tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 16 00:06:26 1994

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RE: Meaning in Klingon



>"Meaning" as you're using it is an awfully loaded word in English.  The
>closest I can get to the meaning you seem to be expressing here (which is
>not the same as the one I used in the word "meaning" in this sentence)
>would probably be "yIn meq", "life's reason".  If you mean just "meaning"
>as in "intent", something involving "Hech" would be a good place to look,
>perhaps recasting it so it's a verb.

Meaning as the Klingons were speaking of in this episode seemed
at least as loaded as in English.
>>In regards to the word "love" in Klingon, am I correct that it
>>is backwards with respect to English?

>>That is, in English, to be someone's love, the person is defined
>>as being the object of the verb love.  In Klingon, to love
>>is to make someone your love.... just my humble understaning
>>from only a few days of Klingon. :-)

>I think you have it backwards; from my reading of the dictionary, and the
>line in whichever movie it was, "bang" is a noun, meaning "love" in the
>sense of the object of love.  One who is loved.  A better translation would
>be the noun "beloved".  So "bangwI' SoH" means "you are my beloved." 

I believe that is what I said. In English, love is a verb, in Klingon
it is a noun.  So, in English, the noun "beloved" is derived from
the verb "love", while in Klingon the verb for "to love" is derived
from the noun "bang."

Rob LentneS



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