tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 03 20:49:07 1997

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RE: KLBC: Love

jatlh mIqIraH:

> I took the liberty of adding a KLBC to this.
> 
> Darren Cubitt wrote:
> > 
> > Hi all,
> >         I am new to both this list and the Klingon language so I just
> >         thought I'd say
> > hi.
> > I have been able to pick Klingon up fairly easy so far and have begun
> > constructing simple sentences, however - there is one thing that I don't
> > understand.
> > The word "Love" correctly appears in the Klingon dictionary as a noun.
> > However, since it is a noun, one cannot attach a verb prefix such as "qa"
> > (I-you) to it to produce "qabang" (I love you). So how is such a phrase
> > achieved in Klingon?
> 
> {bang} is not "love" the emotion, it is a loved one, as in a person. 
> I'll leave the rest of your questions up to SuStel, since he's the
> Beginner's Grammarian and I'm not! :-)

mIqIraH is right: "love" here means the person who is loved.  It comes from 
Valkris' line in Star Trek III: {Qapla' jawwI' bangwI' je} "Success, my lord, 
and my love."

We now know of the word {parmaq}, which Marc Okrand has told us is the Klingon 
equivalent of love, although its part of speech is uncertain.  So far, it 
*seems* to be a noun.

There are numerous methods which people have used to express love in Klingon.  
One of the more obvious is {bangwI' SoH} "You are my love."  Often, as in some 
Shakespeare translations, we see {muSHa'} "un-detest," which, while its exact 
Klingon meaning is not very certain (or testable), it is certainly a fun way 
to look at it.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97423.7

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