tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 14 16:18:56 1996

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Re: KLBC:fractions & directions

In a message dated 96-02-14 12:29:26 EST, charghwI' writes:

>Well, for starters it's a sentence and not a noun.  One has divided three
>(isn't that backwards?).  Moreover, bear in mind that bare nouns in
>Klingon, as in English, usually mean "one of them", "two of them", etc. in
>context.  If You were talking about... I dunno, countries, and said "wej
>wavta' wa'", I'd think you meant that one of the countries had managed to
>divide three others (perhaps from each other, politically, maybe breaking
>up an alliance.)

As you say, English uses number words in the same way.  If, in English, I
wanted to explain something using a number, I could easily make you
understand me.  Klingon can do the same thing.  You'd have reason for talking
about, say, dividing, and you'd make it clear that we are talking about
mathematical division.  (For all we know, though, {wov} could only be used
mathematically, or not!)

[. . .]
>Besides, last I looked magnetism flowed as much south as
>it did north; the business about one being forward and one backward is
>completely arbitrary; why should Klingons have picked the same way?

[. . .]

>>using poS & nIH for left and right of spinward ?
>
>Wouldn't trust the magnetic field anyway; the usual definition of
>north/south in astronomy depends on rotation (most planets rotate): the
>rotation is clockwise around the south pole.

The usual *human* definition, that is.  This definition is completely
arbitrary; why should Klingons have picked the same way?  :)  Besides, we
only have our one star's nine planets to compare, and even all of these don't
rotate in the same direction.  For direction names, we'd need a Klingon to
tell us what they are.  For Earth measurements, you could always state a
course bearing ({He pagh pagh pagh} for north, {He wa chorgh pagh} or {He
wavatlh chorghmaH} for south, etc.).  Too bad we can't give a distance in
anything except Kellicams!

SuStel
Hovjaj 96123.2

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