tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 15 10:16:07 2004

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RE: jIb

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

>From: ngabwI'
> > AFAIK, we have only one example of {jIb} in canon, from PK:
> >
> >   {DaH jIbwIj vISay'nISmoH} "I must wash my hair now."
> >
> > So we have at least a "mass interpretation" of the word.

Jeremy:
>Unless there is an elided plural on jIb (i.e. jIbDu'wIj).  I don't think
>this line proves we can use it as a mass noun.

I don't follow this.  Do you really think that {DaH jIbwIj vISay'nISmoH} 
can possibly imply washing a *single* hair??  What do you think the line 
means?  (I have only one hair on my head, and now I must wash it?  Only one 
of the hairs on my head is dirty and needs washing?)  Also, although it 
doesn't answer the mass vs. count noun question, you're forgetting the 
context of the line in PK:

   bIrchoH SuvwI' 'Iw.
   The blood of the warrior grows cold.

   DaH jIbwIj vISay'nISmoH.
   I must wash my hair now.

are both given as (polite? conventional?) ways of declining a Klingon's 
offer to mate.  Washing your hair as a prior commitment which can't be 
postponed just for a roll in the hay.


>                              I do agree with Voragh, though, that if
>you are using it as a mass noun wa' jIb doesn't make a whole lot of
>sense. I would automatically interpret wa' jIb as one strand of hair.

As would I - in that I would figure out this was the intended meaning of 
the (probably) anglophone writer.  But foreigners' usage isn't necessarily 
correct, even if you understand what is meant.

For all we know, there may be a different word altogether for a single 
hair.  {jIb} and {pob} may turn out not to be "mass" nouns, but inherently 
plural nouns (like {jengva'} "plate" vs. {ngop} "plates").



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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