tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 12 12:24:28 1999
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RE: KLBC: bIQDep / bIQ Ha'DIbaH
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: bIQDep / bIQ Ha'DIbaH
- Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 13:18:17 -0700
jatlh 'oghwI':
> I tried to translate fish, and came up with <bIQ Ha'DIbaH> but today
> as I have just got KGT I see fish is bIQDep. Why do you think MO went
> for water being and not water animal?
> Would Klingons think of fish as beings rather than animals? I would
> have thought that beings are capable of language and animals as not,
> so fish should not be beings.
Don't read to much into it. The word may well be derived from <bIQ> + <Dep>,
but it may be an earlier form of <Dep> which meant something different. It
may also be completely unrelated to the word <Dep>, and just be a
coincidence. Unlike many constructed languages, Klingon was created to
resemble a natural language, and as such, it has its own etymology, most of
which is locked up in the mind of Marc Okrand if it is known at all. Natural
languages have all sorts of weirdness in their etymology - just think about
the difference in the meaning of "gay" in English over the last hundred
years. Klingon is now exception.
In short - <bIQDep> is "fish", and a fish is an animal. pItlh.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian