tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 20 18:40:15 1999

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Information overload, or {Qu'vaD lI' De'vam}



pagh:
: Daj. I don't normally think of <De'> as something that can be plural. I
: wonder what Klingons think . . .

Angela:
>If De' is plural (which it would be in English), then how would we say it as
>singular in tlhIngan Hol? I am willing to accept De' meaning "datum" and
>De'pu' meaning "data". That doesn't solve what you do about its meaning as
>"information". But it is something to think about.

Your point is a valid one.  However for many, if not most, native English
speakers "data" *is* singular.  It may have originally been plural in
Latin, but to all but a few pedantic speakers (of which I am one) it is
singular now, just like "information".  What's the plural of "information"?  

If you feel an overwhelming need to refer to a "datum" - though in 43
years, most of which has been spent in the military and in academia, I've
never actually heard anyone say "datum" in their normal conversation (i.e.
when they're not complaining about the misuse of "data" that is!) - {ngoD}
"fact" does nicely.  If that's too much information, use {ngoDHom}, a
"bit", factoid, factlet, etc.  Okrand once translated "Trekbits" (the name
of a section or column in the official fan club magazine "Star Trek:
Communicator") as {Hov leng ngoDHommey}.  

BTW, for {ngoDHommey} I usually say "trivia" in English, yet another Latin
plural.  How many careful speakers refer to a single piece of trivia as a
"trivium"?  I know I don't.

: I am pretty sure <De'> is a mass noun like <bIQ>, and that Klingon does not
: really view "data" as multiple individual datums (yeah, I know, but I am
: trying to make a point). Whether mass nouns like <De'> and <bIQ> can take a
: plural suffix at all, and what that would mean, is an interesting topic for
: discussion.

In English we sometimes pluralize mass nouns for poetic effect, usually in
set phrases: "by the waters of Babylon", "the skies are not cloudy all
day", "heavens above", "the sands of time", "three little fishies", etc.
Whether you can do this in Klingon is unknown.  It may be appreciated as an
interesting and original literary effect; then again, it may just be
considered an ignorant mistake, like "informations" in English.  

But that's obviously a question for Maltz.  Keep in mind, though, that
Maltz is a science officer, not a poet.


-- 
Voragh                       
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons 


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