tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 24 12:59:21 1996
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Re: lommey (story, part 9)
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: lommey (story, part 9)
- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 14:58:25 -0600 (CST)
>>From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
>>
>>Um . . . {-Du'} is the body parts plural. Why would anyone want to say
>>{lomDu'}?
>
>It was suggested once, I recall. And actually, it sounds pretty cool to
>me, though really only as a poetic phrasing. Think of it this way,
>starting with "porgh" first. A body is, in a sense, a body-part, even as a
>set is a subset of itself (an improper subset, true). So does "porghDu'"
>make sense? It does to me, though to be sure I'd expect it only in poetic
>settings (and for the record, elsewhere I'd expect porghmey and not
>?porghpu', even if I'm speaking of living bodies of sentient beings. It's
>the *mind* that speaks and is sentient, not the body. My mouth speaks too,
>but I don't call it "*nujwI'") "lomDu'" is a bit more of a step, since in
>a certain sense the "people" for whom those corpses are body-parts no
>longer are there. But the hands of a dead person are still ghopDu', right?
>
>In any case, "lomDu'", even if correct, would be really weird. But it's
>cool to think about.
>
>~mark
Here are the canonical uses of {-Du'}:
1. qamDu'wIjDaq
at my feet TKD
2. puqwI' qamDu'
my child's feet TKD
3. Soch QuchDu'
seven foreheads CK
4. chorgh QuchDu' 'IH
eight beautiful foreheads CK
5. mu'aw' mInDu'wIj
My eyes sting [me]. CK
6. ghopDu'lIj yIlo'
Use your hands! CK
7. qIp'egh nachDu'chaj tlhIngan SuvwI'pu'
Klingon warriors are butting heads. CK
8. jagh lucharghlu'ta'bogh HuH ghopDu'lIj lungaSjaj
May the bile of the vanquished fill your hands! PK
9. Ho'Du'lIjDaq to'baj 'uSHom lughoDlu'bogh tu'lu'
You have some stuffed to'baj leg in your teeth. PK
10. targhlIj yab tIn law' no'lIj Hoch yabDu' tIn puS
Your targ has a bigger brain than all your ancestors put together! PK
11. bISutlhnISchugh jaghlI' mInDu' tIbej
If you must negotiate, watch your enemy's eyes. TKW
12. tIqnagh lemDu'
T'Knag hooves KCD
13. qeylIS mInDu'
Eyes of Kahless (a game) KCD
When I first read TKD, It occurred to me that -Du' was inspired by the
English word "dual" which Okrand was going to use for paired Klingon body
parts (hands, feet, eyes, ears, arms, legs, nostrils, livers, stomachs,
etc.). On CK, it seems that he expanded it to be the plural marker for any
body part whether it is part of one Klingon body or several (QuchDu' &
nachDu') and continued this in PK (Ho'Du' & yabDu'). And in KCD he extended
the usage to animal body parts as well (lemDu').
Now, if you consider {lom} to be a sort of all-inclusive body part, {lomDu'}
would be appropriate. (Note we can also have {roDu'} for body trunks or
torsos). Depending on your philosophy of life and death, bodies left on the
battlefield could easily be called {porghmey} by Klingon
warriors--especially if they've stopped referring to it as a {lom} and
performed the Heghtay, or Death Ritual. It would certainly now be considered
an empty shell, a thing. That's one of the reasons, in fact, we humans call
dead bodies "cadavers"--to make it easier for medical staff and morgue
attendants to treat them as objects.
Of course, Okrand could upset this reasoning in an instant. {{;)
-- Voragh