tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 10 16:44:29 2000
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{-Ha'} (was Re: obtuse question)
ja' peHruS:
>I see that a lot of Klingon speakers are feeling that {-Ha'} works like
>"anti-." The new meaning of the verb is the opposite of its original. I
>want to know how these speakers have come to this conclusion, since TKD
>explanations reveal only "undo, misdo."
The examples of {-Ha'} in TKD section 4.3 involve only verbs of action:
chenHa'moHlaH
yIchu'Ha'
bIjatlhHa'chugh
For these, and for other "active" verbs like {Qey} "be loose" and {tung}
"discourage", the explanation of {-Ha'} as "undoing" or "doing wrongly" is
easily accepted. But for verbs of quality, another meaning does appear
reasonable. The dictionary includes the following pairs of words:
{bel} "be pleased" / {belHa'} "be displeased"
{jot} "be calm" / {jotHa'} "be uneasy"
{Qey} "be tight" / {QeyHa'} "be loose"
{Quch} "be happy" / {QuchHa'} "be unhappy"
{yep} "be careful" / {yepHa'} "be careless"
{yuD} "be dishonest" / {yuDHa'} "be honest"
Later sources give us more canonical opposites:
{jej} "be sharp" / {jejHa'} "be dull"
{matlh} "be loyal" / {matlhHa'} "be disloyal"
{ngaD} "be stable" / {ngaDHa'} "be unstable"
{quv} "be honored" / {quvHa'} "be dishonored"
{ru'} "be temporary" / {ru'Ha'} "be permanent"
{tlhorgh} "be pungent} / {tlhorghHa'} "be bland"
I think these all work very well with an "anti-" interpretation. I also
think that the natural "undoing" of {veb} "be next" is {vebHa'} "be
previous".
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh