tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 03 08:06:59 1999
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Re: Love
- From: Carleton Copeland <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Love
- Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 19:08:10 +-400
jatlh ghunchu'wI':
>There's no reason to think the existence of specific roots and not their
>opposites indicates that one condition is more "normal" than the other.
>English is full of fun examples where an "anti-" term is the common one
>and the "root" word is never used for the opposite meaning: disheveled,
>unkempt, disgruntled, mistaken, decant, etc.
I'll admit I'm no linguist, but it does seem reasonable to me that a root would be prior and more basic than its prefixed and suffixed forms. I'd be surprised to learn, say, that the English word *agree* had been formed by shortening the original *disagree* (though something a little like this did happen with *inflammable*). I'm going further, though, by suggesting that the Klingon *concept* of disagreement (Qoch) is more basic than the *concept* of agreement (Qochbe'). Evidence of this (not proof) is the lack of a simple and direct alternative. If English lacked words for *neat* and *tidy*, and one had to say *undisheveled* to get the thought across, I think I'd worry about the level of personal hygiene among English speakers.
My point (and I don't think you disagreed) is this: if /muSHa'/ is translated as *love* in canon (is it?), and we know no other verb for *love* in a verb-centered language, could it be that /muSHa'/ does in fact mean *to love*? Perhaps, when appended to certain verbs, /-Ha'/ and /-be'/ don't just undo or negate the action but transform it into its opposite. (This is what SuStel's recent explanation of /parHa'/ implied to me.) Then /muSHa'/ could become as strong and independent a word in Klingon as, say, *independent* is in English.
>ghaytan "I love you" mughlaH <qamuSHa'>. reH lugh'a'? ghobe'.
jIQochbe'laH.
>If there's a pun in {muSHa'}, I don't get it.
all that mushy stuff
>Since the word has never been used by Okrand, I doubt that any humor value
>you see in it is intentional.
jIQochlaHbe'.
qa'ral