korax is the English mispronunciation of qoreQ. This convention is even used by skilled Klingon speakers such as ter'eS, who uses it in his influential short story tlhoreQ puqloDpu' lut / The Story Of Klorax's Sons. I admit that the sounds sound very little alike, but it is the best approximation that Klingon has for English x.