tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 12 05:28:10 2004
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
toy'wI''a'
In his article "A preliminary classification of the affixes of Klingon"
(HolQeD v11n2p3-4), Andrew Strader discusses among other things the two type one
noun suffixes {-'a'} and {-Hom}. After reminding us that Okrand claims "a stem
plus {-'a'} indicates something 'bigger, more important, or more powerful'
than the stem alone indicates, and that {-Hom} has the opposite effect", he goes
on to give examples where {-'a'} denotes a difference in size, importance, or
change in degree or characteristic. Then he mentions some special cases: for
{-Hom} - decreased age, decreased permanence, and for {-'a'} - the
mathematical increase between {cheb} and {cheb'a'}, where one {cheb'a'} equals nine
{cheb}. Then he says: "There is even at least one blatant exception to the
claimed size/importance/power trend: {toy'wI''a'} 'slave' is actually of less
importance and less power than {toy'wI'} servant!"
I believe Strader is being too literal in his interpretation of the meaning
of both suffixes, and that Okrand was merely giving examples (bigger, more
important, more powerful) of the meaning of {-'a'}, rather than state that {-'a'}
indicates an extreme degree of some relevant characteristic of the root. In
the same way, {-Hom} indicates a trivialization or humbling in degree of a
relevant characteristic. Seen in this way, {toy'wI''a'} can be understood as an
extreme degree of servant, i.e., a slave, and thus the word, instead of being a
"blatant exception", is perfectly consistent.
lay'tel SIvten
![[KLI Member]](/pics/KLImemberbutton.gif "[KLI Member]"){kind=small}
![[Hol taghwI']](/pics/level1_big.png "[Hol taghwI']"){kind=small}