tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 16 06:46:08 1997
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Re: KLBC: tea for two
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>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:29:47 -0800
>From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
>
>>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 01:56:49 -0800
>>From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected]>
>>
>>But it wouldn't do for `black tea', `green tea', `iced tea', `sour tea'.
>>I wonder if there is an interrogative verb (`(be) of what kind') sitting
>>in store in Maltz's head. As in *{kix Dargh?} `What kind is the tea?',
>>*{Dargh kix DaneH?} `What kind of tea do you want?'. (Using non-Klingon
>>letters for the non-word, lest I be accused of making a *proposal* for
>>`filling a gap' in Klingon, which I'm not.)
>
>Wise. Not so much for "filling the gap" but... well, you know the story of
>'I', right? :) (http://www.kli.org/cgi-bin/mfs/1996/Aug96/0655.html). We
>have enough confusion without that. :) Hee, an interrogative verb would be
>cool. Not unheard of in languages, but nicely unusual.
Upon reflection, we don't actually *need* a questioning verb like this.
After all, if you're asking the question, you can just as easily say
Dargh DaneHbogh yIDel!
Which would fill the bill nicely.
However, just because we *can* do without something doesn't mean we
necessarily *must* (or will, depending on Okrand's decisions). After all,
the same logic would say that we don't need the question-word "nuq", since
we can see "Doch DaneHbogh yIngu'", or that if we have nuq we don't need
qatlh since we can say "nuqmo'". This is something Krankor has
occasionally complained about, when people get really skilled at
recasting. Languages don't always make do with the smallest set, and
people don't go around recasting like mad. Sometimes there are all these
other ways to say things. We'll have to see what Okrand says.
(Note that last sentence. The point being that we can't go amd make up our
own stuff based on this.)
~mark
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