[Tlhingan-hol] 19 new words to create

[qov at kli.org]

> I read a lot of articles about Klingon stating that D'Armond's son rejected Klingon because it not only lacked words for things like "diaper", it even lacked things for "table". Was this > criticism misplaced?

At the time Klingon did lack a word for table, and that was awkward. We had to resort to things like 'uQ yaH or ghItlhmeH yaH, but given that Cree has thousands of speaker and table in Cree is essentially "manufactured wooden meal object," that wasn't too ridiculous. Diaper was expressible. I would have said ghu yopwaHHom = baby's less-than-pants, but there are a few ways to do it.  

I am fairly sure that it was the relative status of the language, not the usability, that led to the rejection. When only one parent speaks a language, and the child does not observe the parent interact in that language with people who have power, it's normal for the child to acquire only a passive knowledge of the language. It's a great problem in Canada for people who are trying to preserve the many languages that are spoken only here.  Even little children are mercenary enough to realize that if they don't have to learn a language to interact with their society, they don't.  mu'IQmoH.
 
  - Qov ‘utlh
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