tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 20 18:05:38 2002
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Re: Hol pIq (was RE: QeD De'wI' ngermey)
ja'pu' DloraH:
> But I agree there are a lot of everyday words still missing.
ja' ...Paul:
>Not having everyday words is not good, but if they're that common, I'd
>hope they'd be flagged for quick fixing.
maHvaD lI'bogh mu'mey'e' nom DISuq 'e' Datulchugh, Holvam Dayajbe'. yuQ
pImDaq chenpu' tlhIngan Hol 'e' wIDa. chaq not "automobile" lIghbogh wa'
nuv 'ogh tlhIngan nugh. chaq De' qonmeH "magnetic tape" 'oghbe'. chaq not
chen tlhIngan "typewriter", "throw pillow", "vertical blinds", "floor wax"
joq.
{Dom} mughbogh wa' DIvI' Hol mu' DapIH'a'? va.
nom mu'tay' tI'lu' 'e' wIpoQchugh, not maQuch.
>I'm more concerned about the
>less common words. After tinkering with my fishtank this evening, I found
>myself wondering if I'd ever have a word for "algae". :)
Qo'noSDaq "algae" tu'lu''a'? Hov leng 'u'Daq motlh'a' HuHvetlh SuD?
majanglaHbe' maH. tlhIngan wo'Daq "algae" tu'lu'be'chugh, tlhIngan Hol mu'
tu'lu' 'e' vIpIHbe'.
vaj bIQDeplIj juHHey yIDel. QorwaghHeyDaq vI''a' HuH Hum rurbogh tI'e'?
DaSay'moHmeH DateynIS'a'? potlhbe' tIvam pongbogh mu''e'. qech DaDellaH
qar'a'?
>I'd be more interested in having a word for "pray" or "worship", since the
>best the Hamlet team came up with was "do aerobics". :P
You want *a* word for "pray" or "worship"? You're presuming a great deal
about what the words mean. Either that, or you've lost track of the fact
that Klingon is a language, not a code.
>One unfortunate pattern I'm seeing is that MO is producing brand new words
>for us, rather than overloading existing words.
You're not seeing particularly clearly, then. {ngat}, {ghIt}, {QIH}...plus
a whole raft of slang usage for {Degh}, {luH}, {bol}, {yeb}, {SaS}, etc.
But "overloading" past a certain point can result in something worse than
completely new vocabulary. If someone encounters {bo} without knowing
about the bird words, he'll recognize it as a word he doesn't know. But if
he sees {Ho'} describing Walter Cronkite without having read KGT, he'll
just think "tooth" and not have a clue that his confusion is because of a
vocabulary issue.
>The mathematical words
>are interesting, and better yet, a logical extension of the existing body
>of words. The other words look more like they were generated by a random
>consonant-vowel-consonant generator...
They do seem rather natural, don't they? It's a remarkable facade, behind
which lie puns, both clever and insidious, strewn across the vocabulary
like land mines.
-- ghunchu'wI'