tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 28 08:21:09 1998
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Re: Correct me if I'm wrong but..
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Correct me if I'm wrong but..
- Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 08:14:15 -0400
From: Qermaq <[email protected]>
>ghItlh SuStel:
>
>>I can't say for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that the gender is tied up
>>in the word, not in the context. With the feminine ship, I'm sure some
>>Spanish speakers would waffle between the two words, but generally,
>wouldn't
>>"barco" be the correct term? If there are any native speakers of a
language
>>with grammatical gender reading this, what would you consider to be
>>"correct"?
>
>Reading this made me think of another example in Klingon which relates to
>this. I think it's in KGT, but since I don't have the text handy I can't
>verify that. I recall a usage of legs of a pot or something referred to as
><'uSDu'> - using the body parts suffix, even though it refers to a plural
of
>parts of a thing. Again, I may have the source, or even the exact term,
>wrong. But it is a canonical example of a suffix normally reserved for a
>usual usage carried over to a different usage where it might seem
incorrect.
>
>Can anyone confirm this for me, and does anyone have comments?
This is the perfect example of what I mean. For instance, page 97: "The
smaller {nevDagh} is characterized by its V-shaped handles, termed
{DeSqIvDu'} ('elbows'; note that {-Du'}, the plural suffix for body parts,
is used here even though the handles are not literally body parts)." I
cannot find the instance of {'uSDu'} with a cursory search, but I seem to
remember its being there.
Common wisdom on the list would very strongly state that given the word
{DeSqIv} as the appropriate term for the handle of the {nevDagh}, the
correct plural would be {DeSqIvmey}, because they're not body parts. In
fact, the only reason I can think of that the suffix would remain {-Du'} is
because it simply *belongs* on that word. {DeSqIvmey} is too strongly
associated with "elbows scattered all about" to be able to use it in this
way. The use of plural markers—at least in this instance—is quite
definitely *not* a judgement call on the part of the speaker.
SuStel
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