tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 07 22:48:41 1997
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Re: Cursing
[regarding a lack of words useful for cursing]
ja' ter'eS:
>You misunderstand me; I guess I phrased that badly. I'm referring to
>descriptive verbs used _primarily_ as curses.
You're grasping for something in Klingon that apparently exists in the
English that you use, and you're just not going to find it the way you
are asking for it. We have epithets and invectives, and even if there
isn't a direct translation of any of them, there are some pretty good
ideas about when they are appropriate and why they would be used. But
more importantly, we have {mu'qaD veS}! Curse warfare is creative and
interesting and both a participatory and a spectator sport. There are
three words in particular that are not "used _primarily_ as curses",
but when they are taken together they form one of the most powerful
Klingon insults known: {Hab SoSlI' Quch}.
>We have all these epithets and invectives that, as far as we know, have
>no other use except cursing, yet we have no descriptive verbs that are not
>also for general use. (Consider as a contrary example {Ha'DIbaH},
>which can be used as a curse, but also as a plain non-insulting noun. This
>is the same as the other verbs you cited: they're primarily neutral
>descriptive terms.)
When used in a neutral descriptive context, they are not insults. When
used in a well-crafted {mu'qaD}, they are an important part of an insult.
>...{QIp}, {Dogh}, etc. are fine words and
>can surely be used as insults, but their very ordinariness makes me sure
>that Klingon has other, far stronger, verbs. Given Klingon inventiveness,
>I'd be surprised if this were not so.
Klingon inventiveness has brought forth {mu'qaD veS}, which in my opinion
renders unnecessary any specific verbs used only for insults.
vay' DatIchchu'meH bIQubqu'nIS.
DunmeH mu'qaD 'oghnISlu'.
mu'qaD Daqawqu'bogh neH DajatlhlaHchugh, tugh Dajeylu'.
-- ghunchu'wI'