tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 29 15:42:30 2003

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Re: KLBC mu'vam tu'lu''a'?




> > ngabwI':
> >>   I have two words which communicate the same idea and have the same
> >>   sound.  One word is a verb and the other is a noun.
> >>   Is there a word that describes this event?

Voragh:
> > I don't know if there's a recognized linguistic term, but I call them
> > homophonous verbs/nouns, as in "See the homophonous noun {naD}".

ngabwI':
>I feel SO bad. I only wanted to know if there was a Klingon word for that. I
>should have been more specific. I apologize.

qayajHa'ba'.  My mistake.

We have only a minimal grammar vocabulary in Klingon - basically only words 
for grammar, sentence, verb, noun, "rover", "leftovers", prefix, suffix, 
etc.  No words for more advanced ideas as homonym, homophone, homograph, or 
- for that matter - intransitive, conjugate or aspect (perfect or 
otherwise).  We could, of course, define such words in Klingon, e.g.

   wab nIb ghajbogh DIp'e'
   an identically-sounding noun ("a noun that has the identical sound")

and we can talk about them, e.g.

   wab nIb lughaj DIp wot je
   the noun and verb sound alike ("the noun and verb have the identical sound")

but that's a far cry from actually translating them.



-- 
Voragh                            "Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon 
- that's
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons      hard!"                  (Montgomery 
Scott, STIV)



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