tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Aug 12 15:38:23 1995
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Re: }} Re: vItlho' tlhIH!
- From: "R.B Franklin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: }} Re: vItlho' tlhIH!
- Date: Sat, 12 Aug 1995 12:38:23 -0700 (PDT)
Fri, 11 Aug 1995 ghItlh peHruS:
[...]
> The forms and standards of polite speech are another thing altogether, what
> may be good manners on one planet or in one language could well be a grave
> matter in other circumstances. Japanese has several levels of politeness
> and also a number of levels of honorifics that have no functional English
> equivilents. To a native Japanese speaker, English seems terribly impolite,
> "please" and "thank you" notwithstanding. Further, when one trys to speak
> Japanese and use Japanese honorifics in a non-Japanese setting, the result
> is nonsense. Without a culturally defined relationship between the speaker
> and the person addressed, the various honorifics and conjugations alone lose
> meaning. Cultural context, which is to say all those things that two beings
> take for granted in a conversation, is far more important in understanding
> that conversation than verbatim word by word translation.
>
> ---Steve Blum
> "Of course the game is rigged, but if you don't play you can't win." From
> the notebooks of Lazurus Long.
This is a valid point. What distinguishes insulting expressions from
ritual pleasantries must be measured in its proper cultural context.
The PK tape gives examples of common phrases, which to the outsider, may
sound like a challenge to fight, but are actually only customary phrases
for the occasion. E.g. {'IwwIj jeD law' 'IwlIj jeD puS.} (My blood is
thicker that yours.)
While on the other hand, Terran pleasantries like, "It's a beautiful day
isn't it", are seen as a sign as evasiveness or duplicity and to a
Klingon, would be an invitation to fight.
Another example would be the use of a replacement proberb, instead of saying
"excuse me".
A Klingon may not literaly say "thank you", but there are other ways of
expressing gratitude. E.g. {reH 'uQvam vIqawtaH.} (I will remember this
dinner forever.)
> peHruS
yoDtargh