tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 21 08:40:35 2010

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: monastery

lojmIt tI'wI' nuv ([email protected]) 

I'm actually wondering if {ghIn'a'} is the key to whatever pun that Okrand might have in mind for the word {ghIn}. Does it sound like any really important religious community to anybody out there with our broad spectrum of languages and cultures? Is there some GINA acronym for a large, significant spiritual community, especially if it is not necessarily a community with religion as the center? Some Global Institution of Non-believers and Atheists?

He tossed out hints, that {ghIn} could refer to a group that was not necessarily a religion, and that a really significant one would be a {ghIn'a'}. It was odd for him to say that, like he had some unspoken motive -- like it was a punch line and he was waiting to see if we got the joke.

I don't get the joke. Maybe I'm way off base, but it's worth tossing out the idea so that someone else more resourceful or insightful might figure it out.

pItlh.
lojmIt tI'wI' nuv



On Dec 21, 2010, at 10:17 AM, Krenath wrote:

> Yeah, I'm right there with you. I see that {ghIn} means a religious community, but I interpret community as a group of people, not as the building they gather in. 
> 
> I never caught the jump from "religious community" to glossing it as a building.
> 
> But then I also didn't catch the distinction between these two:
> 
>>> a) {ghIn} is a term for "a religious community"
>>> b) {ghIn} is a term for a "religious community"
> 
> What connotations are a) and b) supposed to have that I'm not seeing?  Neither one says "building" to me.  
> 
> 
> 
> On Dec 21, 2010, at 9:53 AM, "lojmIt tI'wI' nuv" <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> I'm trying to follow your argument. I'm failing. Sorry.
>> 
>> I would never refer to any building as a "religious community". To me, a religious community is a collection of people (a roster), or perhaps the organization in which the people participate, or perhaps the culture that the people identify with. It's either the people, or the stuff that the people do that differentiates them from non-members.
>> 
>> If the people move to a different building, then the community is no longer identified with that building. If the people live or otherwise function in a collection of buildings, then the community exists, even though there is no single building that defines them.
>> 
>> I can see a building as part of the culture that identifies the community. It is a symbol they point to and think "us". But this is peripheral. There is something much more essential about the community than the building.
>> 
>> Okrand does not consistently answer the question that a person asks him. He often answers a related question that dodges certain aspects of the original question. I really think that if you think {ghIn} is a building, you need to confirm that explicitly. Otherwise, you are presuming something based on what you want as the answer rather than what actually is the answer.
>> 
>> And good luck getting that response.
>> 
>> pItlh.
>> lojmIt tI'wI' nuv
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Dec 21, 2010, at 3:39 AM, Lieven Litaer wrote:
>> 
>>> ja' naHQun:
>>>> As far as I can tell, the confusion comes from the fact that the English
>>>> word only means a building, yet his text leaves a bit of doubt.
>>>> Reading the question as well, I'll take the odd phrasing as a typo and
>>>> gloss it as a building.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the confirmation, I thought I had missed something. I have looked at Maltz' message again, and I believe I see the confusion:
>>> 
>>>> The word for monastery is {ghIn}.  This is a pretty general term for a
>>>> religious community.
>>> 
>>> You can read read this in two ways:
>>> 
>>> a) {ghIn} is a term for "a religious community"
>>> 
>>> b) {ghIn} is a term for a "religious community"
>>> 
>>> Got it?
>>> He could have said {ghIn} is a general term for my mother, or my dog, and for anyone else. {ghIn} is the word for "monastery" and it's a general term for anyone who likes to use it.
>>> 
>>> Don't confuse it with "<<tlhIngan>> is a general term for <<Klingon>>"
>>> 
>>> I think we can now all gloss it as the building. At least for me, it's clear.
>>> 
>>> Quvar.
>>> -- 
>>> GRATIS! Movie-FLAT mit über 300 Videos. 
>>> Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
>

Back to archive top level