tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 27 03:32:45 2005

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Re: Quick and easy question...

QeS lagh ([email protected]) 

ja'pu' juDmoS:
>I've come upon a need to refer to a ship's "sickbay"... the suite of rooms 
>in
>which patients or wounded are treated. Being unable to find that particular
>word, I'm wondering whether to use the simplistic-but-essentially-correct
>compound noun construct Qelpa' or the canon-but-still-potentially-vague 
>ropyaH.

Firstly, you should probably use {Qel pa'} "doctor's room". On the list we 
try not to create new compound nouns like this - although this one is quite 
sensible, other compound nouns may not be quite so easy to interpret. For 
instance, I could interpret a non-canon word like *{Heghnob} ??"death gift" 
as either a condolence gift given on the death of a loved one, or a birthday 
parcel with explosives in it - two very different meanings, qar'a'? {{:) 
Plus it makes it difficult for beginning learners to look such words up in 
the dictionary.

Secondly, why do you think {ropyaH} "infirmary" might be too vague to use? 
I'm not trying to shoot you down, I'm just wondering. The word was used in 
ST6 with exactly the translation you're looking for: {ropyaH yIghuHmoH} 
"alert sick bay!"

>Is there, perhaps on the BoP poster (which I don't have) an accepted term 
>for
>this...one in common usage?

I think most people will agree with ghunchu'wI' on his suggestion of 
{ropyaH}.

Savan,

QeS lagh
taghwI' pabpo' / Beginners' Grammarian


not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
     - Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh

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