tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 15 10:04:42 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Klingon-American :(
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 20:46:37 -0700
>From: "Kenneth Traft" <[email protected]>
>From: [email protected] on behalf of Mark E. Shoulson
>Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 12:44 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: Re: Klingon-American :(
>>"veng" is not the word "city"; it's the
>>concept of a built-up(?) dwelling place of folks. The size and importance
>>is relative to what's under discussion.
>Is this defined somewhere?
No, you're right, I should have pointed that this was my interpretation and
reading.
>A veng'a' is a "great city." A city
>that's more city-like than most. "Metropolis" might be a good translation
>for it
>This seems quite good. The concept of changing it to something else is the
>way I understood it as well. juH'a' = mansion juHHom = cottage juH tIn =
>big house juH mach = small house.
Well, in another sense we are NOT changing it into something else. It's
still a city, just a... greater city. It seems to behave, in most of the
examples, like a fairly normal Terran augmentitive. It may not be, but so
far it seems to be. There happens to be a separate word in English for a
"veng'a'" (metropolis); there probably isn't one for "paq'a'." That
doesn't mean the concept doesn't exist, it just isn't lexicalized. A
metropolis isn't a "something else" from a city; it's a qualitatively
augmented one. Your distintion of "-'a'" vs "tIn" and "-Hom" vs "mach" is
well-said and important; I think that's what you meant by "something else."
After all, we know that "Duy'a'" is an ambassador while "Duy" is an agent
or emissary... but I strongly doubt that this means that it's impossible to
have a physically large agent or a physically small ambassador! Or that
slaves have to be bigger than ordinary servants (toy'wI''a'/toy'wI'),
masters larger than bosses (pIn'a'/pIn), commandants have to tower over
commanders (la''a'/la'), or cadets have to be puny next to soldiers
(mangHom/mang).
~mark
"She's a fine town!"
"Excuse me, Mr. Neeley, but it's a city. It's the only city that's having
a World's Fair."
(or something like that. From _Meet Me In St. Louis_. A fine musical.
See it.)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2
Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface
iQB1AwUBMhNYn8ppGeTJXWZ9AQE2nQL+LuchEP8cYtje0hy1cSit7k5eiBIefTNX
KH4fFneVxBv80DkEkEv7DlIBCTF7v7sqoB8wP8exVRJPNdc++6Hv/kdfrADoRdXZ
EqFydR4pVGUmlctRsffb6k7kaQx6MxCI
=gidS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----