tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 25 12:08:19 1998
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Re: 'ul
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: 'ul
- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 14:06:58 -0600 (CST)
: According [Voragh]:
:
: > {'ul law'} - "many 'uls" or "a lot of 'ul"? This brings up another point
: > I've wondered about: is {'ul} a quantifiable mass noun referring to
: > electricity or electrical force in general (like {tlham} "gravity" or {HoS}
: > "power"), or a countable electric "shock" or "jolt", or both? AFAIK, the
: > only other mention of {'ul} by Okrand is KGT p.65:
: > "the painstik, 'oy'naQ, a long staff that emits a powerful (and
painful)
: > jolt of electricity ('ul)"
:
: Well, the OTHER mention of it is in the KGT dictionary, where
: it is listed as "electricity".
va! Too trivial to mention. I suppose I should have said explicitly "the
only other mention of {'ul} IN ANY CONTEXT by Okrand..."
: I also think Okrand casually
: said something to this effect at qep'a' loSDIch, though that is
: a foggy memory and I would not count on it. I'm nearly certain
: that it means "electricity" the way "HoS" means "power".
That's what I'm assuming, too. It was just a stray thought. Perhaps, in the
right context, a discrete jolt or shock might be implied.
: > However, see SkyBox S33 for an example of {law'} with an apparent mass noun:
: > HoS law'qu' natlhmo' So'wI'
: > Due to the tremendous energy drain of a cloaking device...
:
: Yes, I think {law'} works as "much" as well as it does as
: "many", just as {'ar} works as "how much" as well as "how
: many". To put it simply, if {law'} and {'ar} DON'T work this
: way, then Klingon has no words to express the idea of "much".
Right. I found a better example of {law'} being used with mass nouns:
HoS law'qu' luch law'qu' je lo' Duj nuH pat Hub pat je
A huge amount of the ship's power and technology is devoted to its
weapons grid and defensive systems. SP3
I wonder if its antonym {puS} "be few, be several, be a handful" also works
this way with mass nouns to mean "some (of), a little (of)". Aside from
{law'/puS} constructions, we've only seen puS used with count nouns:
pIpyuS pach DaSop DaneHchugh pIpyuS puS DaghornIS
If you want to eat pipius claw, you'll have to break a few pipiuses. TKW
qagh, ro'qegh'Iwchab, targh tIq Sop 'e' lungIl Humanpu' puS
Few humans dare to eat gagh, rokeg blood pie, or heart of targ. S21
If so, we could say something like:
Qapchu' Hong QuQvam chu'; HoS puSqu' lo'.
This efficient new impulse engine uses very little energy.
Or do we have to use the noun {'op} "some, an unknown or unspecified
quantity" (KGT):
'ej DujvamDaq 'op SuvwI' tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI' law'
po' puS
It [IKC Pagh] has... some of the finest warriors in the Klingon fleet. S7
BTW, it's interesting that we now have words for three types of energy:
HoS, 'ul and Hong (whatever that is). Any more?
: charghwI'
Voragh