tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 22 11:11:48 1998
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Re: drillmusciangroup
- From: Robyn Stewart <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: drillmusciangroup
- Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 11:11:05 -0700 (PDT)
---Pam Felton wrote:
>
> You know that thread where the writer said, "If we can mash two
nouns together,
> why not three?" Or something to that effect. Well, I just started
to read my
> TKD another time this morning and on page 19 it says a compound noun
can consist
> of two or three nouns. So apparently it is okay to do that with
Klingon, right?
Okrand says that compound nouns can consist of two or three nouns,
yes. He doesn't say that new such nouns are spontaneously created
speakers, just that some such nouns are observed. And we don't
observe a lot of this happening in Klingon canon. It's just like in
English some compound nouns are observed, like "newspaper," but we
don't write "drillmusiciangroup." We don't even know that we can mash
two nouns together unless Klingons have done it first. I believe
there is an US educators' publication that spells /highschool/ as one
word. Eventually this usage may escape and become the norm. If some
famous Klingon musician (or in RL terms, Okrand) uses qeqchu'wI'ghom
as a unit then it becomes a standard noun. Otherwise it's probably as
marked an ad hoc compound as its English equivalent.
It's *possible* that spontaneous compounding is allowed, but not doing
it is definitely allowed, and better safe than sorry.
Personally I don't use Klingon noun compounding except in stories,
when I want to give the idea of cultural familiarity with an item or
concept. BGs slam me for it, but it is exactly the same thing I'd do
in any other language for the same reason, make up a new word to
introduce a new concept to the reader, but make it clear that it was a
familiar object to the culture being written about. Compare with
"viewscreen" in Orwell's 1984.
I've seen times when compounding makes a complex noun-noun clearer,
but I can't think of any right now.
==
Qov - pab 'utlh
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