tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 14 13:40:18 1996
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Re: To greet or not to greet? The canonical question
- From: [email protected] (Bill Hedrick)
- Subject: Re: To greet or not to greet? The canonical question
- Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 15:40:00 -0600
>> nuqneH is specifically mentioned as being used only if you *must*
>> use a greeting, but it is not encouraged or preferred. It is also always
>> used by the person being approached, rather than the person doing the
>> approaching. This is consistent in every example. Walking into a
>> conversation, such as this list, and announcing "nuqneH!" is
>> inappropriate and wrong. I interpret it more like when you walk up to
>> the counter in a store and then don't say anything. Eventually the
>> person behind the counter will say "Yes?", or "May I help you?" to begin
>> the conversation. Every example of nuqneH is used in this same context.
>
>I always understood that 'nuqneH' was the challenge of the Klingon
>who was about to be adressed, i.e. not the initiator of the conversation.
>This way the initiator is forced/reminded to come to the point immediately.
>Therefor a mail to the list starting with nuqneH would be inapropriate,
>but no reason to flame the poor beginner to death (remember: Klingons
>hate burning their food }}:).
>
As a KAGster and an active costumed roleplayer, we tend to do this in character:
Start talking about what we want immediately, and save "nuqneH?" for the
foolish terra'nganpu' that come up and gawk. We did some filming for the
Learning Channel (TLC) 2 weekends ago and demonstrated both greetings and
farewells. For a farewell we intro'ed it as a traditional farewell, between
two warriors that had know and fought together for years: we turned our
backs to each other and walked away without a word. but of course
YMMV......