tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 09 10:41:24 2003

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Re: yu' jIghaj...

>From: Elijah Ravenscroft <[email protected]>
>
> > Thus, Federation Standard is certainly English.  However, since
> > /DIvI' Hol/
> > means "Federation language," one might question whether /DIvI' Hol/
> > actually
> > *means* "Federation Standard."  Okrand tells us it does, so we must
> > accept
> > that.
>
>true, but from the Klingon perspective, they see the Federation use it,
>and really care nothing about it's past or evolution, so whether that's
>what the feddies call it or not, that's why the klingons refer to it as
>"federation's language", or however you wanna directly translate it.

This supposition isn't evidenced in canon.

> > Why not *Germany* Hol ("language of
> > Germany")?
>
>*Germany Hol* would be tantamount to *romuluS Hol* or *tera' Hol*, but
>(to my limited knowledge) the only such constructions have been shown as
>*romuluSngan Hol* or *tlhIngnan Hol*.

I don't believe that /romuluSngan Hol/ is attested anywhere in canon.

I see nothing wrong with constructing the phrases with ANY appropriate 
genitive noun; your choice of noun will alter your meaning.

If I say /romuluS Hol/, I'm saying "the language(s) of Romulus."  If I say 
/romuluSngan Hol/, I'm saying "the language(s) of Romulans."  What if there 
are non-Romulan beings that live on Romulus, and have their own language?  
By choosing the appropriate terms, you can change your meaning.

The phrase /tlhIngan Hol/ is used to refer to a specific language (and its 
dialects), though it also means "language(s) of Klingons."  Since Okrand has 
provided concrete evidence of this, we can accept it as true.  Aside from 
this and /DIvI' Hol/, I'm not sure what we can surmise about language names 
apart from what the rules tell us.  /tlhIngan Hol/ and /DIvI' Hol/ are used 
as proper nouns; I don't think we have any any other language names that 
are.

Heck, I see nothing wrong with /ghop Hol/ "hand langauge" to refer to a 
gesturing language.  Keep in mind we're not talking about a proper noun 
here.

SuStel
Stardate 3519.9

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