tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 02 12:31:18 1998
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Re: WORDS (ridges etc)
According to David Trimboli:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
> Date: Sunday, February 01, 1998 4:29 AM
> Subject: Re: WORDS (ridges etc)
>
>
> >I never before considered such constructions as gheghwI'Du'. Being part of
> >debates on this listserv has caused me to reread our source materials many
> >times. This can be very revealing.
>
> There may not BE a word for ridges, or it may be a word we have not yet
> learned. You should consider using {ghegh} as a verb only.
I agree. For me, the word {Quch} MEANS ridges. A Klingon
forehead is distinguised as the part of the head with ridges.
No ridges, no forehead. Humans don't really HAVE foreheads.
They have the location a forehead should be, but it isn't a
real forehead, hence the insult, {Hab SoSlI' Quch!} The insult
is that your mother doesn't have a REAL forehead. She just has
one of those ugly, smooth areas where a forehead should be.
Would you refer to someone's eyes if they just had smooth
indentations with no eyeballs? Meanwhile, we don't usually talk
about people's eyeballs. You would not say to your true love,
"I love to gaze into your eyeballs."
Humans want to refer to the ridges separate from the forehead
only because they have a concept of forehead which does not
include ridges. Klingons lack that concept. That's why we have
to make a facial indiction of disgust if we ever make reference
to the top, frontal area of a human head.
> 'IH QuchDaj ghegh.
> Her rough forehead is beautiful.
That's really like saying, "Her round baseball is beautiful."
If it wasn't round, it would not only fail to be beautiful. It
would fail to be a baseball. If her forehead were not rough, it
would not only not be beautiful. It would not be a forehead.
> ghegh Ruffles.
> (One of those utterances which can't make the transition between languages.)
Would a Klingon consider Ruffles to be food?
No. I shouldn't say that. I can see another thread starting...
> SuStel
> Stardate 98088.9
charghwI'