tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 10 13:33:00 2004

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Re: chuv

Alan Anderson ([email protected])

• From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
• Subject: Re: chuv
• Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:29:36 -0500
• In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
• References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]>

ja' Voragh:
>Krankor (and others) postulate an unattested or obsolete (Old Klingon?)
>verb *{De'} "to compute".
>If is obsolete, it may have been replaced by the "modern" words {SIm}
>"calculate".  (We also have {chel} "add" and {togh} "count".)

This hypothetical explanation ignores the meaning of the noun {De'}.  I
think the postulated verb would more likely mean "process data" or
"manipulate information".  The English word "computer" is a result of the
fact that the first such devices were effectively calculating and
tabulating machines, working with numbers exclusively.

If the Klingon equivalent of Hollerith devised card sorters as
"classifying" machines rather than "tabulating" machines, computation might
have been viewed from the beginning as a secondary function of what we call
computers.  Calculators and "information processors" could occupy two
distinct regions in Klingon semantic space.

-- ghunchu'wI'

• References:
  • Re: chuv
    • From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>
  • Re: chuv
    • From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>

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