tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 27 14:51:18 1996
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Re: New here
In a message dated 96-05-26 22:20:32 EDT, ~mark wrote:
>For the record, I'm not so sure I'm dead-set against "nuqneH" as a
>conversation opener. The word is plainly a fossilized form (it's not "nuq
>DaneH" nor even clipped "nuq neH"; it's one word).
I've often thought of it as a sort of conventional contraction (say THAT five
times fast!), which would translate (as Okrand himself translates in CK) as
"whaddya want?"
>It's the only greeting,
>as we're told, so likely must do duty for any situation when you need to
>open a conversation politely (and don't snort that Klingons don't do the
>politeness thing: they are extremely polite, or they get dead. They just
>have different ideas of civility. Okrand himself says that nuqneH is
>considererd "quite civil" by Klingons [_Conversational Klingon_]).
If you have a particular reason to be polite, why not just start off the
business at hand by adding {-neS}?
cha'puj ngevbogh tlhIngan potlh'e' pa' 'el jonwI'.
tlhIngan ja' jonwI' <jIHvaD loS cha'puj yIngevneS>.
jonwI' jang tlhIngan <vaghSaD DeQ. DaH yIDIl!>.
Since this is the only other way that Klingons seem to have to be polite
without being weak, and since it is used infrequently, I'd suggest that for a
Klingon, politeness and civility is shown by getting to the point, not
flowering up his words. If you've got to do it, just stick an extra syllable
onto the verb.
By the way, I'm of the "don't use it as a generic conversation-opener" camp.
yItaH.
SuStel
Hovjaj 96404.8