tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 17 15:04:00 2001

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Re: body parts?




I asked
> : The question has come up whether things like {'aD}, {Somraw}, etc.
> : etc. are body parts in the sense that they take the plural in {-Du'}.
> 

Voragh answered:
> Yes, they do.  Countable body parts take {-Du'}, even if they come from sever
> al
> different bodies:
> 
yes, but your examples don't really say anything about {'aD} and {Somraw}
they all refer to things that I readily accept as being body parts

veins and muscles don't "feel" like body parts to me

> : Also do {pob} and {jIb} refer to single strands of hair or are
> : they "mass" nouns as in English? If they are countable, are they
> : body parts? Any canon, please?
> 
> pob  "hair on body"
> 
>   [not attested in canon]
> 
> jIb  "hair on head"
> 
>   DaH jIbwIj vISay'nISmoH.
>   I must wash my hair now. PK
> 
> {jIb} seems to be a mass noun here -- it's unlikely s/he's talking about
> washing a single hair!  
> 
It could just as well be that the plural suffix on {jIb} is 
simply omitted because indeed it would be unlikely that one
washes only a single hair.

> I suppose it helps to consider them uncountable mass nouns like {veD} "fur" o
> r
> even {quHvaj} "dandruff".
> 
how does that help? German counts hair and dandruff and fur, although
they also exist as mass nouns.

>From Okrands post you cite, I guess Klingon might work here
like German, i.e., I may count them, but I may also use them
as mass nouns. Do you agree?

                                           Marc Ruehlaender
                                           aka HomDoq
                                           [email protected]


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