Ron H wrote:
Although the *media* reports the use of Klingon more frequently than
Quenya,
I've seen no data to back this up. A quick google search pulls up
133,000
hits for Quenya, but only 14,000 hits for tlhIngan (the Klingon
language).
That's a considerable difference.
You shall not misinterpret Google to your own advantages. Using Google I come up with 121,000 "Quenya" results and 983,000 "Klingon" ones. Now *that* is even more of a difference, isn't it?
And I have to agree with Mark that there are in all likelyhood more speakers of Klingon than of Quenya (and perhaps even Sindarin). Randomly running into a Klingonist is more likely than finding someone who can really say something in Quenya (that is to say, more than just some phrases from the movies or the books).
Uhm... I might have to add that I'm not really against a Wikipedia in Quenya, but I fear that in future more and more conlangs might ask for a Wikipedia. Certainly Esperanto, Volapük or Interlingua isn't point of objection, but I understand that Klingon was (although I support it widely).
I was once one of the contributers to the tlhIngan Hol wIqIpe'Diya, and I must admit that it somewhat lost its appeal for me, for no special reason. It's not difficult or hard to translate or write articles in Klingon, it's fun, it's widening one's knowledge of the language and I actually did enjoy writing articles for it. I'd still do, but private reasons keep me from that... and I wonder why other Klingonists don't contribute (or seldomly do).
There is no guarantee that it'll be different for the Quenya Wikipedia. It was the same for the Volapük one (for which I also wrote some entries), as well as for many natural language.
*My* biggest problems with the Klingon Wikipedia were the following two issues:
a) What to do with proper names like "America", "Peking" or "George Bush"? Should they be kept in their English equivalent (since in Star Trek, Klingons had more contact with English speakers) and just be italicized or marked {otherwise}? Or should they be klingonified and adepted to the Klingon way of syllabic writing, such as "'amerIqa", "peyqIng", "jorIj buS"? And if yes, then should geographic names be klingonified in their own language's way or by the English way? Should it be "peyqIng" and "'InDIya" or "beyjIng" and "barat" instead?
b) What to do with words that don't exist in Klingon/Quenya? I usually tried to make them up from other words, like "browser" ---> "page viewer" and so on. Using loan words like "bIrawSer" or even "browser" I consider inappropriate.
Granted, these issues need not come up until the Wikipedia is created and editable, but I think it's worth mentioning...
That's all, just wanted to bring up some constructive criticism.
- André (N-true)