tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 20 12:48:10 2000
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Re: meqleH (again)
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: meqleH (again)
- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 15:47:10 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
- Priority: NORMAL
You don't seem to understand the nature of words. Each one
evolves from some mysterious origin that may or may not
follow any parallel path to what appears to be a similar
word.
Most likely betleH became the generic term for a weapon of
a similar type to the single entity in the universe known
as the batlh 'etlh. qelIS 'etlh neH 'oH batlh 'etlh'e'.
There is only one batlh 'etlh. There are many betleHmey.
The word betleH sounds a lot like batlh 'etlh. Maybe that
is intentional. Maybe not. We can't know.
You've leapt from that observation to confidence in the
statement that the term betleH is a corruption of the term
batlh 'etlh. Now, you encounter meqleH and make the even
greater leap of faith that it has a similar origin.
Well, first, you may very well be wrong to assume that
betleH is a corruption of batlh 'etlh. Second, even if you
are right, that says nothing about the word meqleH. Maybe
meqleH is a corruption of the word betleH.
Or maybe it isn't.
Frankly, you waste your time worrying about this. We have
two perfectly fine words here and we know what they mean.
betleH is a two-handed weapon with really nasty looking
blades and a triple-segmented handle. A meqleH is a
one-handed weapon with a similar, but smaller, really nasty
looking blade.
Who needs to know more and why?
You might gain from studying Symbolic Logic. If you do so,
you will learn that you cannot examine effects and
determine causes with any certainty. There can always be an
unseen cause. Looking at words and presuming their origins
is futile, unless you do an Oxford English Dictionary
styled listing of the history of the use of a word,
gleaning canon from ancient texts.
Unfortunately, you can't do that in Klingon because there
ARE no available ancient texts.
charghwI'
On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 18:09:49 +0100 (MET) Jeroen Vantroyen
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> thanks all who replied to me to say a meqleH is a shorter version of the
> betleH, but I'm actually looking for the "meaning" of the word.
>
> i.e. betleH comes from batlh'etlh (sword of honor)
> what's the origin and meaning of the word meqleH.
>
> Thansk again,
> Jeroen
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Captain Jeroen Vantroyen
> Commanding Officer, USS Belgica NCC-72301
> Assistant Director, Diplomatic Corps, Region 9
> Acting Dean, European Campus, STARFLEET Academy
> DOIC, 359 MSG
> http://inf4serv.rug.ac.be/~jvtroyen/
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>