[Ads-l] Earliest Use of "Live Long and Prosper"

[Geoffrey Steven Nathan]

Of course, 'Live long and prosper' antedates Okrand's Klingon by several years, because Okrand wasn't employed to create Klingon until the first movie, which came out in 1979. The Spockian line was in the original series, which ran from 1966-69. 

According to my usual W-flavored source for this kind of trivia, it was used in the episode Amok Time, which was written by Theodore Sturgeon (a ranking SciFi writer of the fifties and sixties).

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
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________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:13 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Earliest Use of "Live Long and Prosper"

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Earliest Use of "Live Long and Prosper"
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Sounds right.  A local language to the Berkeley area, just requiring a =
bit of time travel.  I should have noted that Klingon, unlike Vulcan, =
would be among the *least* likely languages to have an expression =
corresponding to "Live long and prosper", unless it was one that only =
occurred in the scope of negation. =20

LH

> On Feb 16, 2016, at 7:44 PM, Geoffrey Steven Nathan =
<geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
>=20
> According to Okrand's Wikipedia entry, he was working on Mutsun, a =
dialect of Ohlone (a.k.a. Southern Costanoan).
>=20
> For other reasons I had occasion to look this up yesterday. Apparently =
it's the most widely spoken artificial language, according to an article =
someone sent me yesterday.
>=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On =
Behalf Of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 7:36 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Earliest Use of "Live Long and Prosper"
>=20
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
-----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Earliest Use of "Live Long and Prosper"
> =
--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
>=20
>> On Feb 16, 2016, at 5:47 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> =3D20
>> I recall from one my Vedic classes, there is an ancient Sanskrit =3D
> expression
>> with an identical sentiment. If there's any interest, I can try to =
dig=20
>> =3D
> it
>> up. (BYW, one of my teachers was consulted during the birth of =3D
> Klingon. He
>> gave a talk about his contribution, but none of it ended up in the =3D
> first
>> film. Skt just wasn't guttural enough.)
>> =3D20
> The inventor...er, discoverer of Klingon, Marc Okrand, was a student =
of =3D mine at UC Berkeley in 1970 and would likely (as a linguistics =
major) =3D have also taken Sanskrit there during that time.  The major =
influence on =3D Klingon, though, was a native Californian language, I =
believe extinct or =3D nearly so, that he was working on with Mary Haas =
using materials at the =3D Smithsonian.  I have nothing to contribute on =
"Live long and prosper" =3D but I can ask our local (emeritus) =
Sanskritist at Yale.
>=20
> LH
>=20
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