[Tlhingan-hol] On the history of KLI

[David Holt]

I joined the KLI in 1992 and there were already members there ahead of me, so it's hard for me to think of a 1994 group (at qep'a' wa'DIch) as the "founding" members, though I think a few of the people you listed were also in the list of members that were there before me. I actually have a print out from 1992 of the original bylaws (on continuous tractor-feed paper with ASCII art), but they don't mention the officers' names.

I was also one of the instructors at the camp in Red Lake Falls in 1993, but then I missed qep'a' wa'DIch and cha'DIch and only participated through the mailing list until wejDIch.  I still have the VHS of the news report on the camp. I should get that transferred to digital for the KLI archives.

I think it would be good to collect and share some info on the early years of the KLI.  Anyone want to play journalist at the next qep'a' and pin down Lawrence for some of the answers?

janSIy

--- Original Message ---

From: "Will Martin" <lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com>
Sent: October 30, 2015 3:08 PM
To: "tlhIngan Hol mailing list" <tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] On the history of KLI



The six people who came for the duration of qep’a’ wa’DIch (and perhaps the other half dozen who visited it at some point during that week) are considered to be founding members. Yes, Laurence came up with the idea, and has been the president of the KLI since its inception, but I doubt he would consider himself to be the only founding member, since it’s not a group if it only has one person in it.

I’m a founding member. SuStel is a founding member. ghunchu’wI’ is a founding member. Seqram is a founding member. Qanqor is a founding member. I think Holtej is a founding member (unless he joined slightly later). My memory is imperfect, and I won’t try to stretch it to include the others. They should identify themselves, if they still subscribe to this list. I do not wish to disrespect anyone else who deserves the title of founding member by my omission. I just don’t remember that well. Time is not my strong suit. I remember how and why. Everything else is a blur. I use computers to deal with who, what, when, where, which, etc. How and why, I remember compulsively.

Just know that Lawrence is not the only founding member of the KLI.

There have been a number of artists who have offered their craft to the KLI. One of them invented the KLI’s logo. Neither Marc Orkand nor Paramount was not involved in that project. Lawrence asked for something that suggested the trefoil that belongs to Paramount, but would be sufficiently different from it to avoid issues of copyright, and was very happy with what the artist came up with. He could name the artist. I can’t. It was done within the first decade of the KLI, perhaps in the latter half of that decade.

HoD Qanqor and Seqram attended the one and only Klingon camp (I think in Minnesota) the year before qep’a’ wa’DIch — the endeavor of a competing Klingon Language organization that did not survive. That was intended to be an annual event, but it didn’t pan out. At the time, HoD Qanqor was the only individual in the 20th century on Earth who could speak the language. Seqram was jealous, since he could already speak over a dozen languages, most of which were either “dead” or artificial, so at qep’a’ wa’DIch, he, too, could speak the language and the rest of us gawked, and pulled out our dictionaries a lot.

By qep’a’ cha’DIch several of us could haltingly speak the language, pulling out our dictionaries a lot. Especially once Qov showed up, having memorized all the words the rest of us hadn’t gotten around to learning yet. We call them “Qov words”.

And ghuyDo’ wa’, who also memorized the entire vocabulary… and the entire taH pagh taHbe’ monologue spoken so fast it was painful to attempt to parse. (For me, anyway.)

Seqram accidentally invented the word for “armpit”, which was eventually turned into an actual canon word by Okrand, as a joke. Seqram had created it as an example of why we should not make up words, and someone missed the point and added it to their dictionary. A year later, the person who made the mistake claimed it was a canon word, though he couldn’t remember the source. Extensive research of the archives (by ghunchu’wI’) revealed the origin and we shared it with Marc Okrand as a joke, whereupon he gleefully explained that it really was the word for “armpit”. And poof! He waves his magic wand, and it’s an official word.

I accidentally gave an existing word a new definition because of an alignment error in the copy of my dictionary that I gave to Okrand, and he turned into canon in the word list at the end of one of his later books. Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, maybe? I don’t have them with me.

There are words like {yID} - “to be Jewish”, which are NOT canon words, and continue to exist as jokes, very persistently explained to NOT be canon words, every time they are used.

There has never been an instance where anyone except Marc Okrand has invented a word and then, without Marc eventually declaring it canon, it became canon.

He has granted several of us a one-time privilege to ask for a word from Maltz. I was offered that, and instead of coming up with something, I just passed forward a request from someone else on this list for words for “top” and “bottom”, since that seemed like a more useful word than anything I could come up with on short notice. Each of the “Friends of Maltz” was granted this privilege for life-time contributions to the language.

Marc Okrand is a kind, gracious man who guards his privacy, and we are happy to respect that privacy as a sign of respect for the gift he gave us. He was hired to coach actors to dub gibberish for a movie. He came up with the idea of inventing an entire language. That choice on his part was the spark that made all of this happen.

And it is magical how far it has gone from there.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



On Oct 30, 2015, at 1:14 PM, qurgh lungqIj <qurgh at wizage.net<mailto:qurgh at wizage.net>> wrote:

On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 12:49 PM, qunnoQ HoD <mihkoun at gmail.com<mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:
i just read this link,and unfortunately it doesn't provide direct answers - or any answers at all - to the aforementioned questions. thank you very much though !

It seemed to answer your first question:

how long after the creation of klingon language was the KLI formed ?

The language (dictionary) came out in 1985 and the KLI started in 1992, so that would be 1992-1985 = 7 years after



from what i read two more questions arose.

it mentioned an opera 'u' written and performed in klingon. where can i find the text of this opera ?

The text of the opera 'u' became the text of the paq'batlh. That's the closest you'll be able to get right now.


did okrand know any of the founding members of KLI,prior to the creation of the language ?

Only Lawrence can probably answer that question as he was the only founding member.


has any of the founding members of KLI created vocabulary and/or grammar,which is considered canon ?

No. Only Okrand has created vocabulary and/or grammar that is considered canon. Although he may have based his ideas on other people's ideas/requests.


with regards to the KLI logo/emblem. (the spiked wheel,with the three blades within it..)

who designed it ?
how long has it been the logo of KLI ?

For as long as I can remember (20+ years?)


has Okrand had anything to do with its creation ?

Unlikely.

qurgh
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