Re: Okrand speaks: What time is it?

["William H. Martin" <whm2m@server1.mail.virginia.edu>]

On Thu, 4 Feb 1999 07:07:53 -0800 (PST) Eduardo Fonseca 
<fonseca@inetminas.estaminas.com.br> wrote:

> William H. Martin post:
> 
> 
> >    'arlogh Qoylu'pu'?
> >
> >This is literally "How many times has (someone) heard (it)?" or 
> "How many times has it been heard?"  (<'arlogh> "how many times?" 
> a word that functions adverbially, made up of the question word <'ar> 
> "how much? how many?" and the special number suffix <-logh> "times" 
> [as in "six times"]; 
> 
> 
>     Is it possible the usage of {'arlogh} in other sentences, as:
> 
> 'arlogh Qo'noSDaq bIleng - How many times did you travel to Kronos?
 
I think most would agree the answer to that is "yes". Okrand 
tends to use the answer to one question in order to introduce 
something even more important or interesting. As an example, 
Okrand gave us the word for "fork" so he could make a joke out 
of the word for "spoon" (which is a Spoonerism). He gave us a 
couple new medical words so he could make a joke out of the word 
for "nurse" (Nurse Rachet). Here, he answered the basic 
question, "How do you ask what time is it?" and used that 
opportunity to give us the one remaining question word we could 
not otherwise replace. I've been asking for {'arlogh} now for a 
couple years, and while I don't remember who actually came up 
with that word, I do remember that I was not the first person to 
point out that we needed it.
 
> Edy

charghwI' 'utlh