tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 06 08:35:15 1998
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RE: MO about fork and spoon
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: MO about fork and spoon
- Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 08:32:16 -0700
At 08:26 98-05-06 -0700, Voragh wrote:
}: > >>From: "Marc Okrand" <[email protected]>
}: > >>[...]
}: > >>The Klingon word for "spoon" is {baghneQ}. Even though
}: > >>spoons were never typically used when eating, the word
}: > >>appears to have been in the language for a long time,
}: > >>suggesting that it may once have meant something else. One
}: > >>theory is that it comes from {nagh beQ} "flat stone, flat
}: > >>rock" and that the initial sounds of the two words, {n} and
}: > >>{b}, were, for some reason, transposed. This is, however,
}: > >>just speculation.
}: >
}: > Oh. My. Goodness. He's gone and done it again. Transposing the
}: > initial sounds of the word for "spoon" indeed... aaarrrggghh!
}:
}: > -- ghunchu'wI'
}:
}: It's quite possible that I would never have caught that if you hadn't
}: pointed it out. That's fabulous! I *actually* laughed out loud!
}:
}: You must admit, the fact that Okrand gets such obvious joy out of toying
}: with us like this really does make it fun. {{:)
}:
}: --Holtej
}
}ghay'cha'! qIDDaj DaQIj 'e' vItlhob.
}
}It may be because I haven't had my qa'vIn this morning, but I just don't get
}it. Is this a reference to some brand name of cutlery?
The term for an accident of speech or a joke made by transposing the intial
letters of adjacent words is "spoonerism."
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian