tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 21 22:01:26 1999
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Re: <jatlh> - a tip I needed wejmaH Hu'
: I wonder if some new listees are repeating (or, worse yet, imitating) a
recent
: mistake of mine. When I started getting messages that began "jatlh
qa'ral",
: I took it as a friendly Klingon greeting and responded by heading a few
messages
: of my own with just plain "jatlh!". It finally dawned on me that "jatlh
qa'ral"
: meant simply "qa'ral said", in reference to my previous message.
When it begins your own message it means "qa'ral speaking", a common formula
when answering the phone in English and thus an appropriate way to address the
list.
(For qa'ral: It's interesting that the Russian equivalent *govorit qa'ral*
uses the Klingon-word order VERB SUBJECT, which is somewhat unusual. But my
favorite way to answer the phone in Russian is the very Klingon-sounding
*slushayu* "I'm listening".)
Of course, we know that in real life <g> Klingons don't bother with any
greetings whatsoever, they just say what's on their mind - which most of the
humans on this list, including some veterans, still find rude. Often many
newcomers will insist on using their own personal greeting even after Klingon
custom is explained to them. ("Okay, I know all that. But if Klingons *did*
have greetings, how would I say ...?")
Some habits are hard to break... which is why qa'ral thought {jatlh PN} was a
greeting in the first place.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons