tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 27 08:41:12 1998
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Re: Peacemaker
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Peacemaker
- Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:41:07 -0500 (EST)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]>(message from Joel Peter Anderson on Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:10:31 -0800(PST))
>Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:10:31 -0800 (PST)
>From: Joel Peter Anderson <[email protected]>
>
>On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Qermaq wrote:
>
>> Another random thought...
>>
>> I recall a ST:TNG episode entitled "Loud as a Whisper" (I think) where it is
>> mentioned that Riva, the mediator, gave Klingons the word 'peacemaker'. I
>> don't have the episode info here, but I recall that the Klingons had no such
>> word before that moment.
>>
>> Are we to assume, then, that the construction <rojwI'> was never uttered
>> before Riva? Or did he come up with a new word? Or - did the Oxford Klingon
>> Dictionary not include <rojwI'> as a separate lexical unit before Riva's
>> intervention?
>
>This is too isolated a data point - but it seems unlikely that they really
>*lacked* a word for peace. It could mean something"we had the word, but we
>didn't know what it meant". Or perhaps a superlative phrase was added to
>tlhIngan society "rIva' roj rur rojvam" - "This peace resembles Riva's
>peace", to indicate it was a good treaty.
Yeah, it's too isolated to say. I don't quite know what you mean by "we
had the word but didn't know what it meant"; presumably something like they
had the word for "peace", but the concept associated with it was a very
weak and fragile thing compared with what we might think, and Riva's action
taught them what true peace was like. It's unlikely that "rojwI'" NEVER
was uttered, but it was probably an extremely nonce construction, and only
because a household name due to Riva. I like your speculation about that
superlative idiom!
~mark