tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 12 05:51:47 1997
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Re: bomchuq qamDu'
ja' peHruS:
>This was an attempt at using descriptive language to cover a concept for
>which we do not yet have the Klingon word: "dance."
DaDel 'e' DanID. maj. 'ach bInIDqu'ta' neH.
Oh. That's definitely an appropriate thing to try to do when the
vocabulary lacks a simple word for a given concept. "Feet sing one
another" isn't very descriptive to me, though. It sounds very idiomatic,
and inventing an idiom *isn't* appropriate when one is trying to
communicate.
Feet don't sing or chant. Even if we inappropriately stretch the meaning
of {bom} to mean what feet do while they dance, they don't dance "each
other". Whatever you were thinking when you wrote it, it sure doesn't make
me think about dancing when I read it. I don't think it even counts as a
hindsight construction, because its meaning isn't apparent even after I
know what it's supposed to mean. :-/
-- ghunchu'wI'