tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 24 20:40:27 1997
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Re: Language jokes show English speaking bias...
- From: Guido <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Language jokes show English speaking bias...
- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 23:40:24 -0400 (EDT)
peSHIrvo':
>On the other hand, I'd rather have these jokes in the language then
>no jokes at all, of course. <grin>
Trust me, the translinguistic jokes are there, but subtle. After spending
years with Klingon, it is considerably refreshing when I encounter a
language totally unlike it. Sifting thru the grammar of Zulu, for instance,
I noticed that imperatives were usually formed by the unaltered verb stem,
much like Germanic languages. And then, I found the stipulation that
monosyllabic verbs do indeed have to take an imperative prefix, and guess
what that is..... "yi-"! (NOOOOOOO!!!)
Okrand's habit of pilfering morphemes from the world over has the humorous
consequence of your being haunted by Klingon with every semi-exotic language
you study afterwards. It may be a freak occurence, but the Klingon "'ach"
looks too close in spelling to the Gaelic word of the same meaning, tho the
Scots pronounce it like "'aH". Nonetheless, I've caught myself saying the
Klingon version so many times, it's getting scary.
>Qapla'
>peSHIr
Do' *Nederlands* ghItlhpatmo' tlhIngan ponglIj rurqu' ponglIj motlh.
(Ik zou niet denken, dat je het zo gemakt heb. -- Ik ben niet sinds langtijd
in Holland. Ik kun Nederlands nog beter lezen.)
Oh yeah. Alles goeds op 'graduation'.
Qapla'
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