tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 26 07:40:13 1996
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Re: To many identical words. Please comment
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: To many identical words. Please comment
- Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 10:40:11 -0500 (EST)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]>(message from Ken N on Wed, 25 Dec 1996 21:30:35 -0800)
>Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 21:30:35 -0800
>From: Ken N <[email protected]>
>
>I don't recall the name for it (it doesn't matter anyways). But it seems to
>me that there are too many words spelled (sounds) just alike.
>
>bep, chach, choS, chu', Daj, Degh, DIS (check this one), Dub, Duj, ghob,
>ghoS, Ho', Hurgh, Hu', jaw, ja'chuq, je' (another good one), jIH, joq, lagh,
>leS, lI' (both verbs), loS, maS, mon, naQ, neH, nIH, noH, ngech (both
>nouns), pab, pagh, pa' (don't both adverbs and locative nouns come at the
>begining of a sentence?), pIch, pIH (both verbs), pov, pup, puS, qab, qoj,
>qun, Quch, ram, reH, ruch, SaH (both verbs), Sep, Sev, SoQ, SuD, taH, tam,
>tay, ta', tIq, toD, tuH, vaj, yaH...
>
>Let me address some of the arguments that I may encounter.
>Yes I probally misspelled some.
>Yes I may have listed some that shouldn't be there.
>Yes probally all languages have words that sound alike but mean different
>things.
>Yes this is a phonetic language and we really don't know the actually spelling.
>
>Yes most if not all languages have words like this. But it seems to me for a
>language that was created from scratch there are way too many (no I didn't
>calc the percentage, is 3% high?).
I don't know either, but I suspect it's not all that unusual. Hell, in
Chinese I understand that *EVERY WORD* has an average of about *six*
different meanings, and that's counting words with different tones as
different. English has no small number of these, of course, sometimes
ill-placed (ever noticed how similar "can" and "can't" sound in many
environments?) Languages *cope* with ambiguity like this, it really isn't
uncommon. There are always ways to repeat yourself in other words (as is
done in many languages) to explain more clearly.
I think you're worried over nothing. Besides, the proof's in the eating.
We HAVE held conversations in Klingon, and written literature, and we seem
to understand one another okay. The language has been demonstrated to
work, and not be too adversely affected by this.
~mark