tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 06 13:08:30 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Okrand and parmaq
- From: "Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Okrand and parmaq
- Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 16:14:43 -0500
mIqIraH writes:
The way I see it, the *only* source of evidence we have is the (admittedly
non-canon) episode in question. And Dax does clearly indicate that it is a
noun through her usage. Unless Marc says otherwise, I would think it is
safe to assume that the word is used as a noun. The Man Himself does say
that he's not sure of usage... but until he decides, what else can we do?
======my reply follows=======
I hate to get back into this whole <parmaq> thing again, but you've made an
unjustified leap here.
Consider: tlhIngan Hol is a language which seems to focus more on actions
and states of being (i.e., verbs) than on things (i.e., nouns). English on
the other hand (and grant me for the moment that Dax was speaking English,
or at least the script she was working from was in English) is the other
way around, English speakers are much more interested in things than
actions. So, if <parmaq> is a verb, then it's not unreasonable for Dax to
describe it, indeed to transform the representation of the concept, as a
thing when speaking to Sisko. Of course, if <parmaq> is a noun, you'd end
up in the same place.
The more telling part of your quotation from Okrand [not included in this
post to save space] is: "She accuses Worf of having a 'bad case" of parmaq,
which suggests it's a noun." Note the use of the word "suggest." Okrand is
the one who introduces the hesitancy here (like a good field linguist, not
certain of a bit of data and only a single instance of it). If *he* is
hesitant, I would suspect we should be as well. At least till we hear more.
So, how can you use <parmaq>? What's the good of having it? Well, you can
cheat, and use it as a one word sentence (sorry, no suffixes either -
except maybe -mo'). Which, given the general terseness of Klingon isn't a
bad thing. Example:
Qang: qatlh montaH matlh? Why is Maltz smiling?
mara: parmaqmo'. He's in love.
Qang: wejpuH. Charming.
Sneaky, huh?
Lawrence
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Dr Lawrence M Schoen, Director :: The KLI is a nonprofit ::
:: The Klingon Language Institute :: tax exempt corporation ::
:: POB 634, Flourtown, PA 19031 USA :: DaH HuchlIj'e' ghonob ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: [email protected] :: http://www.kli.org :: 215/836-4955 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::