tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 24 02:51:26 1994
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Re: Duj pIm
According to [email protected]:
>
[stuff about rIntaH]...
> That it doesn't appear anywhere else in canon doesn't mean squat to me.
> Okrand takes less advantage of his child-language's expressive power than
> anyone else who comes to mind. He has never used {-'e'} other than where it
> was mandatory, for example.
While you use it in almost every sentence you write... Hmmm.
Maybe you are missing a point? Naaaaaa.
...
> I personally like the dramatic connotations carried by the particle {rIntaH}.
> It came about as a result of backfit; but we don't condemn other grammar and
> vocab who owe their existence to backfit, do we?
Not as a general class, no, but this particular backfit was
used in the all-time weirdest sentence Okrand has ever written.
It was totally created to fit lip movements. Not just rIntaH.
The entire sentence is weird. Nothing is enriched by the
existence of rIntaH, except for the sigh of relief that Okrand
enjoyed once those few seconds on the silver screen were done
for.
>
> toH 'oH tu'qa'lu'bej 'ach lo'qa'be'chugh *'oQaD* [Okrand] vaj ram. pIj
> mu'Homvam vIlo' jIH'e' lI'qu'mo' 'oH.
ngoDmeyqoqvam Daja'taHvIS bIDojbe'.
...
> Of course, later in ST3, the Klingon commander uttered {qama'pu' jonta' neH}.
> This originally was to be subtitled "I told you engines only," but with the
> subtitle change, we now have {ja'} instead of {ma'} for "tell", an unusual
> CVCVC for "prisoner", and one odd disyllable for "engine". Before this,
> Okrand had intended {-mey} for all plurals, but to this backfit, the facts
> that the sentient plural {-pu'} even exists at all, and that it is identical
> to the perfective, owe their existences. Think of how drab it would be if we
> had only {-mey}. Backfit has here greatly enriched the language.
All this is quite true. Creating new kinds of plural suffixes
added a twist that speaks much about the mindset behind the
people using the language. This is useful and well reconciled.
rIntaH does not qualify under the same class.
> (NB, this info was something I read sometime soon after I joined the list
> almost a year ago. I don't remember the source at all.
In all probability, it was from me.
> Despite its
> questionable validity, it does sound quite nice, doesn't it? But you get my
> point: backfit has enriched the language! No dispute there, I think.)
True. But not for rIntaH.
> Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos
charghwI'