tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 12 14:42:52 1996
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Is {bID} a number?
- From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
- Subject: Is {bID} a number?
- Date: Fri, 12 Jul 96 16:10:04 EST
I considered the subject "{bID} is not a number", but that sounded too
authoritative; since it's merely my opinion, I left it as a question.
My answer, however, is "no".
Holtej writes:
>I'd say, if you shut your eyes tight and think real hard, you can convince
>yourself that the Klingon word /bID/ is a number, because the concept 1/2
>in English is a number. But is /bID/ a number, or a quantifier?
I don't think it's either of these. It's a *noun*, plain and simple.
{wa'logh naH Dawavchu'chugh, chen cha' bID} If you cut an apple into
two pieces, each piece is a "half". (Each is also "half of an apple",
but that's not using the word "half" as a simple noun.)
The *number* 1/2 in Klingon is {vaghmaH vatlh} "50 percent". We have
the canon example "one quarter impulse power" as {cha'maH vagh Hong}.
I can approximate "half of a fruit" by saying {vaghmaH vatlh naH}, in
effect counting out "one-half fruit", but I do not know for certain
how to say "half of the fruits". I *think* that {naHmey bID} works:
"the fruits' half", or "the half of the fruits". I am *not* trying
to use "half" as either a number or a quantifier, merely as a noun, in
the same way as I might say {naH poS} "the left side of the fruit".
What I come up with is not a partitive division of the fruits, but a
reference to something that is a "half". Like a "slice" of pizza, or
a "clove" of garlic, "half" here is not intended as a quantifier.
(Okay, since there are always two halves in a whole, the analogy isn't
perfect.)
If I wanted to use the number 1/2 or refer to "exactly half of them"
I'd say "50%", but I don't know where to put it. Based on the example
of {HochHom}, though, I'm inclined to put it *after* the noun.
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