tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 12 11:59:59 2002
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re: nuH
I don't see it as nearly so complex. Here's my take:
English has a separate word "arsenal" to describe a group of weapons held
in readiness at one location. Klingon doesn't. So when the weapons pile
grows or becomes organized to the point where the English speaker stops
talking of "weapons" and starts saying "arsenal", the Klingon speaker is
still saying nuHmey. If the Klingon wants to speak of four different
groups of weapons, at different physical locations, he could say loS nuHmey
Daqmey or nuHmey wa' , nuHmey cha' , nuHmey loS je.
I don't believe we can justify thinking of nuHmey as a singular word, just
because English "arsenal" is a singular word for a group of weapons.
At 15:58 02-09-12 +0000, you wrote:
>>i would like to know if /nuH/ in this sentence means "weapon" or
>>"weapons".
>>
>>DujvamDaq tlhIngan nuH tu'lu'bogh pov law' Hoch pov puS 'ej DujvamDaq
>>'op SuvwI' tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI' law' po' puS.
>
>
>As it happens, the word {nuHmey} is actually listed in TKD as a separate
>entry, glossed as "arsenal".
>
>This would suggest that {nuH} is probably the best way to refer to both a
>weapon (singular) and weapons (plural). Perhaps {nuHmey} can be applied
>both to "weapons" and "arsenal", but if it can't I would be using a
>reaaaaaaally big scoop if I said
>
> cha' nuHmey vIghaj
> [I have two arsenals]
>
>if all I had was just a phaser and a dagger.
>
>
>Because of the plural suffix {-mey}, {nuHmey} "arsenal" probably has to be
>treated as a plural noun, which makes me wonder how to express the
>following ideas:
>
>The Romulans destroyed our arsenal:
>nuHmeywIj ?luQaw'/?Qaw' romuluSnganpu'.
>
>The colony had three arsenals and four warships.
>The invaders destroyed one arsenal and two warships.
>
>wej nuHmey los veSDuj(mey) je ghajpu' mID.
>?wa' nuHmey, cha' veSDuj(mey) je Qaw' yotwI'pu'.
>
>'ISqu'
>
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