tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jul 26 12:18:43 1997
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Re: Cursing
ja' ter'eS:
>I just realized that there's a whole area of Klingon vocabulary for which
>we have no words at all! I'm referring to adjectives you can use for
>cursing.
nuqjatlh? Klingon *has* no adjectives, of course, but there are plenty of
verbs that we can use for similar purposes.
>True, we have epithets (basically, names you can call someone),
>and interjections (words that express your attitude to a situation), but
>no verbs we can use to modify a single noun to express our feelings about
>it.
I have absolutely no idea what you're complaining about. There are verbs
galore that we can use to express what we think about things.
>Given Klingons' famed cursing skills, this seems an odd lack.
It *would* be odd, if indeed this lack were real.
>Granted, we have {qay'}, which might be such a verb, as in {Human qay' yIHoH}
>"Kill the troublesome human!". But this seems like a pretty weak curse:
>"troublesome". Probably {qay'} is just the tip of the iceberg.
Open your eyes, and your mind! What's wrong with {QIp}? {Dogh}? Or even
{ghungbe'} or {puj} or {chuSqu'} or whatever fits the situation?
>Speaking of which, I also think {jay'} is only the tip of the iceberg, that
>there are probably lots of intensifiers in Klingon. These would express
>finer shaded of meaning, eg. "intensity with a positive/surprised overtone",
>"intensity mixed with disgust", "intensity mixed with dismay", etc. The
>intensifier {jay'} and the verb {qay'} are probably just the most generic
>and blandest representatives of their kind.
{jay'} might be "generic", but it is not bland. If you want to express
surprise with an intense invective, say {mumer jay'!} If you want to
express disgust with an intense invective, say {vImuS jay'!} If you want
to express dismay with an intense invective, say {jIQuchHa' jay'!} or maybe
{jIpuQ jay'!}
Don't forget that {mu'qaD veS} is an art form. You have to carefully craft
your insults. Simply calling someone a {toDSaH} or a {Qovpatlh} is child's
play; it's just too easy.
DIvI' Hol qechmey Dogh woDQo' yablIj rIgh.
tIchbogh mu'mey DanejtaHvIS, qaDbogh mu'mey DabuSHa'taH.
-- ghunchu'wI'