tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 07 11:43:28 1998

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Re: -Curses




> : Seriously, Okrand labeled them as "Epithets" on page 178.  That's a term
> : with a specific grammatical meaning, and I'm going to use them that way.
> : 
it is an ENGLISH term, however.
Klingon "epithets" are exclamations.

> The SIL online glossary of linguistics terms (which Holtej referred us to a
> couple of weeks ago) doesn't have an entry for "epithet, but
> Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary does:
> 
Merriam Webster's doesn't have any authority on Klingon curses

> Pulling this all together, we can say that since nouns may be used as
> epithets (Ha'DIbaH, qoH, toppa', Qa'Hom, etc.) in Klingon, it follows that
> epithets may also be used as nouns, of which they are a subset.  Thus, they
??
since keys may be used as bottle-openers, it follows that
bottle-openers may also be used as keys ??

it may well be that Klingon epithets may work like pronouns
in addition to being exclamations.

it may well be that {petaQ} simply means
"You petaQ!" or "The petaQ!" and may NOT be used like
names and pronouns.

mu'qaDraj bolo'chu'be'chugh jay' vaj pom 'oy' bobechjaj. baQa'! 

                                           Marc Ruehlaender
                                           aka HomDoq
                                           [email protected]



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