tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Nov 30 14:09:04 1996
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RE: KLBC: compounding
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: compounding
- Date: Sat, 30 Nov 96 19:12:31 UT
November 28, 1996 3:34 PM, jatlh Andrew 'Ska' Netherton:
> HIQoy,
jI'IjlI'.
> OK, I've now been wondering about compounding things; not just
> nouns and nouns, but with verbs as well, to form multi-noun-multi-verb
> words/phrases. Is there any restriction on this?
Yes. Don't do it.
Okay, here's something more concrete. DO NOT compound verbs with anything.
You can't do it. That's life.
We're not sure about the rules on compounding nouns. Generally, there should
usually be a better way to say what your saying than by making up a new word.
If you do so, you're hoping that someone else is going to understand it, and
believe me, it's often a lot less obvious than you thought!
If it's a life-and-death situation, go ahead and compound two nouns. (Of
course, Klingons LIKE life-and-death situations . . .)
> Otherwise I can see
> that it would be easy for 5 people to come up with 5 different ways to say
> the same English thought.
Compounding notwithstanding, this would be a GOOD thing! As long as each
method is grammatical and makes sense, how could this possibly be bad?
Variety is the spice of life! mataHmeH maSachnIS.
> For instance, a friend of mine glibly asked if I knew the tlhIngan
> word for "menopause".
Say, "No I don't."
> I came up with:
>
> be' 'IwwI'be' (woman who does not bleed) [this looks horrible to say!]
Actually, "woman who does not bleed" would be {reghbe'bogh be'}. ({regh}
comes from TKW p.131)
This does not mean "menopause" to me at all! Come up with something more
accurate, which details the situation! Unfortunately (I suppose), we don't
have a word for this. Get used to it.
> However, I also though of (but haven't put together yet) something that
> would translate loosely as "mid-life woman's blood stop", but it would be
> much, much longer and contorted.
Why in the world do you want to talk about menopause, anyway? The sciences
are NOT supported by TKD, and they're very difficult to pidgin through.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 96916.6