tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 31 05:01:01 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Politeness (was Re: tlhIngan-Hol Digest 30 Mar 2000 09:00:00 -0000 Issue 1497)
- From: "Garrett Michael Hayes" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Politeness (was Re: tlhIngan-Hol Digest 30 Mar 2000 09:00:00 -0000 Issue 1497)
- Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 07:31:50 -0500
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
- Organization: Verbal Imaging, Ltd. Co.
- Priority: normal
On 30 Mar 2000, at 23:53, Eric Andeen wrote:
> jIjatlh:
>
> > Klingons do not say <qatlho'> in these situations. When speaking
> > Klingon, it is considered polite to be concise, while it is
> > considered rude to waste time on pleasantries.
<snip>
> > Use <tlho'> only when you
> > want to express real gratitude.
<snip>
>
> Similarly, Klingon doesn't have pleasantries like "please" and "thank you".
> It does have the word <tlho'>, but using <tlho'> when someone passes you the
> salt would be just as inappropriate, even among polite Klingon speaking
> humans, as referring to your Spanish teacher as "Tú" rather than "Usted".
It strikes me that using <tlho'> in the ways that an English speaker
uses "thank you" (or even more the way we use "thanks") would be
something like responding to a small kindness by effusively saying
"you have my heartfelt gratitude." Even though <tlho'> is *glossed*
as "thank you" it carries a good deal greater weight than the
English approximate. Casual use might even be viewed as a form
of stinging sarcasm.
'etlhqengwI'
(vuDmeywIjvaD jIngoy' jiH'e')