tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 23 20:56:59 1994

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Re: Ha', Ha', Ha'

ghItlhwIjvaD ghItlh QIchqemwI':

>: With qIm 'pay attention', it can refer to distraction:
>:
>:     SuvchuqtaH qama' 'e' qImHa'pu' 'avwI'.
>:     The guard was distracted by prisoners fighting (among
>:         themselves).
>Not quite. This would mean "the guard was distracted from the prisoners'
>fighting". I think you want >'avwi' qimHa'moHpu' qama' SuvchuqtaHghach<.

No, in fact I don't.  I didn't elaborate on this earlier, but it looks as if I
have to go into it now.  As I see it, qImHa' does not exactly translate
"distract", which is why I spoke only of *referring to* distraction.  TKD
says: "For convenience, it [= -Ha'] will here be translated as *undo*, but it
is closer to the English prefixes *mis-*, *de-*, *dis-* (as in
*misunderstand*, *demystify*, *disentangle*)."  *dis-* and *de-* express
*-Ha'*'s sense of undoing or reversing something, while *mis-* expresses the
sense of doing something, but doing it wrong.  "You misunderstood my message"
doesn't mean that you understood some other message, but that you understood
mine in the wrong way.

Similarly, I think of qImHa' as meaning 'pay attention to something that one
shouldn't be paying attention to', or 'waste/misuse [there's *mis-* again!]
attention on'.  This seems to be supported by your quotation from PK, which I
haven't heard.  So right now, on office time,

     tlhIngan Hol vIqImHa'taH.
     I am paying attention to Klingon instead of what I should be
          attending to.

vaj 'e' vImev.

- marqem

                         Mark A. Mandel 
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 
  320 Nevada St. :  Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]

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