tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 06 13:50:49 2000

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RE: divorce



peHruS:
>There has already been an answer for ages.  tlhoS tlhogh = the marriage is
>dissolved.  End of discussion.
>
>Make that {ngoS tlhogh}.
 
ghunchu'wI':
: First, whether {ngoS} means "come apart (as if under the influence of a
: solvent)" or "cause something to come apart (by acting on it as a
solvent)"
: is an unresolved question.  The grammatically correct phrase might be
{ngoS
: tlhogh}, or it might be {tlhogh ngoSlu'}.

Voragh:
> Unfortunately, since {ngoS} "dissolve" has never been used by Okrand, 
> we really have no way of knowing at this point.

: Second, we have absolutely no reason to assume {ngoS} can be used in a
: wider sense than literally dissolving a solute in a solvent to create a
: solution.  Even with the proper grammar, the phrase might not be able to
: refer to a marriage.

Voragh:
> Actually, it does; at least in on-screen Klingon lore.  In DS9 
> "House of Quark" when Grilka divorced Quark (at his request) - 
> whom she had recently married in the *Brek'tal* {bIreqtal} ritual 
> after Quark killed her husband in a bar fight - IIRC she slapped 
> him, spit in his face, then shouted *N'Gos tlhogh cha!* "This 
> marriage is dissolved!"  Short and sweet: no courts, alimony or 
> divorce lawyers.

> You can consider this a bit of ritual {no' Hol}, or you can correct 
> Paramount's grammar (as usual) to your liking.  

> P.S. Notice that Grilka's phrase ends in Paramount's all-purpose 
> *cha*, which the writing staff seem particularly fond of.

In this case, it *might* *possibly* make sense - this was certainly marriage
number two for Grilka, so it could be argued that the infamous <cha> was the
number <cha'> acting as a label. I wouldn't give the writers that much
credit, but we can rationalize anything, can't we...


pagh


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