tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 03 10:56:32 1999
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RE: KLBC..Family
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC..Family
- Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 11:50:21 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: William H. Martin [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 9:07 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: KLBC..Family
On Tue, 2 Feb 1999 18:28:37 -0800 (PST) [email protected] wrote:
> I have been trying to find words for family members...I have found ones
for
> like mother and brother etc. But non for like Uncle or Niece..Do the the
> Klingons not count these as family members or what?
> Qapla'
> qoreQ
I really want to answer this, but I just saw the KLBC header.
Ouch.
Okay, I'll just suggest that your uncle and cousin have a
relationship with you that can be expressed using noun-noun
constructions and the words you already know. Your uncle is a
parent's sibling. Your cousin is your parent's sibling's child.
While you're likely tempted to conclude that Klingons lack
specific terms for these relatives, in fact, expressing it the
Klingon way is a lot MORE specific, since it indicates which
parent creates the link and what gender the relative is.
"Cousin" doesn't do that at all, and "uncle" only tells you
gender, not which parent. Even the most extended family
relationship can be expressed in terms of parents, siblings or
children.
I hope I don't make pagh too angry here. I'll try to do better
next time, respecting his turf. This is just one of my favorite
pet peeves. It is not that the words are MISSING from Klingon.
It is that a Klingon would never be as vague in terminology as
the English relationship terms. How many people here know the
meaning of "third cousin twice removed", anyway? And if you
tried to explain it, you'd use the same terminology Klingons
would have used the first time.
charghwI' 'utlh