tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 28 08:59:05 1996

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Re: tlhIngan Hol chu' ghojwI'. jIH ghaj pung.

At 06:52 AM 9/3/96 -0700, dpNoll wrote:
>
>ghItlh Mitchel Ross:
>
>[...]
>> I had a hard time
>> with "computer user".  A computer is that which uses data, and a 
>> user is that which uses a computer.  I really wanted to use 
>> "De'wI'wI'", which is jibberish.  Comments?
>
>I'm not a 'professional', in fact far from it, so I'll probably get
>castrated for commenting here, but here it goes:


Actaully, since I am so far behind in my replies, no, I am not going to
castrate anyone, although you responded to this letter AWFULLY fast... {{:)


>I don't think you can construe *De'wI'* to be a word meaning "thing which
>uses data", as so far as we know, *De'* is only a noun and the *wI'* suffix
>meaning "thing which does" is only used on verbs. I think that the word
>for "computer" is the only example of this construct, so it can't really be
>generalised.
>
>For a "computer user", you could have a "user of computers", so perhaps
>{De'wI' lo'wI'} would be a more appropriate construct for your purpose.


This is a very good reply, and happens to address the one issue I did NOT in
my previous post:  that <De'wI'>, although it LOOKS like it is <De'> "data"
and -wI' "thing which does" attached is NOT, and CANNOT be.  -wI' does NOT
impky "use"!  It is defined as "one who does, thing which does" on page 44!
It does not EVER say that it is "one who USES"... that would be some sort of
noun suffix, and it does not exist.

<De'wI'> is probably some contraction of an old phrase which now means
"computer"--possibly <De' lo'wI'>; we don't really know.

But we DO know (unless Okrand tells us otherwise) that <De'wI> can NOT fit
in with our current rules of grammar when it is broken-down into what
appears to be its "parts", and must be a whole word into and of itself.

This word is probably another good reason why people get the two meanings of
-wI' so confused...


>Qapla'
>voqHa'wI' (pIj tlhIngan Hol pongwIj vIlo'be'}


Thanks for the reminder.  {{:)



---
HoD trI'Qal, tlhIngan wo' Duj lIy So' ra'wI'
Captain T'rkal, Commander IKV Hidden Comet (Klingon speaker and net junkie!)
HaghtaHbogh tlhIngan yIvoqQo'!  toH... qatlh HaghtaH Qanqor HoD???
monlI'bogh tlhInganbe' yIvoqQo'!  SoHvaD monlI' trI'Qal...

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