tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 23 11:49:35 1997

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Re: KLBC: exclamations



At 10:55 AM 9/23/97 -0700, Qov wrote:
>lab muHwI'
>>There are exclamations for
>>Good! - maj
>>Very good! - majQa'
>>
>>are there any for "better" ?
>
>For better you could say {Dubpu'}, to show it had improved, or {qaq} 
>preferable.  
>
>>Imaging somebody checking something out:
>>{...hm,...maj,...maj,...majQa',...maj,...ghobe',...better!}
>
>Oh I get it, one Klingon is on the roof adjusting the TV aerial and 
>the other one is telling him how he's doing. :)
>
>We do have a shortage of positive exclamations in Klingon. 
>In Canadian English we use exuberant profanity like "f***ing, eh!" 
>(with the emphasis on the "eh") but I haven't found a way to do this 
>in Klingon.   Check out KGT for {qu'} and {chong} as two additions.
>

You could argue that you should actually use the descriptive verb
{QaQ} in such a case ("the reception is good...better...best!").  
I also don't think of {majQa'} meaning "'maj'-er".  With {maj}, a
situation is good.  With {majQa'}, a situation is really good.
I don't think that implies a comparison between the two situations.
For the sense muHwI' is seeking, I'd try

{QaQ...QaQqu'...nIv!}

-- ter'eS

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/2711



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