[Tlhingan-hol] Why Klingon is perfect

[Lieven]

Am 21.01.2016 um 12:02 schrieb mayql qunenoS:
> In this mail I will describe, why Klingon is perfect as a conlang.

Although I also agree wit most of what you said, there are some things 
not really correct, at least from a Mr-Spock-logical view.

> Because of the following reasons:
>
> 1. Because it can't be translated by a non Klingonist.

This happens with most languages. Some are easy to translate, other 
nearly impossible, but if one knows nothing of a language, it's hard for 
any language.

> 2. Because a non-Kilngonist cannot even read it.

Same as before.

> 3. Because it has a vocabulary of only 2700 words approximately (give
> or take, depending on what someone would consider a word)

The latest word count I did revealed about 90 suffixes and about 1960 
single words. These include lots of Star Trek relateed words, names, 
countries and animal names, so it ends with only 1700 true basic words.

> that someone who wishes to learn, has actually a shot at managing to
> learn the entire vocabulary. If it had a vocabulary of 10.000 words,
> who would be able to learn them all ?

Of course it's not much to learn, but most natural born languages have 
much more words, and we are also able to learn those.

To compare, "basic english" has only 850 words, according to wikipedia, 
German has about 75.000 words in stadard speech, but about. 300.000 
words one can use.

> 4. Because the vocabulary of Klingon is actually a vocabulary that
> consists of words one can use in everyday discussion ; If we exclude
> words as {DarSeq} or <to use the (whatever) toe> almost every word of
> the vocabulary can be used in everyday discussions.

The latest word count I did revealed about 90 suffixes and about 1960 
single words. These include lots of Star Trek related words, names, 
countries and animal names, so it ends with only 1700 true basic words.

There's at least one gunderd you cannot use in daily use.

> 5. Because with only 2700 words, one can say almost anything he needs
> in every speech.
>
> 6. Because one has the actual choice, of choosing whether to write in
> pIqaD or english characters.

You can also do that with other languages.

> 7. Because pIqaD can actually be writen by hand, in contrast to other
> conlangs' characters which are extremely difficult - even impossible -
> to write by hand.

Go tell a chinese that writing chinese is impossible! :-)

> 8. Because with relatively few pages of grammar, one can express
> almost anything he desires.

Esperanto has only one page of grammar. (well, that would explain why so 
many people speak it)

> 9. Because it doesn't burder the mind of the student Klingonist with
> having to remember details that aren't needed, in order to express
> himself. For example, why would I need to concern myself with tenses,
> when I can just use a time stamp and express exactly the same meaning
> ?

Indonesian language also has no tense.

> 11. Because with the use of prefixes and suffixes we can express a
> lot, without having to actually write a lot.

Many languages use suffixes. When I learned turkish, i helped me lot 
because I knew that from Klingon.

No offense, I just wanted to comment. :-) I don't speak (because I don't 
like it) Esperanto, but that one certainly may have even much better 
reasons.

rIn.

-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
Grammarian of the KLI
http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
http://www.klingonwiki.net