Re: SachtaH Holmaj!

[Carleton Copeland <copeland@eycis.com>]

jatlh muHwI' HovqIj je':

>{qamuSHa'} does not really say "love", but literally "I un-hate you" or "I don't hate you", and by
>the way, it's just too long to be klingon. ... How do you like {bangwI' SoH}? "You are my loved
>one."

>vIparHa'. I like it. It's one of the rare cases in Klingon where a noun centered statement doesn't sound clumsy or weak.

Perhaps I'm belaboring a point that HovqIj has made more subtly, but I wonder if we should be so literal as to think of /muSHa'/ as *not hate*.  What intrigues me about /muSHa'/, /parHa'/, and /tungHa'/ (any other examples?) is their evocation of a culture in which it is more "normal" to hate, dislike and discourage than the reverse.  This would seem appropriate for a language that (jatlh worIv) did not have a word for *peace* until the 23d or 24th century.  Consider also the positive feel of words like *independent* or *individual* as compared with their negative construction.  As for /bangwI' SoH/, viparHa' jIH je!

P.S.  Where did /roj/ come from, anyway?  I would have preferred /ghobHa'/.

P.S.S.  /muSHa'/ is yet another pun (or would be if it weren't a time-honored Klingon word).

qa'ral