tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 21 15:14:34 1993
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: I love you? (Ha' vs. be')
"Paul Clegg"vo':
>>From: (Mark E. Shoulson) [email protected]
>>
>>>From: "Matt Gomes" <[email protected]>
>>
>>>Since muSHa' = "to love" then qamuSHa' is "I love you"? (Hey! Maybe I'm
>>>catching on now!
>>
>>First I ever heard of {muSHa'} was as a coinage of Krankor's, and he wasn't
>>using it to refer to romantic love, but hey, I'd agree that "muS" applies
>>to a person, why shouldn't "muSHa'"? (so long as we agree it doesn't mean
>>"to hate badly" :)) I might still prefer "bangwI' SoH", but why not
>>"qamuSHa'"?
>
>I thought -Ha' was "to undo"? If muS is "to hate", then you'd want muSbe'
>wouldn't you? It's a thin line, but I was always under the impression that
>"-be'" NEGATED the verb, while "-Ha'" UNDID the verb...
>
>muSHa' would be "to stop hating", while muSbe' would be "to not hate", or
>"to love".
"-Ha'" means more than "undo". It includes a similar meaning to the
English prefixes "mis-" and "dis-". (A curious example is "par" "to
dislike", has its opposite "parHa'", "to like".) It also can connote
an action done wrongly. For example, the sentence "bIjatlhHa'chugh vaj
qaHoH" is freely translated as "If you say the wrong thing, I will
kill you"; it is more rigidly translated "If you speak
wrongly/misspeak then I will kill you". This is different from
"bIjatlhbe'chugh vaj qaHoH" - "If you don't talk, then I kill you" -
which might be something one hears in an interrogation. In some sense,
"-Ha'" connotes more than the "simple negation" of the verb - a verb
created with "-Ha'" represents a "positive action".
I think "muSHa'" is created in a manner analogous to "parHa'". "Not
hating" something is not the same as actively "loving" it, just as "I
don't dislike you" isn't the same as "I like you".
-'avrIn [email protected]