tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 10 10:43:01 1997
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Re: KLBC: big numbers
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: big numbers
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 13:42:33 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Qov" at Sep 9, 97 10:17:01 pm
According to Qov:
>
> At 12:17 PM 9/9/97 -0700, muHwI' wrote:
> >Is it possible to say in klingon phrases like
> >"...millions of (whatever)"
> >"thousands of..."
> >"hundreds..."
> >Can we make plurals with numbers ?
> >like *vatlhmey* or *'uy'mey*
> >"I have traveled millions of kellicams to get here"
> >{naDev vIghoSmeH 'uy' law' qelI'qam vIlengta'} (?)
>
> The problem is that plural suffixes are for nouns, and Klingon numbers are
> chuvmey, not nouns. While I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these Carl
> Saganesque constructions are legal, we can't use them until Marc Okrand
> reports that Klingons do.
Also, remember the advice on Conversational Klingon: "A Klingon
may be inaccurate, but he is NEVER approximate!" Add that to
the proverb that four thousand throats may be slit by a running
man. I doubt it was exactly four thousand, but the point is,
four thousand is close enough. It is an exact number which
happens to be in the ballpark of the number of throats a
running man can probably slit. And even if it isn't, it sounds
a lot better than, "A few thousand throats can be slit by a
running man."
See? So don't say, "millions of kelicams". Just say "six
million kelicams" and don't worry about it if you are nowhere
near accurate. If anybody bothers you about the accuracy of the
number, shoot them and go on about your business. No Klingon
court would hold it against you.
> Qov ([email protected])
> Beginners' Grammarian
charghwI'