tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 08 19:38:22 2001

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RE: HolQeD 10:2: toes

Qu'vatlh ghay'cha' baQa'! bIlughba'qu'.

My memory of the nursery rhyme matches yours, so I think the <Qay'> at the
end is just to throw us all off. The amazing thing is the etymology he made
up to go with the words - it all seems entirely reasonable.

pagh

-----Original Message-----
From: d'Armond Speers [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, 08 July, 2001 16:26
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: HolQeD 10:2: toes



Oh my.  Just got HolQeD 10:2, and was reading over Okrand's article on toes
and fingers.  Warning, spoilers here, if you want to wait and read the
article, don't read this yet.

There is a certain joy of discovery when you realize Okrand's jokes.  If you
don't want this experience taken from you before you've had the opportunity
to search for it yourself, don't read this yet.

Okay.

Having words for each of the toes, I immediately thought of translating the
old "this little piggie..." rhyme.  For non-Americans, in case this is not
familiar, it goes something like:

This little piggie went to the market
This little piggie stayed hom
This little piggie had roast beef
This little piggie had none
And this little piggie went wee wee wee all the way home

Parents typically play this game with young children, by playing with each
of their toes in turn, from the big toe (goes to the market) to the little
toe (wee wee wee all the way home), usually tickling and laughing through
the last line.  It's a real hoot.

So, I started by listing out the words for the toes:

marwI'
HomwI'
roSwI'
nanwI'
Qay'wI'

And then it hit me.  The names of the toes are inspired by the rhyme.  Check
it out, tell me if I'm crazy:

marwI' - market
HomwI' - home
roSwI' - roast (roS) beef
nanwI' - none
Qay'wI' - ??

The only thing I can figure for {Qay'wI'} is that the piggie running home
has blown its top, or my version of the rhyme is different from Okrand's.

As a bonus, here's my translation of the rhyme.  

may'Daq jaH marwI'
juHDaq ratlh HomwI'
qagh Sop roSwI'
pagh ghaj nanwI'
'ej juH cheghtaHvIS loS San Hugh SIjlaH Qay'wI'

Okay, so I'll never make a living as an author of nursery rhymes.  :)

--Holtej 'utlh

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