tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 02 17:35:41 1997
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Re: KLBC: New Words - magic, magician
David Trimboli wrote:
>
> jatlh Y'jImbotlh-wa'maH of House l'maSto'r:
>
> > In my search for new Klingon words, I have tried to come up with words
> > for magic and magician (sorcerer, etc.).
> >
> > Here's my thoughts:
> >
> > chambe'cham = magic (no-technology technology)
> >
> > chambe'chamwI' = magician (no-technology technician)
> >
> > I realize from the notes this morning that the absolutely correct form
> > of no-technology could be chamHa', but, again, I am exterpolating from
> > chamwI' (technician - one who does technology) that cham is actually a
> > verb-form, making the correct form chambe' for no-technology or
> > technology-not.
>
> No way. You can't do this. {chamwI'} is a noun, but there's no verb {cham}.
> You cannot extrapolate like this. If anyone could make up words like this,
> pretty soon no one would be able to understand anyone else. I, for one, would
> have no clue about what {chambe'cham} was supposed to mean.
I am sorry, but beginner or not, I do NOT see where you are coming from
here! There is a known word "technician" but no real word for
"technology". A noun is often made (most often made) from taking the
verb or noun form and adding -wI' (one who does/uses X). With a
new/growing language, the only ways to produce new words are:(1) make
them up of whole cloth; (2) combine known to form new {i.e. the way that
modern German does}; and (3) to take a known and extrapolate from it.
I do NOT see that I broke any grammarian rules. I would bow to greater
knowledge/or wholesale opinion about my theory that "cham" was either a
noun or verb, but not that I "broke the rules" in its creation!
>
> > I also toyed with the idea of Clarke's Theorem (Any technology,
> > sufficiantly advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic) and use
> > cham'Itlh for magic and cham'Itlhwi' for magician, but I like the sound
> > of chambe'cham and chambe'chamwI' better. They sound like magic
> > incantations already.
>
> Now you're not only pulling apart word elements illegally, you're also making
> a verb compound, which is not permitted either.
---see aboove for my opinion on "pulling apart word elements illegally."
????? Why are compound verbs illegal? My TKD, though not memorized,
doesn't seem to support this allegation!
>
> "Magic" is one of those words which we have no good translation for. Who
> knows? Maybe Klingons never believed in magic? They did kill their gods off,
> after all . . . This might explain why there are no words for it. Then
> again, it's possible that the research just hasn't uncovered this concept yet.
To this is say - MY RESEARCH HAS UNCOVERED SEVERAL POSSIBLITIES!
Just the speeches about "crossing the River of Blood" hints at a whole
rich tapestry of Klingon myth, legend and 'superstition' not touched
upon at this time.
> --
> SuStel
> Beginners' Grammarian
> Stardate 97164.0