Re: mu'qaD veS pab yIQIj

[Qov <qov@direct.ca>]

At 09:52 02-09-21 -0400, you wrote:
>Am 20.09.2002 12:54:36, wrote cheesbro@rpa.net:
>
> >At qep'a' of the past, mu'qaD veS was slow, pauses between sentences, 
> delayed
> >laughter, and only a few contributed while others listened to translators.
> >Over the years as skills improved and more people became skilled, 
> insults would
> >flow faster, less pausing in between trying to figure them out.
> >
> >At a qepHom with beginners, it would certainly be slow.  Even tho you're 
> in the
> >same room, it would be like playing mu'qaD veS using e-mail.  Endure the 
> pain
> >of time, soon the participants' skills will improve.
>
>Dajbej De'vetlh, 'a mu'qaD veS bIDel 'e' vItlhobbe'. pab vISov vIneH. 
>chay' taghnISlu'? ngormeH
>nav lulo''a' jeSwI'pu'? 'oDwI' ponglu''a'? 'ej ghIq Qap 'Iv? ghorgh rIn 
>mu'qaD veS?
>
>Quvar         m     n
>   ghojwI'pu'lI' tISaH

Do'Ha', chutmey DISovbe'.  rurbogh wanI'mey vIDel ....

raSmeyDaq maba'taH.  vay'vaD jatlh wa' nuv.  bImoH 'ej DutuQHa'moH SoSlI'!
Hagh 'op.  mugh vay'.  Hagh latlhpu'
jatlh vay': mang DaSmey tuQbe' SoSlI'.
jatlh vay': mep tun 'oH betleHlIj'e'
jang: jaghpu'wI' vIHoHlaHchu' mep vIyantaHvIS.
jang: pujmo' jaghpu'lI'
jang: vIpujmoHmo'!
jang: He'So'mo' tlhuHlIj DapujmoH
jatlh vay': Are we really supposed to be answering the insults?
jatlh vay': It's not like we know the rules!

I don't remember many actual insults that have been used.  I tried to show 
from the example that we tend towards long strings of turning insults back 
and forth, with forays into appropriate traditional English insults or 
variations on the examples Okrand has given us, for inspiration.  I show 
beginners how to create simple insults from verbs (bImoH, bIQIp, bItlhIb, 
bIDal) and nouns (Ha'DIbaH SoH, lot SoH, verengan SoH).  And then someone 
who has been sitting queitly in the corner comes up with some elaborately 
constructed triple entendre that makes everyone want to hit them.  There 
tends to be a lot of sexual metaphor.  But we have no idea how to keep 
score (probably why Lawrence doesn't like like it, and uses "go play curse 
warfare in the pool" as an equivalent to "go play in the traffic" when he 
wants people out of is way.  So we don't know who wins, nor how to tell 
when one can play the game-ender: Hab SoSlI' Quch.

My own theory is that there is some sort of rule, somewhere between crazy 
eights and Mornington Crescent, that determines what kind of insult can be 
played next.