tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 15 14:32:50 1997

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X, Y, Z - WAS: Re: More New Words

(Do you like the subject?)

>Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen wrote:
>> 
>> Thaddeus Vick asked:
>> 
>> > Could we use {mumHa'} to say "I don't like the flavor."?
>> 
>> Ignoring for the moment a literal translation of "distaste," wouldn't 
>> something like the above suggest that it is the item eaten that is doing 
>> the tasting? That can't be right.
>
>Er, I didn't mean that as the whole sentence, but as a possible
>word that could be used in expressing the idea. A possible sentence
>would be {qagh mumHa' verengan}.

mum means "perceive flavor". qagh vImum = I taste the qagh. There is no 
quality assesment going on here - I just taste it. I could rightly then say, 
'ach vIpar jay'!

Adding -Ha' either undoes the verb, which doesn't seem to work here - how does 
one un-perceive? - or means the verb was acted 'wrongly' or 'badly'. Thus qagh 
vImumHa' would imply to me that the speaker tried the dish with a strong 
incompatible taste in the mouth, as someone who has eaten a bowl of hot chili 
cannot appreciate the subtleties of a fine wine, and therefore has no real 
idea of what he has tasted.

The only problem I have with my own logic here is that vIwaHHa' (I sample it 
wrongly) seems to mean the same thing. Perhaps the former is reserved for when 
no sampling is necessary because the food is already liked by the speaker, and 
the latter when one is trying the food, or this chef's version of the food, 
for the first time. Both seem to imply, by the way, that the fault of the 
wrong tasting is the subject's.

jIropmo' qagh vImumHa'
Because I am ill, the 'gagh' tastes funny to me.

OR

qagh vIparHa' 'ach vutwI'vam qagh vIpar. vIwaHtaHvIS, HaQchor vImumlaH je. 
chaq vIwaHHa'pu'.
I like 'gagh', but I don't like this cook's 'gagh'. When I sampled it, I also 
could taste saccharin. Maybe I tried it poorly.

Again, I don't see how a clear quality judgement can be made here. But it is 
fun to postulate what -Ha' actually does! It sometimes changes a word's 
meaning suprisingly.

Qermaq

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