tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 19 17:31:41 1999
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Re: Spell My Name Right! (was: Re: greetings)
>From: [email protected]
>Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:46:34 EDT
>
>In a message dated 8/19/99 2:08:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected]
>writes:
>
>> >Yes, I know, an unusual usage to be sure, pagh *mu'Du'vaD* vIHechchu'qu'.
>> My
>> >name is a part of me, almost a bodypart, you might say, so I thought is
>was
>>
>> >appropiate.
>>
>> But you're using the body-part *plural*, implying that you are talking
>> about words (plural words) which are in some sense parts of some body. And
>> yet you're only asking me to consider a single word. Don't get carried
>> away with poetic uses of -Du'. Yes, it's specific to body parts and yes
>> you can thus do clever poetic (and very marked) uses of it to imply some
>> things, but it still is only what it is: a PLURAL MARKER which happens to
>> mark plurals of body-parts.
>>
>> ~mark
>>
>"Word parts of my name." But I see your point.
Again, careful. "word-parts" are not "*mu'Du'". "*mu'Du'" are "words
(viewed as body-parts)," just as "DeSDu'" are not "arm-parts" but rather
"arms (viewed as body-parts)." You don't say "DeSDu'" to mean "arm-parts",
right? (things like elbows, wrists...).
I suppose to get this meaning across poetically you could try {pongwIj
'ay'Du'}, "the pieces (viewed as body parts) of my name". It would be
pretty stilted, though. And they'd likely be body-parts of the NAME, not
you. And it would be THEY, not the name itself, which would be the
body-part (you were saying you were trying to view your name as part of
yourself).
~mark