tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 07 18:35:28 1997
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RE: KLBC: meaning of first person in plural (maH)
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: meaning of first person in plural (maH)
- Date: Sat, 7 Jun 97 19:59:37 UT
[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:
> In TKD, we are taught that the pronoun for "we" or "us" is "maH".
>
> But this can have two meanings (this distinction does exist in some Terran
> languages) :
> 1 - me and you (and possibly other persons with any of us),
> 2 - me and the persons with me, but NOT you (nor any persons with you).
We have no rules set down addressing this, but it has come up before.
We know it can mean "you and I." For example, in Power Klingon we have {DaH
matlhutlh}, where the context is a Klingon speaking to a Terran.
>From Power Klingon, we also have two Terrans asking a Klingon something.
{naDevvo' vaS'a'Daq majaHlaH'a'}. This is the "he and I" meaning.
In Star Trek V, Vixis says {Hevetlh wIghoSchugh veH tIn wI'el maH'e'}, but
this isn't the "you and I" meaning, and it isn't the "he and I" meaning. It's
the "collected group of people, which happens to include me." This, I think,
is the general meaning of the pronoun.
In The Klingon Way we have a sort of "all Klingons" meaning to {maH}, for
example, {Hem tlhIngan Segh 'ej maHemtaH 'e' wIHech}. This is more or less to
the "collected group" meaning above.
So, it would appear that as long as you are not alone, you can refer to
yourself and at least one other person together as {maH}.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97434.2