tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 24 05:58:19 1996
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Re: Hello
>Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 15:34:12 -0800
>From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
>
>December 23, 1996 7:10 AM, jatlh Kajetan Krzywonos:
>
>> Im an avid Startrek fan and I joined the mailing list cause thought it
>> would be fun to learn the language of the barbarians :-)
>
>tay'qu' tlhInganpu' jay'!! tIQ tIghDaj. Dun bomDaj. quv qonDaj.
>
>Ahem.
>
>chaq "troll" DanID . . .
Hee... Or not... I thought it was an interesting opening, when you consider
that strictly speaking, it isn't possible to speak "the language of the
barbarians." The Greeks called non-Greeks "barbarians," I understand,
because when they spoke, the Greeks (who of course considered themselves
civilized and also didn't understand their language) heard them as saying
"bar-bar-bar-bar...," hence, "barbaroi"/barbarians. With that origin in
mind, one can say that once you understand someone's language, that person
can no longer be a barbarian (unless the language really does consist of
nothing but bar-bar-bar, which I would doubt.)
~mark