tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 07 08:01:12 2006
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Re: plurals
be''etlh:
> >> Is lom (corpse) a body part or a thing, and would -mey carry the
> >> scattered-about connotation whn applid to it?
Quvar:
> > {lom} definitely is a thing, since body *parts* are only *parts* of a body.
> > --> -Du' does not apply.
> >
> > If I remember correctly, a corpse is dead, so cannot speak:
> > --> -pu' does not apply.
> >
> > ----> -mey is the correct plural suffix for corpses {lommey}.
lay'tel SIvten:
>I remember somewhere ({Hamlet}?) that corpses *do* speak.
>Even though they can no longer speak, the dead are - or were - people, so
>they use {-pu'}:
>
> Heghpu'bogh latlhpu' ghuHmoH bey. ghoS tlhIngan SuvwI' maq.
> This yell... serves to warn the other dead that a Klingon warrior
> is coming. S31
DloraH spoke to Okrand at Praxis Con (May 1998) about this and reported that:
When someone dies, if you are talking about the "person" they
get [-wI']; and of course if you are referring to the empty
shell that is left, it gets a [-wIj].
This is consistent with the idiom {ghe'torvo' narghDI' qa'pu'} "when
spirits escape from Gre'thor":
"Note that the word for "spirit", {qa'}, takes the plural suffix {?pu'},
which is used for beings capable of using language. Spirits do speak.
(KGT 117)
Spirits may speak, but their empty shells (corpses) don't, so I would use
{-mey}.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons