tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 01 21:48:58 1999
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Re: Sumchuq
ja' jey'el:
>Like you, I'd been thinking that in Klingon, as in many other languages, the
>"each other" form is a *reciprocal*...
>But I just reread TKD 4.2.1 and discovered that MO didn't say {-chuq} means
>this, or
>even that it is a reciprocal; only that "This suffix is used only with plural
>subjects. It is translated 'each other' or 'one another' ."
>
>Similarly, MO didn't say what I'd thought he said about {-egh}: that it's a
>*reflexive*, or (again, by the most straightforward definition of that term)
>that it means that the direct object is the same as the subject. He only said
>that "This suffix is used to indicate that the action described by the verb
>affects the performer of the action. It is translated by English 'self'."
Okrand wrote TKD using words intended for non-linguists. (Note that his
description of the pronunciation for {D} uses the word "gooshy".) Don't
use the lack of the word "reflexive" as an indication that {-'egh} isn't
really a reflexive suffix. In interviews, he has used more specific and
definitive terminology, and has even acknowledged some of the wording in
TKD as being technically incorrect.
-- ghunchu'wI'