tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 03 09:48:01 2010

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Re: Honoured

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']



On 2/3/2010 12:16 PM, [email protected] wrote:
> So, this brings us into the nuances of Klingon politeness. What I
> really had in mind when I wrote was something along the lines of:
>
> "You experienced Klingon veteran has made an effort to help us newbies
> improve our Klingon, in which case the honorable thing to do is for us
> to make the effort to complete the assignment."
>
> So my emphasis was on the very good thing that Quvar did, rather than
> on Quvar's high personal honor (which I do not doubt). From the
> examples it seems that {-neS} is more coupled to the social status of
> the person you interact with, than the act they did. So it seems that
> {QInlIj vIHevmo' jIquv} is the best expression. On the other hand,
> maybe that is insufficiently polite and {QInlIj vIHevneS} is more
> appropriate.
>
> Finally, I seems to me that {batlh QInlIj vIHev} would be even less
> polite; I could say that if I was Quvar's equal, for instance.
>
> Are my musings correct?

Look at it this way: you'll only use {-neS} in instances where you'd 
call someone "sir" as part of military[ish] protocol, and only when you 
want to make it clear that you're being particularly polite. Use of 
{-neS} will be noticed by all.

The two sentences, {QInlIj vIHevmo' jIquv} and {QInlIj vIHevneS}, say 
two very different things. The first talks about how your honor is 
improved because of someone's message. Its context is ordinary. The 
second is a very polite and subordinate way of saying you got your 
superior's message.

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/






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