tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 25 16:50:38 1997

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KLBC: new words, once more for all...

Thanks to all who expressed theit opinion about that, and especially to
SuStel.

I never claimed to coin any new word. I understand-qu' {{-)) that KLI's
sticking
to the only reliable source we have -- {Matlh}'s words, as transmitted by MO,
and TKD does mention many caveats.

Although it's a short time I've been there, I'm beginning to feel the
diversity of
approaches people can have regarding tlhingan Hol. You can meet Trekkies who
just enjoy the idea of tlhingan Hol being a *real* language, as well as very
rigorous people (mostly KLI Grammarians) who want to study it while it is not
Terranized, giving a quite conservative feeling.

Just in order to make my attitude clear, let me say I'm much more interested
in
tlhingan Hol grammar than in really using it. I've been studying the grammar
of
over 50 Terran languages without being able to utter even a simple sentence
in
any of them (admittedly, this goes back to 15 years ago or more, and much of
this is almost forgotten).

Now about new words, well, when I eat at a Chinese restaurant, I have no
problem using chopsticks, as Klingons may use forks when invited at a
Terran dinner. The example SuStel gives (RE: KLBC: new words..., 21/06/97
21:07:13) is more realistic.

We're talking about misunderstanding between cultures, not language, so we're
digressing from the purpose of the List.

So, to get back into the proper subject: in which circumstances are you
allowed
to make a compound noun instead of a noun-noun construct? In French, we make
little difference about the two (except by context). {Terra'ngan} is a
Terran, while
{Terra'   ngan} is an inhabitant of Terra'. Would a Klingon pronounce these
with
some difference (a slight pause between the words in the second case?) Can we
infer from the word {tlhIngan} that Klingons call (or used to call) they
world
{tlhI} or {tlhI'}?

When a noun is used in a compound (TKD 3.2.1, very short about these), may
the
first one take suffixes? May it be derived from a verb (with -wI' for
example, which
might cause ambiguity with the possessive -wI', although I couldn't find any
such reasonable instance)?

(I've got plenty of these to ask -- I'll do that in tlhIngan Hol, but just
for now I
need to be reassured about making understandable, if not acceptable,
sentences)

qatlho' (qar'a' ?)

Qapla' (qar 'e' vISov) ((qar'a' again?))

-- HdW

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